AIARE was created to solve a serious problem.
When my partners Jean Pavillard, Karl Klassen, and I co-founded AIARE in 1998, the number of avalanche fatalities each season in the United States had begun to climb drastically. Just a couple of years before, a sidecounty avalanche at a resort in our home state of Colorado resulted in multiple burials and four people dead—four families and an entire community grieving. Sadly, a version of this story was repeated numerous times in the mountains each winter.
We knew we had to do something.
The 1980s and 90s were an exciting time for our sport. More and more backcountry skiers were joining our ranks; our gear was sophisticating. The days of mellow touring on cross-country skis was giving way to skiing bigger mountains. Snowmobilers were also seeing an advancement in their machines.
But with those developments came a corresponding uptick in avalanche accidents and fatalities. In response, educators and snow professionals around North America began working to educate backcountry travelers about the dangers of avalanches. Accessing challenging terrain was becoming the norm; we needed to shift our approach to help backcountry travelers recognize risk and make informed decisions.
At the time, there was no unified avalanche education curriculum in the United States. My fellow avalanche educators and I knew we could improve on what we were doing, so we began by inviting a group of instructors and course providers to Crested Butte in an effort to share ideas and concepts in avalanche education.
It turned out that our community saw the need and was hungry for improvement, too. Out of that first brainstorming session came a dynamic group, emotionally invested and set on improving our approach to avalanche education in the U.S. AIARE had been born.
Today, the robust nonprofit that started as a small gathering in Crested Butte has the same mission it did 26 years ago: to save lives through avalanche education. AIARE continues to do that by:
Staying on top of the constantly changing avalanche science and research to make sure you get the best education possible.
Consistent education taught by our trained educators because we believe we’re all safer when we communicate and make smart decisions in the backcountry with our partners using the same tools and vocabulary.
Developing new awareness resources. We’re the only non-profit curriculum developers in the country, and our sole mission is to save lives through avalanche education. We don’t teach the curriculum—our network of 112 incredible providers does that—so we can focus on building, evolving, and maintaining it.
The esprit de corps that drove us in those early days still lives on at AIARE. Where we’ve come—and where we’re going—is a testament to the strength of our mission and of our community.
I’m so proud of the work AIARE is doing a quarter-century after its inception, creating a nationally recognized unified approach to avalanche education. AIARE’s non-profit status means it can truly focus on the mission, not profits. Still, we can’t do this without your support. Will you make a contribution to AIARE’s important mission today?
With gratitude,
Tom Murphy
AIARE Co-Founder