At a glance: minimum field targets
Two winter seasons after Pro 1How to use this guide
The Pro 2 Development Plan is a framework, not a checklist to rush through. Use the two winter seasons after your Pro 1 to build real, supervised and mentored experience in field observation skills, terrain use, forecasting knowledge, avalanche rescue, risk management, and leadership.
Items marked Required minimum are prerequisites for Pro 2 enrollment. Everything else is strongly recommended professional development: it will make you a stronger Pro 2 candidate and a more capable avalanche worker.
Three things to do starting now
Open the Operational Experience Log and start logging field days immediately.
Ask your supervisor early how they will verify your log and write your Letter of Recommendation.
Review the enrollment checklist so you know what documentation to submit with your application.
Log your work as you go
Record every field day, observation, and profile from day one in the Pro 2 Operational Experience Log. Your supervisor will verify this log as part of your Letter of Recommendation when you apply to Pro 2.
Work Experience Expectations
The core of your Pro 2 preparation is fieldwork: 40 on-the-job field days across two winter seasons, following completion of your Pro 1. For this guide and for A3 Affiliate and Professional membership, a field day is a workday spent performing duties within the operational phase of avalanche risk management, as described in chapter 6 of Technical Aspects of Avalanche Risk Management.
Operations-phase duties include operational hazard assessment, avalanche forecasting, operational risk assessment, and risk treatment. Within those days you need a minimum number of specific observation types. Track every one of these in your log.
Weather observations
Weather drives snowpack instability, which makes weather data the foundation of avalanche forecasting. Practice both manual study-plot collection and digital telemetry, and get comfortable recording to A3 SWAG standard.
By Pro 2: read a dataset and pull out the key trends as they pertain to snowpack structure and stability, not just record the numbers.
Targeted snow observations
Not every profile needs every variable. Depending on conditions, you might focus only on weak-layer identification, only on snow temperatures during melt periods, or on a full profile in a shallow snowpack.
The skill: choosing which observations give the most useful information about structure at that site and time.
Test snow profiles
A test profile targets a few key observations rather than the full column to ground. Its purpose is to assess snowpack structure, often at sites similar to avalanche starting zones, and to track how structure varies with aspect, elevation, wind, and sun exposure over time.
- Complete header: date, time, weather observations, site data and characteristics, objectives
- Layer boundaries, layer hardness, grain forms and sizes
- Structural indices identifying the primary layer of concern
- Depth: excavate deep enough to observe weak layers and relevant temperatures Required minimum
- Documentation: a photo of the field-book record or digital profile Required minimum
Avalanche occurrence observations
For each of your 20 minimum observations, record:
Full detail is specified in SWAG 2022, pages 49–50.
Administrative & technology skills
Digital literacy is expected by the Pro 2 course, not taught during it. Build fluency now in the tools your operation and the industry use daily.
- Verbal and written communication: tailor detail and terminology to your audience: peers, operational teams, and the recreating public
- Operational databases: data entry and analysis; plotting profiles manually and digitally, including storm profiles, with supervisor quality control
Terrain Management & Analysis
Travel skills
You need the travel skills, equipment, and navigational knowledge to move safely and efficiently on snow in winter backcountry conditions, including strenuous days such as skinning up to 2,000 vertical feet while carrying rescue gear, food, and winter clothing.
Terrain & navigation
- Recognize, avoid, or manage exposure to avalanche hazard through route finding and movement
- Select test slopes and identify high-hazard areas and alternate routes
- Identify regrouping zones and apply appropriate safety margins
- Accurate use of map, compass, altimeter, and GPS
Mapping & local knowledge
- Use maps, aerial photos, and oblique photos to identify avalanche paths and record activity
- Build proficiency with Caltopo, the primary digital mapping tool used in Pro 2
- Know your operation's avalanche atlas: path aspect, elevation, length, potential, frequency, and magnitude
- Know the target/shot atlas, if applicable
- Choose test profile sites for safety, representativeness, and relevant information
- Learn your operation's standard access routes for safety and efficiency
Avalanche Forecasting
Hazard analysis
Build hands-on working knowledge of hazard and risk through mentorship and peer review.
In-house forecasting
Understand your operation's forecasting methodology and hazard-level guidelines thoroughly.
Mountain weather
Build a basic understanding through coaching, self-study, and mountain weather forecasting courses.
Weather forecast products
Regularly analyze products used by your operation, NAC, Snowtel, or the wider industry.
Public avalanche forecast
Use it as a cross-check on your own hazard analysis.
Forecasting equipment
Get familiar with automated weather stations and manual/automated snow study plot equipment.
Avalanche Rescue
First aid
Maintain the level of first aid training your employer requires. A3 recommends a minimum 80-hour advanced first aid course plus biennial BLS CPR certification.
Organized rescue practice
Know your operation's avalanche response plan. Seek out opportunities to act as a Task Force / Strike Team lead in mock rescues and training that use the ICS structure.
Professional rescue
Upcoming requirement change
Starting with the 2029/30 North American winter season, the Pro Rescue Certificate will be a prerequisite for Pro 2 enrollment. Plan your training timeline accordingly.
Risk Management
- Learn your operation's Safety / Risk Management Plan and the best practices it reflects
- Understand applicable governmental health and safety regulations: explosives handling, use and storage, explosives control procedures, equipment operation, hazardous materials, and workplace incident reporting
Communication
Radio communication
Understand and correctly use radio equipment, including relevant federal regulations.
Standard operating procedures
Know your operation's specific communication protocols and safety plan.
Technical reporting
Study incident reports, mission reports, and notable storm cycle write-ups for lessons learned and operational considerations.
Pro 2 course requirement: Technical Report
You will write a Technical Report as part of the Pro 2 course. Start now: identify relevant snowpack, weather, personnel, and operational decisions from notable events in your own experience.
Leadership
Facilitate meetings
AM/PM meetings, weather or avalanche forecast discussions, mission briefs and debriefs.
Contribute to decisions
Offer timely, evidence-based input; challenge assumptions constructively and work toward alignment.
Lead under supervision
For example: supervised mitigation route leader, strike team / strike team lead, or lead guide.
Pro 2 Enrollment Prerequisites
Every minimum requirement from the guide in one place, plus a few application-specific items. Everything here is required unless marked recommended.
1. Required courses
- Pro 1 Certificate Required minimum
- Pro Rescue Certificate (required beginning winter 2029/30) Required minimum
If you believe you have the educational equivalent of these prerequisites, you may apply to the Pro Course Provider of your choice for a Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) review. Enrollment in these cases is at the discretion of the Pro Course Provider.
2. Work experience
- A minimum of 40 days of operational avalanche experience over two winter seasons following Pro 1 completion (beginning the 2027/2028 season) Required minimum
- A Letter of Recommendation from a supervisor (an A3 Pro Member is recommended), verifying: Required minimum • 40 days minimum operational experience over two operating seasons in weather, snowpack, and avalanche occurrence observation and analysis, verified against your Professional Development Plan worksheet log • Avalanche rescue training with task force / strike team leader responsibility, including organized rescue exercises using the ICS structure • Ability to complete the tasks required of an operational team leader
3. Required documentation submission
Submit with your application:
4. A3 SWAG working knowledge
RecommendedStrongly recommended for course readiness. These mirror the field targets in Section 1.
- 50 recorded weather observations (study plot, field, and/or telemetry)
- 10 recorded snow profiles (test full profiles)
- 10 targeted snow observations
- 20 avalanche occurrence observations
5. Physical & travel readiness
- Expert-level backcountry skiing, snowboarding, ice climbing, alpine climbing, or snowmobiling skills, plus good fitness Required minimum
- Efficiently dig snow profiles up to 1.5 m deep
- Stay warm while standing in snow for up to 2 hours
- Travel proficiently over snow in all winter conditions, including strenuous days (e.g., skinning up to 2,000' vertical with a full pack)
6. Pro Rescue Certificate
Required beginning winter 2029/30 (see Required courses above).
Ready to start tracking?
Open the log now and record your first field day. Review it with your supervisor regularly so there are no surprises when it's time for your Letter of Recommendation.
Open the Pro 2 Operational Experience Log Back to top