Flathead Avalanche Center offers free avalanche education

The Flathead Avalanche Center is expanding its public services beyond providing online information by hosting two free “Introduction to Avalanche” courses.

The course targets students with little or no avalanche education and is open to everyone. The program includes two 2 1/2-hour long classroom sessions in the evening and one 7-hour long day-time field session.

The classroom portion will take place at the Flathead National Forest Supervisor’s Office in Kalispell on Dec. 18 and 19 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The field session will take place at Whitefish Mountain Resort on Dec. 21.

A course for snowmobile users will be held at the Supervisor’s Office in Kalispell on Jan. 22 and 23 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Details on the field session will be announced later.

The “Introduction to Avalanche” course is more in depth than an avalanche awareness course, but less involved than a “Level 1: Avalanche Fundamentals Course.”

Instruction covers avalanche terrain, weather, snowpack, decision tools, travel protocols and companion rescue — beacon, probe and shovel training.

For more information or to pre-register, contact Seth Carbonari at 387-3832 or scarbonari@fs.fed.us. For more training opportunities, visit online at www.flatheadavalanche.org.