AIARE Level 1 Avalanche Course, NH
The standard entry point into avalanche education in North America. We run one course a season with Northeast Mountaineering at a heavily reduced rate, offered to people who have toured with us.
What AIARE 1 is
AIARE Level 1 is a 24-hour course, roughly five hours of online pre-learning followed by two or three field days. It is the recognized first course in avalanche education in North America, and it is the thing people mean when they say someone is "avy 1 certified". It has no prerequisites at all.
Carrying a beacon, shovel and probe does not make avalanche terrain safe. What keeps you safe is decision-making: reading the snowpack, interpreting the forecast, recognizing terrain traps, choosing conservative routes and knowing when to turn around. Those are skills, they are taught, and they cannot be skipped. That is what this course is.
What the course covers
- How avalanches form and release
- Reading avalanche forecasts and bulletins, and what the wording actually means
- Observing snow, weather and terrain in the field
- Terrain analysis and route finding
- Group decision-making frameworks, including how groups talk themselves into bad choices
- Companion rescue: beacon search, probing, and strategic shoveling
- Trip planning using the AIARE Risk Management Framework
Who it is for
Anyone who wants to travel in or near avalanche terrain, regardless of how they travel. Skiers, splitboarders, snowshoers and snowmobilers all take the same course. You do not need to be an expert skier and you do not need to have toured a lot. If you are thinking about your first winter beyond the resort, this course before that winter is the single best decision available to you.
What it costs and what we subsidize
Across providers, AIARE Level 1 runs roughly $495 to $760, with a median around $630. Ours is $275, through our partnership with Northeast Mountaineering. In 2026, thirteen people completed avalanche education with us and we subsidized $355 of the cost for each of them.
How to get a place
Places are offered by email to people who have participated in Inclusive Ski Touring programs and to our members. The course is small and it fills, so we allocate it rather than selling it. There are two things you can do to be in the running: tour with us, and be on the newsletter, because that is where the invitation goes out from.
If you cannot get a place this year
Take it anyway, somewhere else. We would rather you were educated than loyal. Avalanche.org lists providers and forecast centers for every region. If a full Level 1 will not fit this winter, an AIARE Avalanche Rescue course is one day, about eight hours, and runs $125 to $200. It is the minimum, and it is worth repeating every few years even if you have Level 1.