Avalanche Education for Motorized Users

In recent winter seasons, over 25% of avalanche fatalities in the U.S. were motorized users. AIARE believes that education and increased awareness can decrease fatalities and injuries.

SWEEPSTAKES

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The Avalanche Alliance 2026 Sweepstakes is more than just a chance to win incredible prizes—it’s a movement to save lives in the backcountry.

Our goal is to unite the motorized snowsports community to expand avalanche forecasting in high-use riding zones and to open more doors for riders through avalanche education scholarships. Together, we can make the backcountry safer for everyone who loves to ride.

Since launching this effort, the sweepstakes has already made a huge impact:

$254,715 in grants awarded to avalanche forecast centers, strengthening motorized-focused programs.
$189,483 in scholarships awarded to 193 riders, helping them gain the knowledge and confidence to make safer decisions in avalanche terrain.

This is our chance to show what’s possible when the motorized community stands together with one goal: reducing avalanche fatalities.

You can read more about our past grant recipients here.

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Avalanche Awareness

Avalanche Aware Online Course

A free, accessible starting point for anyone interested in heading into snow-covered mountains.

No matter how you travel in the backcountry, this course is an essential first step to start building confidence and knowledge for safe backcountry experiences.

At the end of the course, you’ll have a stronger foundation in the basics, including:

- The ingredients for an avalanche
- How to recognize where avalanches can happen (and some of the danger signs)
- Where to find your local avalanche forecast

You’ll also have a clearer idea of your next steps—whether that means finding a local awareness event or taking an AIARE 1 or avalanche rescue course.

BEGIN COURSE

Find or Host an Avalanche Awareness Event

Interested in attending, or hosting an Avalanche Awareness presentation for your club, group, or event?

Find an event, or contact an AIARE Provider near you to schedule one. If you are in the mountain west, you can also contact your local avalanche center, many of whom offer custom avalanche awareness events.

AIARE Providers can bring an interactive presentation to any venue for groups large and small. Presentations can range from 30 minutes to several hours, depending on your group’s needs. Awareness presentations includes topics like:

- Recognizing where avalanches can happen
- Identifying the "red flag" signs of avalanche danger
- How to find information about the local avalanche hazard
- Skills & equipment riders will need
- Next steps to continue education

FIND AN AWARENESS EVENT

find a provider to host an event

What’s the difference between AIARE and an avalanche center?

AIARE is a non-profit organization whose mission is to save lives through avalanche education. We create curriculum based on current best practices and train instructors to deliver it for the best possible educational experience. A network of providers around the country deliver these courses to students. As a national organization, AIARE works to ensure all who want to travel in the backcountry, no matter where they reside, have access to avalanche education.

Avalanche centers produce a regular local forecast product to communicate the current avalanche hazard(s) to the public and also offer avalanche awareness programming in their local communities. AIARE works with local avalanche centers across the country to ensure consistent messaging and encourage local community support.

What does AIARE’s Awareness presentation include?

AIARE’s Avalanche Awareness Presentation meets American Avalanche Association (A3)—the trade organization for snow and avalanche professionals—curriculum guidelines and is an entry-level introduction to avalanche hazard.

AIARE instructors who deliver this presentation are trained to incorporate teaching best practices, and presentations include engaging activities to help participants make the most of their time.

Presentations range in size based on the individual group’s needs.

Could my group benefit from an awareness presentation?

Find a Recreational Motorized AIARE Course

When you book with one of our providers, you’re signing on for a great educational experience.

Motorized AIARE Providers meet rigorous quality standards and employ qualified instructors with specialized training who participate in continual professional development. AIARE Providers have permits to operate in some of the best riding venues in the mountain west.

You can find a course or provider or book your course directly through one of AIARE’s growing network of motorized course providers nationwide.

FIND A COURSE

find a provider

Train to become an AIARE Instructor or Avalanche Professional

In addition to motorized avalanche education for recreational snowmobilers, AIARE offers curriculum for aspiring avalanche professionals whose primary travel mode is motorized. This includes PRO 1 and PRO 2 courses for motorized users, as well as an Instructor Training Course and Course Leader Training geared toward snowmobilers.

Learn more about the educational progression for becoming an instructor or check out the links above for more information about these course offerings and their qualifications.

Avalanche Alliance Motorized Scholarship

The Avalanche Alliance Motorized AIARE Scholarship was created to help change the culture of Backcountry Snowmobiling and normalize advanced avalanche education, inspire sledders to pursue avalanche education as a benchmark for being a backcountry rider and build industry partnerships.

Funds raised for this scholarship will be used to offer full & partial scholarships for individuals pursuing AIARE PRO, Instructor Training, and Recreation courses. Scholarship applications for the coming winter season are open each fall. Support this scholarship fund by donating below!

MOTORIZED SCHOLARSHIP

DONATE TO THE SCHOLARSHIP FUND

What is the AIARE Motorized Program?

What does AIARE do?

Founded in 1998, the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to save lives through avalanche education. AIARE develops research-based professional and recreational avalanche training for backcountry users. Our recreational program, Decision Making in Avalanche Terrain, is a three-part program for individuals who enjoy winter recreation in the backcountry. AIARE has 100+ Course Providers and 650 AIARE-trained Instructors across the U.S. Of those, 17 Course Providers and over 75 instructors deliver motorized AIARE programs.

	AIARE 1
	A three-day introduction to avalanche hazard management

	Avalanche Rescue
	A one-day course that covers basics of companion rescue and realistic scenario practice

	AIARE 2
	A three-day course to advance decision-making skills in more complicated situations (snowpack, weather, terrain and groups)

In 2016, AIARE began working to develop and deliver training targeted at recreational snowmobilers, and today, 4 out of 5 motorized students take their course with an AIARE provider.

Check out our latest Annual Report to see the impacts of our work.

What’s different about a motorized AIARE course?

Choosing your avalanche course, whether it’s your first one or your next one, is the first step. AIARE motorized avalanche education courses are led by highly skilled and experienced instructors in some of the best learning venues across the country. AIARE motorized avalanche education is packed with information and knowledge, but there’s more—courses that use AIARE curriculum give you a framework for making decisions in the backcountry. Here’s what you get when you sign up for an AIARE Motorized course.

Course Scope & Outcomes

When you participate in AIARE motorized avalanche education, you’ll learn how to apply what you’ve learned to your own backcountry travel. Introductory courses stand alone and increase your confidence in your ability to make decisions. The advanced courses build on those skills in an applicable progression.

Topics Covered

AIARE introductory courses give you skills to connect avalanche, snowpack, and weather information and observations , and more importantly, they teach you a framework for processing information and using it to make real-time decisions. Over the course of your AIARE education, you’ll learn:

How to prepare for backcountry travel with seasonal and daily routines
How to use planning tools and checklists to facilitate maintaining situational awareness, communicating, and making decisions as a group
How to perform and practice avalanche rescue

Field Time

The best way to learn about how to make decisions in the snow is by spending time in the snow. AIARE motorized avalanche education includes some classroom and self-paced virtual learning, as well as significant time on sleds in the field.

Qualified Instructors

Some of the most well respected guide services in the business recognize the value of the AIARE curriculum and our Instructor Training. This means you get the benefit of their staff, who have years of backcountry experience and training others to ride. All AIARE Providers use instructors who have been trained by AIARE to deliver our curriculum.

We don't believe that one size fits all. We train instructors to take a curriculum based on universal risk management concepts and make that curriculum connect to the local region and individuals they teach. These instructors have years of backcountry experience, specific training on how to deliver AIARE curriculum effectively to motorized students (including a 5-day in-person Instructor Training Course, plus annual continuing education), membership in the U.S. organization for avalanche professionals (A3), and often other certifications. They do this for a living, and they’re great at teaching motorized students what they need to know to make good backcountry decisions.

Which course should I take?

AIARE motorized avalanche education moves through a progression of three courses. The progression is ideal for anyone who wants to recreate in or near avalanche terrain. If you’re new to backcountry decision-making, the AIARE 1 or Avalanche Rescue Course is a great place to start. After completing those two courses, the AIARE 2 is available for students who want to take their backcountry skills to the next level.

Here’s a snapshot of the progression:

Avalanche Rescue Course

This one-day (8-hour) course is intended to be retaken on a regular basis in order to keep abreast of best practices in rescue techniques and gear. New participants will learn companion rescue, and returning students will expand their skills with advanced topics and realistic scenario practice.

Students should be able to travel off-trail on ungroomed or unmaintained terrain and bring appropriate equipment for traveling on snow, but there are no other prerequisites for this course. Learn more about the Avalanche Rescue Course.

AIARE 1

In this three-day (24-hour) introduction to managing avalanche hazard, you will learn how to use a repeatable process to manage your risk and learn from your experiences in the backcountry. You will learn to prepare for and carry out a backcountry trip, keep track of, communicate, and make decisions about hazards while in the backcountry, and learn rescue techniques if an avalanche occurs and someone is caught.

AIARE 2

This three-day (24-hour) course is an opportunity to advance decision-making skills in more complicated situations. You will learn skills to act as a leader within a small travel group, to characterize your group's uncertainty, and to target reducing it, whether that means being able to travel in new or less familiar terrain, or to develop a travel plan where avalanche and weather information is less available. You will learn more skills to connect and weather, snowpack and avalanche processes, and identify how these processes relate to observations and travel within avalanche terrain.

AIARE 1 and Avalanche Rescue are prerequisites for this course. Learn more about the AIARE 2.