If you’ve taken an avalanche class recently, you may have heard the quote, “The world of snow and avalanches is a wicked learning environment.”

As an avalanche course instructor, I’m often confronted with students who come to me with a ton of questions after taking an Avy Level 1 course. In a lot of ways, that’s what Level 1 courses are for: inspiring questions and pointing out just how complex avalanches really are and how difficult terrain management can be.

High avy danger in the hills? When the forecast blinks red, skiers and riders often flock to ski resorts where ski patrollers mitigate avalanche-related hazards. But even when you aren’t earning your turns, it’s important to keep safety in mind, which may mean bringing your backcountry knowledge and equipment along with you on a lift-serve day.

Given the range of possibilities cells phones offer, what are the best and safest ways to use them when headed out of bounds?

Analyzing snowpack starts before you leave for a tour and only ends when you’re safely back home. After reading the morning’s forecast, digging a snow pit in the field can better enhance your understanding of they day’s snow stability. But without a process for gathering and implementing upon the information pits present, digging and analyzing a pit’s layers can be tedious. Here are a few tips to streamline the process, so you can gather information in a timely and informative manner.

Given the prevalence of social media in our lives, it can be difficult to filter out the good information from the bad, and it’s important to remember that social media is a small snapshot of a greater picture. While there can be negative consequences from reacting to this medium, there are also positive takeaways. Here is how to use it to your advantage in the backcountry.

We all know we should practice avalanche rescue more, but making it happen can be a sizable hurdle. Sometimes we try to bust out a couple laps in “search mode” at the beginning of the season to dust off the cobwebs. Other times, we’re lucky enough to have access to a beacon park at the local resort, presenting a chance to practice our skill set before heading to more dangerous terrain.

Picture this: You’re skiing across low angle terrain, but need to traverse below a steep open face with no cover. Your avalanche awareness bells start chiming, “Danger!” so you decide to ski out of your way to remain clear of the possible slide path. But there are no trees around to give clues about where you’ll be safe if it slides. So how far is “far enough” from the suspect slope?

Spacing is the tactic people think they are most comfortable with, which leads to the answer, “One at a time.” The variable students forget to consider is the size of the hazard.