Ski-Doo Offering All Riders Free Avalanche Awareness Courses

Riders in the mountain West, or those who plan to take a snowmobiling trip to the West, should know a thing or two (or three) about avalanche awareness and safety before they head into the backcountry. Luckily for them, they can get that much-needed training again this year for free, if they sign up for one of the seminar that Ski-Doo will be hosting throughout North America. Even non Ski-Doo customers are invited. Here’s the press release from Ski-Doo:

 

SKI-DOO BULLETIN
BRP TO CONTINUE SUPPORT OF FREE AVALANCHE AWARENESS SEMINARS IN NORTH AMERICA
Valcourt, QC, September 12, 2014 – BRP is continuing its support of avalanche awareness and safety education by supporting free seminars throughout North America for the fifth straight year.

BRP recognized the need for snowmobile specific outreach and education and took the lead in partnership with avalanche experts in Canada and the US to design and deliver courses that are effective at engaging snowmobilers. This was an important step as most classes up to that point were geared towards ski or snowshoe access and taught by instructors with those same backgrounds. The current seminars have proven very popular with the mountain snowmobile community, but are updated again this season with new content. Plus there will be a different course offered at limited locations where seminars have taken place over the past years to further those attendee’s skills and knowledge.

In most cases these seminars would cost snowmobilers $50 or more to attend, but as BRP and their dealers believe strongly in their value, they sponsor the effort so it’s free to owners of all brands of sleds.

The seminars, which start in late September and run through December, are usually combined with an open house or specially geared mountain-riding event. Those who want to participate are encouraged to register with the host dealer so appropriate planning for space and chairs (and many times refreshments) can happen.

Demand for courses in the Midwest has continued to rise, so seminars will be held there again this season along with the Rocky mountain states and Provinces – a complete list of events can be found on the ski-doo.com website.

Seminars in Canada will be handled by Jeremy Hanke who is a recognized avalanche professional, member of the CAC advisory board and one of the creators of Throttle Decisions, an avalanche safety awareness video. Jeremy is an AST 2 certified instructor. Mike Duffy of Avalanche 1, a recognized snowmobile expert in avalanche awareness, leads classes in the United States. Mike has American Avalanche Association Level I &II and AvPro level III certification, teaches at Colorado Mountain College and Silverton Avalanche School and gives snowmobile-specific avalanche classes since 1996. Mike has over 25 years of mountain riding and mountain rescue experience. This is Mike’s fourth year working with BRP.

For up-to-date information on locations, times or the program for avalanche awareness seminars, visit www.ski-doo.com, the Ski-Doo Elevation Mountain Blog, or Ski-Doo Mountain Facebook page.

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