Going out in the SNOW?

Read this first, from the Canadian Avalanche Centre. (The speak funny up there, dontcha know, and they spell funny, too. But they know their snow.

If you want to understand some of the dangers of avalanches and how to avoid them, this is a great on-line course. It isn't quite the same as getting out on the snow with a real expert, but it does a very good job of underlining the key factors in avalanches and your responsibilities in avoiding them.

And at the end, there is an excellent section on going out into the mountains as a group. Well worth the time it takes to run through it.

http://www.avalanche.ca/training#! Or this one from Avalanche.org

http://avalanche.org/tutorial/tutorial.html