Wilderness First Aid & Avalanche Rescue Skills

Where the winter mountains press up from the northwestern edge of Kalispell, Montana, a three-day Wilderness First Aid & Avalanche Rescue Skills course teaches you how to find, unbury, and care for avalanche victims. This hands-on training runs at Lone Pine State Park in Kalispell for the Wilderness First Aid portion and finishes at Blacktail Mountain Ski Area near Lakeside for avalanche rescue drills. Over three focused days students move from classroom patient assessment and trauma care into field application with transceiver searches, probing, strategic shoveling, and patient stabilization after burial.

Day one and day two at Lone Pine State Park cover patient assessment, life-threat management, musculoskeletal trauma, environmental illness, and evacuation decision-making with short outdoor scenarios integrated into the curriculum. Day three at Blacktail Mountain Ski Area begins with a classroom review, then moves outdoors to practice beacon searches, probe lines, shoveling technique and multiple-burial scenarios that end with team-led patient care and evacuation planning. What makes this course unique for the Flathead region is its combined focus: many rescue classes stop once a victim is uncovered.

This offering pairs Wilderness First Aid certification with full avalanche burial responses so students practice not just locating a buried partner but stabilizing and caring for them under winter backcountry conditions. The instructors provide Aerie Backcountry Medicine’s Wilderness First Aid textbook and hands-on first aid kits for scenario practice, and the course culminates in realistic, timed rescues. This course is practical for backcountry skiers, splitboarders, snowshoers, mountain guides, and avalanche-aware travelers who already have companion rescue basics or at least a season of backcountry practice.

Pre-requisites require prior companion rescue training or a year of backcountry touring with rescue practice; you'll be expected to move uphill 1,000 feet in a day and handle pack and gear tasks up to 50 pounds. Participants should bring touring gear or snowshoes, a beacon, shovel, probe, and winter clothing for field work; rentals are available. Logistics are straightforward: meet at Lone Pine State Park, Kalispell, MT for the first two days and at Blacktail Mountain Ski Area near Lakeside on day three.

The class size stays small (6–12), which makes instruction and scenario time intensive and individualized. If you travel to Kalispell for winter backcountry objectives, this course converts anxiety into practical skills — the kind that save lives and build confident teams in steep, snowy terrain. Students leave with an Aerie Backcountry Medicine Wilderness First Aid certification valid for two years, the course textbook, and experience with rescue sled demos and team scenarios.

Cost is $495 per person with a $100 deposit required at booking; refunds are allowed up to two weeks in advance and the course requires a minimum of six participants to run.