Kootenay Avalanche Courses

Prepare for Adventure

Prepare for Adventure

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Whether you are getting ready for your first winter of backcountry travel or you’ve been at it for many years, Avalanche Skills Training (AST) Courses are the perfect opportunity to learn about (or brush up on) safe backcountry travel techniques, route finding, slope assessment and companion rescue. Join us for an AST program that fits your learning objectives.

About Keith Robine

Keith has been teaching avalanche education for 30+ years. Keith is the co-author of the Avalanche Skills Training Handbook, the textbook for all AST courses. He wrote the current versions of the AST 1 and AST 2 instructor manuals. Keith is a Professional Member of the Canadian Avalanche Association and a Guide with the Canadian Ski Guiding Association. Keith has also published articles on innovative ways to include … FIND OUT MORE

3% of your course fee goes to climate change initiatives

  • Protect Our Winters

Lodge-based AST: The Student Experience

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Students say about their lodge-based AST 2++ experience: “The lodge allows for the complete immersion in everything involved in backcountry skiing. Keith’s experience and passion in his field shines through this program and creates a supportive environment that pushes his students to be the best they can be.” “My two trips to Hilda with Keith […]

KEITH on the Avalanche Hour Podcast

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Here is a recording of Keith being interviewed for the Avalanche Hour Podcast. He talked about the new AST 2 curriculum, focusing on graduated risk while managing avalanche terrain. You can also stream the podcast on your favourite platform. Here is the LINK .

Winter 2020-21 in review

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AST Courses run smoothly despite COVID. Across Canada, there were a record number of AST students, over 13,000 in total. KAC ran Zoom for all classroom lessons and field sessions were held with social distancing. Normally, close to half our students come from the US, but the Canadians came through to fill the courses. Early […]

Bugaboos 2020

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The Bugaboos are an amazing playground, especially for alpine climbers. This summer offered a chance to be up there without the usual complement of international climbers, just us Canadians! We also received a fresh snowfall of about 10cm! Was that the first snowfall of the upcoming year or the last snowfall of the previous year? […]