AIARE Instructor Continuing Education

AIARE Instructors and Course Leaders (CLs) are required to stay up to date with AIARE curriculum, industry and teaching best practices, and their own professional development through annual continuing education (CE). The AIARE CE Program provides AIARE Instructors and CLs with a menu of courses to tailor to their individual development needs.

How to Maintain Your Instructor Status

AIARE believes in creating and facilitating meaningful professional development opportunities for its instructors. We don't want you to feel like you're jumping through hoops or attending sessions that aren't relevant to you just to check a box. That's why out Continuing Education program continues to evolve—to keep up with the latest offerings in our industry and ensure instructors can get credit for continuing education that actually helps you in your career.

In order to maintain your instructor status, you will need to upload proof each season* that you have met the annual continuing education requirement. To do this:

You must complete 8 hours of CE each season
Choose from AIARE-offered and/or non-AIARE CE opportunities**
Log into your avtraining.org profile and add your previous season's CE when you pay your instructor dues and sign the code of conduct. This can all be handled on the "Instructor Status Requirements" webpage.

AIARE recognizes that there is a great number of high-quality resources available to help instructors hone their skills; as a result, we have waived the requirement to have at least half of your hours come from AIARE-offered CE opportunities.

[NEW FOR THE 2023–24 SEASON] Your 8 hours per season can now include any combination you like of AIARE-offered and non-AIARE CE.

Photo by Julia Ordog

*Previously, instructors were asked to upload proof of the previous two seasons' CE every other season. We're changing that to every season for the previous season only to avoid confusion.

**Don't forget—if you take an AIARE Course Leader Training or Pro 2 from any A3-approved provider, it counts for 8 hours of CE!

AIARE Continuing Education Webinar Series

AIARE began offering an annual CE webinar series in the 2021–22 season in order to provide CE opportunities to our instructors despite being unable to gather in person due to COVID. That first series was very well attended, so by popular demand, we have continued to curate a series of 5+ webinars each season that instructors may use for CE.

Whenever possible, we encourage instructors to attend these webinars live, as this offers a chance to interact with other participants and ask questions of the presenters—both things we're often told instructors have missed during the pandemic era.

Most webinars are later uploaded to our YouTube channel, where instructors are welcome to view them at their convenience and may still count them toward their CE requirement.

Check out this season's offerings and follow the links to register. Individual workshops are $15, or bundle and save by registering for the full series ($50). Registering for any webinar entitles you to access to the recording, so you don't need to be available to attend all 5 workshops live in order to make this worthwhile!

NOTE: We'll also offer a handful of free webinars this season. If you'd like to attend those, you'll need to register for each one separately.

FREE WEBINAR | October 25 | AIARE Curriculum Update: AIARE 1 Online Learning

Workshop with AIARE Program Manager Emma Walker

October 25, 2023 | 5:00–6:30 PM MT

Cost: FREE

We’ve received tons of feedback on our recreational online learning since we launched it in 2021. This summer, we made some significant upgrades to the online learning—including translating hard-to-digest content into plain English and turning sometimes-clunky quizzes into more effective checks for understanding. This one-hour workshop will be a deep dive into the changes we’ve made so instructors have a good sense of what your students will know by the time they’ve completed the AIARE 1 Online Learning.

FREE WEBINAR | November 2 | Comparing Mapping Apps: What's the Best Fit for Me (and My Students?)

Panel with representatives from CalTopo, GaiaGPS, & onX

November 2, 2023 | 5:00–7:00 PM MT

Cost: FREE

AIARE Instructors know that there are tons of mapping app options on the market, including the three that partner with AIARE. You may already use one or more of these apps in your personal touring and in your role as an AIARE Instructor—but how do you talk to students about the options that exist and which product will best suit their needs? This 90-minute panel, moderated by an AIARE staff member, will feature representatives from CalTopo, GaiaGPS, and onX, each of whom will answer a series of questions about their respective products designed to help you understand which app, or combination of apps, will best suit your typical students.

NOTE: This webinar is not part of the paid webinar series—even if you register for the whole series, you'll need to register separately for this in order to receive the link to attend!

FREE WEBINAR | November 9 | Meet the Beacons Your Students Are Bringing to Courses

Panel with representatives from Arva, BCA, Mammut, Ortovox, & PIEPS

November 9, 2023 | 5:00–7:00 PM MT

Cost: FREE

You know your own device inside and out, but how well do you know the various devices your students show up to courses with? We’ve gathered the big-name transceiver manufacturers to introduce us to their most popular products. This panel will be accompanied by a “cheat sheet” field guide you can use to jog your memory about the transceivers you’re most likely to run into in the field.

NOTE: This webinar is not part of the paid webinar series—even if you register for the whole series, you'll need to register separately for this in order to receive the link to attend!

November 15 | Recognizing & Addressing Gender Dynamics in Backcountry Groups

December 5 | Worker Wellness in the Avalanche Industry

Workshop with Mountain Life Coach Sam Crow

December 5, 2023 | 4:00 – 5:30 pm MT

Cost: $15

This 90-minute workshop with backcountry guide, mountain bike coach, and health coach Sam Crow will give instructors some tools to improve their mental health and well-being during the busy and often stressful snow season. Sam’s goal is to help her clients connect with their bodies, gain confidence, and live a healthy, fulfilling life on and off the mountain. The session will cover topics including mindset strengthening, intuitive nutrition, lifestyle balance, and roadmapping goals.

January 16 | Designing Your Courses with Accessibility in Mind

Workshop with Yasmine Hashemi & Tammy VuPham

January 16, 2024 | 5:00 – 6:30 pm MT

Cost: $15

This two-hour workshop designed by Yasmine Hashemi and Tammy VuPham as part of SCARPA's athlete mentorship initiative provides an introductory view into communication, trip planning, and risk management best practices that instructors can use when working with the disability community. Yasmine is an accessibility designer and adaptive ski instructor, and Tammy [add bio] and serves as a mentor in AIARE's Women's Mentorship Program.

February | What Does It Mean to Operationally Manage Risk?

Panel with Steve Conger, Anne St. Clair, & Josh Cole, moderated by Liz Riggs Meder

February 2024 | Time TBD

Cost: $15

In this panel, we’ll ask a handful of the avalanche industry’s most respected risk management thinkers to help us tackle some of the Big Questions: What does it mean to institutionally manage risk, and how does that differ from how we might personally manage it? What is an operational risk band, and how might it change by context and audience? How might our approaches differ based on whether our goals are education-adjacent or a guided day in the backcountry?

View Past AIARE CE Webinars

You can view webinar recordings from the 2021–22 and 2022–23 seasons on AIARE’s YouTube channel. Instructors are welcome to use these webinars as CE.

AIARE Workshops

AIARE will offer two different in-person workshops for the 2023–24 season: a Teaching Workshop and a Rescue Workshop. Check out the details and learning outcomes of each workshop below.

All workshops are capped at 20 participants, so register soon!

November 8 | Teaching Workshop – Breckenridge, CO

Three days is a very short amount of time to teach someone how to manage their risk in a highly uncertain environment like the winter backcountry. Your instructional skills and ability to establish an inclusive learning environment determines the difference between empowering students to continue to learn from their experiences safely in the backcountry and blindly repeating the course's tours or being too scared to go out.

In this workshop, you will:

Learn how to shift from your students knowing something to doing something.
Learn a process to plan for instruction that adapts to the wide variety of learners you encounter as well the curve balls mother nature throws at you in the winter.
Collaborate with other participants to craft actionable student goals for any avalanche course learning outcome

You will leave this workshop with two fully reworked avalanche education lessons and a simple toolkit for formulating lesson plans to be more intentional/actionable.

Cost: $175

December 9 | Teaching Workshop – Stevens Pass, WA

In this workshop, you will:

Learn how to shift from your students knowing something to doing something.
Learn a process to plan for instruction that adapts to the wide variety of learners you encounter as well the curve balls mother nature throws at you in the winter.
Collaborate with other participants to craft actionable student goals for any avalanche course learning outcome

You will leave this workshop with two fully reworked avalanche education lessons and a simple toolkit for formulating lesson plans to be more intentional/actionable.

Cost: $175

December 13 | Rescue Workshop – Incline Village, NV

We ask our students to take a rescue course every couple of years to keep abreast of best practices and so should you! This workshop will be a combination of rescue professional development and instructional continuing education. We'll review the current state of best Av SAR practices, provide opportunities to work with and get familiar with a variety of makes and models of transceivers, and collaborate with other instructors on tips and tricks for demonstrating rescue, coaching confused students, and managing courses with very diverse skills and background experience.

In this workshop, you will:

Learn how to shift from your students knowing something to doing something.
Learn a process to plan for instruction that adapts to the wide variety of learners you encounter as well the curveballs mother nature throws at you in the winter.
Collaborate with other participants to craft actionable student goals for Rescue Course learning outcomes

You will leave this workshop with:

Reworked, actionable, rescue-specific lesson goals
A simple toolkit for formulating instruction plans to be more actionable
Hands on experience with current transceiver models from all five transceiver manufacturers

Cost: $175

December 18 | Rescue Workshop – Ouray, CO

In this workshop, you will:

Learn how to shift from your students knowing something to doing something.
Learn a process to plan for instruction that adapts to the wide variety of learners you encounter as well the curveballs mother nature throws at you in the winter.
Collaborate with other participants to craft actionable student goals for Rescue Course learning outcomes

You will leave this workshop with:

Reworked, actionable, rescue-specific lesson goals
A simple toolkit for formulating instruction plans to be more actionable
Hands on experience with current transceiver models from all five transceiver manufacturers

Cost: $175

Photo by Grant Gunderson

Non-AIARE Continuing Education Opportunities

We review and add non-AIARE opportunities to this list a on a regular rolling basis. General guidelines for acceptable CE opportunities are those that are open to any AIARE Instructor to enroll (i.e. not in-house employee trainings) and are relevant professional development for avalanche educators.

The courses in the list below have been approved as non-AIARE CE opportunities. Please note that because the purpose of CE is to engage in continuing education yearly, the maximum number of “credit” hours that will be honored for single course is 8, even if the length of the course exceeds the requirement. This means that if you engaged in more than 8 hours of CE in a given season, the extra hours do not count toward your CE requirement for any future seasons—we want AIARE instructors to continue learning every season!

Non-AIARE Courses or Conferences approved for Continuing Education Credits
(as of 1/16/2023)

AIARE Women’s Mentorship Program – Participation in the program either as a mentor or a mentee. (8 hours)
AMGA Ski Guide Course, Advanced Ski Guide Course, or Ski Guide Exam (8 hours)
AMGA Alpine Guide Course, Advanced Alpine Guide Course, or Alpine Guide Exam (8 hours)
AMGA Alpine Skills Course – ski or alpine focus (8 hours)
AvSAR course from an A3 Pro course provider
- AAI – Professional Avalanche Search & Rescue Course (8 hours)
CAA Operations Level 1 Course (8 hours)
CAA Operations Level 2 Course Module 1, 2, or 3 (8 hours)
CAA Operations Level 3 Course (8 hours)
CAA Spring Conference Case Studies and Research Presentations (4 hours)
Foundations of Stress Injury Awareness for Winter Rescue & Guides (8 hours)
International Snow Science Workshop (ISSW) (attendance or presentation) (8 hours)
National Avalanche School (NAS) Classroom session (8 hours)
Pro 2 course from any A3 course provider (8 hours)
Psychological First Aid Online Course (4 hours)
Regional Professional Avalanche Workshop (8 hours)
- CAA Continuing Professional Development Seminar
- Gallatin Professional Development Seminar
- Sawtooth Avalanche Center Professional Development Seminar
Regional Snow and Avalanche Workshop (SAW) (8 hours)
Responder Alliance Training or Events (hours vary, up to 8 hours per event)
Virtual Snow Science Workshop (VSSW 2020) (8 hours)
Weather Courses
- AAI – Winter Forecasting (8 hours)
- CAA Advanced Weather Course (8 hours)
- CAA Introduction to Weather (8 hours)
- Colorado Mountain College/CAIC – Mountain Meteorology Workshop (8 hours)
- Curso de Pronosticador de Meteorología Invernal (8 hours)
- Mountain Weather – Winter Weather Forecasting (8 hours)
- Mountain Weather – Advanced Winter Weather Forecasting (8 hours)
- Mountain Weather – Alaska Winter Weather Forecasting (8 hours)
- Silverton Avalanche School – Mountain Weather Workshop (8 hours)
What to Say (and not say) When You’re Not Sure – Inclusive Language in the Outdoors (2 hours)

Don't see your training listed?

Suggestions are welcome! If you would like to suggest a course, or want to know if a training you took (or taught) can count as CE, please send a course description, syllabus, and the number of hours, to Education Director Liz Riggs Meder (liz@avtraining.org).

Frequently Asked Questions

How many hours of CE do I have to complete each season?

Instructors are required to engage in at least 8 cumulative hours of continuing education each year in order to remain current as an instructor. This may be accomplished with one event, or by summing up hours completed from multiple shorter events. You may use in-person, virtual, AIARE-provided, or non-AIARE CE.

Does my CE have to be provided by AIARE?

No. We recognize that there are tons of excellent resources out there to help AIARE instructors improve their skills as educators. You may use any combination of AIARE CE and opportunities listed on the Non-AIARE CE Opportunities list towards your 8 hours per season.

Non-AIARE courses are approved by AIARE on a regular rolling basis. General guidelines for acceptable courses are those that are open to any AIARE Instructor to enroll (i.e. not in-house employee trainings) and are relevant professional development for avalanche educators. Suggestions of synchronous and asynchronous virtual training, as well as in-person training, are welcome. If you would like to suggest a course, or want to know if a training you took (OR taught) can count as CE, please send a course description, syllabus, and the number of hours, to AIARE Education Director Liz Riggs Meder.

I took a training that is not listed in the approved non-AIARE CE list. Can I count it?

Maybe! We're always looking to add more opportunities to that list. We'd like to ensure that anything on the non-AIARE CE list is relevant and rigorous enough to be a worthwhile opportunity to recommend to our instructors. Non-AIARE courses are approved by AIARE on a regular rolling basis. General guidelines for acceptable courses are those that are open to any AIARE Instructor to enroll (i.e. not in-house employee trainings) and are relevant professional development for avalanche educators. Suggestions of synchronous and asynchronous virtual training, as well as in-person training, are welcome. If you would like to suggest a course, or want to know if a training you took can count as CE, please send a course description, syllabus, and the number of hours, to AIARE Education Director Liz Riggs Meder.

I'd like to take a season off from teaching. How can I ensure I'm able to teach next season?

If you decide to take a season (or more) off from teaching with the intention of resuming your instructor status at a later time, we ask that you still remain current on CE requirements during the season(s) you take off. Instructors who are inactive for more than one season will need to contact the Education Director to determine a professional development plan to become an active AIARE Instructor again.

What do you need me to include in the CE tracking template?

Each fall, when you pay your annual instructor dues and acknowledge the AIARE Code of Conduct on your Instructor Status Requirements page you will also need to upload a record of your previous season of continuing education using the CE tracking template.

I just completed my ITC last season. Shouldn't my CE requirement already be met?

Yes! Please just list your ITC on the CE tracking template, and upload that as a PDF to your Instructor Status Requirements page. Alternatively, you may upload your ITC certificate of training.

My training was longer than 8 hours. Can that be used to meet CE hour requirements for next year?

Because the purpose of CE is to engage in continuing education yearly, the maximum number of “credit” hours that will be honored as non-AIARE CE for a single course is 8, even if the length of the training exceeds the requirement. In other words, if you engaged in more than 8 hours of CE in a given season, the extra hours do not count toward your CE requirement for any future seasons.

Can I count TEACHING a course as CE?

It depends! We encourage instructors to engage in CE as learners, but we recognize that teaching often requires learning. For example, if you taught a course that required you to learn about a subject area or student demographic, or in some other way venture beyond what you typically teach, you can send a description and syllabus of what you taught, along with the number of hours, to Education Director Liz Riggs Meder for review.

Can I count my employer's annual staff training count as CE?

We know that many providers already offer high-quality annual training for their winter staff. We are focusing on creating more educational content and activities that fit into training your employer provides for their staff. To that end, Providers can now apply to have their annual training count as continuing education. Providers who are interested in having their staff trainings count as CE for their instructors can fill out this application and submit it to the Education Director.