Allied Mountain Leaders have for the first time partisipated together with Norwegian officers at the Norwegian Avalanche Hazard Warning Course in the Troms Region.

Avalanche hazard warning is a profession where the Norwegian Defence has developed expert knowledge to improve security during exercises and training in winter conditions, says course officer major Jon Vestli.
Norwegian Defence brought avalanche profession into focus with education of officers to this topic after the tragic Vassdal avalanche accident during Exercise Anchor Express where 16 soldiers died. With two more deadly avalanche accidents during the nineties, the Norwegian Defence has increased avalanche training, and avalanche teams during large exercises.

The Course tests the snow cover every day, her: Rutschblock

New in 2005 was the Avalanche Hazard Warning Course available with 4 out of 16 seats to allied students. This course demands good winter and ski skills, students’ winter experience should therefore be at Mountain Leader level. Only four nations were invited since this only was a test project. The National Joint Headquarters received a large number of interested students for the course after it was announced in UK, US, Germany and in the Netherlands says major Knut Are Bakke at the Centre of Excellence Cold Weather Operations at the NJHQs.

Even though the technical avalanche English was a challenge especially to the Norwegians, course officer Major Jon Vestli concludes that a combined allied and Norwegian avalanche course was a success. The feedback from the students was clear, a equal course should be arranged next year, but we need to open more seats to allied students says the experienced avalanche instructor.

Every evening the course goes through details from the patrols, and discusses the avalanche hazard warning for the next 24 hours

The course focuses on the avalanche hazard situation, with the three factors; the snow, the terrain and the weather forecast. But the course also studied old avalanches, and at the last day of the course an avalanche was triggered by explosives with dolls as figurants (with weight from 50 to 70 kilos) to show the students how an avalanche moves and the consequences to personnel caught by the avalanche.

The mountains in Troms are an excellent classroom for avalanche education

The Avalanche Hazard Warning Course demands experiences from operating in the high mountains with winter conditions, good ski skills and good English language, both speaking and reading (written syllabus approximately 300 pages). The course lasts for one week and educates instructors for military schools, units and personnel to avalanche teams.

Mountain Leader educations vary from nation to nation, but in Germany, England and in the Netherlands the ML course lasts for almost one year. A lot of time are used in high mountain winter skills including avalanches as a topic.