Crevasse Rescue for Skiers

This course aims to teach participants safe travel techniques on glaciated terrain and how to respond in case of a crevasse incident. The training will focus on the use of specific light ski touring safety gear, including light rope sets.

To start off, we will review glacier morphology so participants could learn how to "read" a glacier to safely navigate it. We will also go over risk management assessment tools to help you identify various situations that make glacier travel safer or riskier and how to mitigate those scenarios. We will discuss the pros and cons of two and three-person teams.

After that, we will review basic techniques of rope management, knots, belay, and such, before moving into more advanced, specific ones, such as how to "rope up" and safely move and protect the team in different circumstances.

The course will also cover how to properly and safely react if someone falls into a crevasse. We will practice simple scenarios and gradually advance to more complex situations so that you can help your partner in this situation and be ready when self-rescue is more effective and faster.

This is a full day in the field following a well-established curriculum but is flexible to accommodate students' knowledge and experience.

By the end of this course, you will have learned about glaciers, safe travel, and crevasse rescue.