Freeride Safety Academy
Decisions making
Backcountry skitouring, freeriding, offpiste skiing..... who doesn't do it nowadays! But how do you determine whether it's SAVE or not? Do you ski it because it looks good, because there are no tracks or because there are already many tracks or maybe because you've done it a hundred times before? Or..... do you read the avalanche and weather bulletin and work according to guidelines for a decision making strategy during your day? STOP... or go!
Freeride Safety Courses
Powder skiing in the off-piste can be a dangerous sport, which in the Alps takes several lives a year! Lets say about 100 avalanche deaths per year. Hundreds of people end up in crevasses and that doesn't always end well. To avoid you becoming a victim of your favorite sport, a good training is essential. Therefore a number of enthusiastic riders in cooperation with the Dutch Ski Association founded the Snow Safety Center. With the SSC you can do courses where they teach you how to stay safe of the beaten track. These courses are not just 'introductory', but complete training for freeriders.
Avalanche Course I, II and III
There are three levels of mountain awareness training, Avalanche I, II and III.
- Avalanche I: is for anyone who has never been on a serious offpiste training course. During this course you will be taught how to use a tranceiver according the recently developed techniques and we also teach you how to interpret the avalanche report and learn to read the signs that nature gives you.
- Avalanche II: is for people who have done Avalanche Course I or something as an 'Alpinkurs' to complete a ski or snowboard teacher training. During this course we repeat the search skills and we will discuss the various search and rescue posabilities like multiple burials and what impact the weather conditions can have on the avalanche danger.
- Avalanche III: is for freeriders who have done the advanced course (II) and who are eager for more knowledge like snowprofiles etc.. Avalanche III goes deeper into the matter and gives better estimation ability of the situation and teaches you to assess the avalanche danger level yourself. A very good course for tour skiers.
All these courses consist of a theoretical and a practical part. The theory course is two evenings (usually somewhere in the Netherlands) and practical course is four full days somewhere in the Alps. The groups of 8 people are guided by a UIAMG mountain guide or ski guide with the help of a SSC instructor.
High mountains Course by Snow Safety Center
During the high mountain course more and other mountain hazards will be discussed and not only the avalanche danger. We will therefore provide a basis for understanding the dangers of a glacier using ropes to bridge difficult passages, to make good anchors in snow and ice, and you will ride of course many spectacular descents.
This High mountain course is given by UIAMG mountainguide in the La Grave area in France. The maximum number of participants is 5!
Snow Safety Cards
Avalanche educators are in a constant struggle to make their curricula on one hand attractive to their audience and on the other hand effective as well. After an idea from Werner Munter a card game was developed to explain the reduction method. The card game has been presented in a poster presentation at ISSW 2013.
This card game has proven to be an excellent learning tool within the advanced classes of the Snow Safety Center. It is time efficient and fun to play!
With one deck of cards a maximum of 4 participants can play. An extra set of (different) cards can be ordered to play with groups of up to 8 people. Please mail for info.
The rules of the game are available as download in English. You will receive the download link once we receive your payment. More languages are in progress!
Pricing and Shipping
All prices are including packaging and standard shipping in Europe. For shipment outside of Europe please mail for a quotation.
Prices listed below are excluding VAT. For all orders in the EU 21% VAT will be added to the price, unless you enter a valid EU VAT number. For more details on VAT please read the instructions at payment.
Pricing for a single card game and discounts for larger quantities are:
Institutions can order card games with their own logo on orders of 100 games or more. Please mail for information on customised games.
| Single card game: | € 22.50 |
| Set of 5 card games: | € 90.- |
| Set of 10 card games: | € 160,- |
| Set of 20 card games: | € 300,- |
| Set of 50 card games: | € 700,- |
| Set of 100 card games: | € 1300,- |
