What’s in store for winter? With an El Nino season shaping up there is really no way to tell. It could be epic like the fabled dumps of 1997 in the nearby Selkirk’s or lack luster. Either way, we know that there will be opportunity to explore the backcountry this winter. As such, SOLE will continue to offer and expand our winter programming options to meet the need to educate both youth and adults alike in outdoor settings.
What does this mean? To begin with, last night leaders from SOLE and the Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center (IPAC) came together for an evening to celebrate and flush out a new community partnership. As an experiential education non-profit which leads expeditions in the winter backcountry and skill development workshops for those looking to become more savvy, SOLE feels that partnering with IPAC is a phenomenal opportunity to collaborate to support our local avalanche education center while also assisting the continued expansion of our programs. This will include expanding the Avalanche Education Experience SM Program to include more youth-based and modality-specific avalanche awareness and AIARE Level 1 / 2 courses, as well as extending our current SnowSchool Experience SM Program. This will include a middle and high school, place-based education curriculum which focuses on studying the avalanche phenomena in our local environs. So, not only will SOLE continue to educate our community stakeholders including youth and adults through our pre-existing programs, we will be partnering with local avalanche forecasters to deepen those experiences and provide an opportunity for participants on how to get involved with a great local organization. This will also include understanding how to collect and enter snow science data in the field, so we can begin to develop a more consistent database for our local backcountry. To learn more about this partnership come on out to the Idaho Pour Authority in Sandpoint, Idaho for Ales to Put Youth on Trails Event on November 11th, 2015. You can learn more about this event by going here. You can also learn more about our SnowSchool Experience SM Program by clicking here , and our Avalanche Education Experience SM Program, including our upcoming AIARE avalanche education curses here.
