NOTE: Zacs Tracs crew are no longer actively teaching Avalanche Safety Courses. We would like to thank all our students, colleagues, friends, and family for all the fantastic experience and support we have received over the last ~25 years. Zacs entire team thoroughly enjoyed this chapter of our lives…but life evolves and our focus has shifted to farm, family and film. Ready for the next adventure!
AST1 programs can be accessed through our partners at Hangfire Avalanche Training.
Here are comments from some of our recent students who
attended our Avalanche Skills Training Level 1
Avalanche Course for Snowmobilers
Irresponsible NOT to have an AST1 avalanche course for snowmobilers! – Matt A.
Hi Lori, Just wanted to drop you a line and say thanks for coming up and putting on the classes for us up here. Before taking the avalanche class for snowmobilers, I never knew what ‘gorillas’ looked like, and certainly didn’t realize how many were out here. With being fairly new to the sport, I was very much blinded by the expert halo. Putting 100% faith in my group, simply because I didn’t know any different; they had all the experience, not me. There were so many key points that really hit home for me and made me really think about some of the situations we have been in. Did the other guys (‘experts’) already know that slope was stable? Or did we not die just by pure dumb luck?
Since I entered the sport 2 years ago, I always thought that an avalanche course would be a good thing to have. Now after taking it, I have realized it’s a really dumb, stupid, and irresponsible NOT to have!
I will be pushing hard for the others in our group to get trained as well, and now that I know how much I DON’T know, I’ll be watching for more opportunities for training for myself as well. If you’re considering coming back up here, I sincerely hope you do. I would be interested in taking some more advanced or supplemental courses here, obviously whatever you can do in a classroom setting.
As far as your course evaluation goes, there wasn’t one minute that I was wishing to be somewhere else. I have to sit through an unbelievable amount of safety training for work, and I can tell you I’ve never taken a class where I’ve been that engaged and had my attention kept so well. Excellent job.
Thanks again,
Matt A,
Fort McMurray
Best safety training course I’ve taken in 20 years! – Travis B.
Good morning Zac’s gang!! I just wanted to send you a quick message to
commend you on the fantastic message that you’re sending out with your courses!
I’ve never been to a course where so much information was crammed into 12 hours! Totally awesome! I think anybody who rides a sled for any length of time either know somebody who has died in an avalanche or knows somebody who knows somebody who has! After taking your course, and just the classroom portion, it’s very obvious why people die in avalanches. Complacency is a terrible thing in the workplace and in recreation and there is no place for attitude in either as well!
This was the first safety course I have taken in 20 years where I wasn’t falling asleep. We were being fed new information for the entire course! When they tell you to come well rested, they aren’t kidding! It is very clear to me that you’re doing this because of the message and not because it’s making you rich! Your passion for what you’re doing is awesome!
I think your message of riding with the expectation that you might stay overnight is awesome, however out of everybody I’ve ever rode with I’m the only one who carries all of that gear! And realized by your course that I was missing a few things in my box on my sled! Our group has always rode with the attitude of avoidance which has kept us safe up to this point!
The extra knowledge from your course has opened my eyes to the importance of preplanning and given a whole new awareness about snow conditions that I really had no idea about! It is unfortunate that the attitude of bringing extra gear to prepare for the event that you might stay overnight is not more widely accepted. It’s not cool to have a big pack/box on the back of your sled to carry the extra 20-50 pounds because it might stop you from climbing that big hill or slow you down, it’s very prominent in the industry! I’ve always carried the extra gear and now I have some important knowledge to go with it!
I sincerely want to thank you and
your team for doing an amazing. Your passion for doing what you do is definitely
not misplaced and not unnoticed! Again, thank you! I look forward to the upcoming field day, and taking more courses with you!
Travis B
Zacs Trac’s Vision – Avalanche Courses for Snowmobilers
Our Mission
- To be a world leader in avalanche and backcountry safety in the snowmobile community through a profitable and innovative series of on-line and off-line training programs and resources.
- To empower riders to take active steps to gather the information, skills, strategies and equipment to make the most of our activities while maintaining an acceptable level of risk.
- To save lives by inspiring life long changes to the way we manage our backcountry activities leading to capable, prepared and responsible riders.
We all have the same goals: to enjoy the best riding possible and to return home safely to our family and friends!
Zacs Tracs has been involved in the avalanche world, training and teaching all across western Canada, the northwestern United States and Europe since 1998. Click into the map to see if we’ve been to your town! Interested in hosting a course? Click Here to contact us!