What is the balance between applied material and technical/theoretical material?
The emphasis of our Level 1 course is overwhelmingly applied. We focus on observations, we cover all decision making frameworks we are aware of, and we put a lot of weight on planning a safe trip to begin with. However, without the time constraints that come with a three day schedule we are able to go a bit further. There is enough technical material to help students understand why certain things are true and why snow acts the way it does. We don’t merely tell you that convex rollovers are common trigger points, we explain why based on some of the theory leading up to that. In our Snowpack 2 module we cover the physics behind metamorphism, or changes within the snowpack. We also include some of this material which could be considered technical in order to prepare students for learning more later. If an advanced module lists Snowpack 2 as a prerequisite you will be expected to be familiar with metamorphism to the extent it was covered there. While we include some technical material for
