AIARE believes in creating and facilitating meaningful professional development opportunities for its instructors. We don't want you to feel like you're jumping through hoops or attending sessions that aren't relevant to you just to check a box. That's why our Continuing Education program continues to evolve—to keep up with the latest offerings in our industry and ensure instructors can get credit for continuing education that actually helps you in your career.
How to Maintain Your Instructor Status
In order to maintain your instructor status, you will need to upload proof each season that you have met the annual continuing education requirement. To do this:
- You must complete 8 hours of CE each season*
- Choose from AIARE-offered and/or non-AIARE CE opportunities**
- Log into your avtraining.org profile and add your previous season's CE when you pay your instructor dues and sign the code of conduct. This can all be handled on the "Instructor Status Requirements" webpage.
*Please note that because the purpose of CE is to engage in continuing education yearly, the maximum number of “credit” hours that will be honored for single course is 8, even if the length of the course exceeds the requirement. This means that if you engaged in more than 8 hours of CE in a given season, the extra hours do not count toward your CE requirement for any future seasons—we want AIARE instructors to continue learning every season!
**AIARE recognizes that there is a great number of high-quality resources available to help instructors hone their skills; your 8 hours per season can include any combination you like of AIARE-offered and non-AIARE CE.
Other CE that counts: AIARE Course Leader Training, Pro 2 from any A3-approved provider, or participation in the AIARE Professional Growth Network.
Continuing Education Webinar Series
For the 2025–26 season, AIARE will only offer virtual workshops; no in-person CE will be offered this season.
In an effort to provide the best possible continuing education to our instructors all of the virtual workshops and sessions are FREE to AIARE instructors. You will still need to register for offerings so we can track attendance.
Whenever possible, we encourage instructors to attend these webinars live, as this offers a chance to interact with other participants and ask questions of the presenters—both things we're often told instructors have missed during the pandemic era.
Most webinars are later uploaded to our YouTube channel, where instructors are welcome to view them at their convenience and may still count them toward their CE requirement.
Instructors are welcome to use previous season's webinars as CE.
CE Grouped by Track
Last season, we introduced a handful of CE “tracks” so you can choose workshops based on subject areas you'd like to develop further. Our “New Instructor” track, in particular, is an effort to help recent ITC alumni and Professional Growth Network participants set up successful careers in avalanche education. See below for more information about each development subject.
Technical Skills
Opportunities in this track will focus on best practices for teaching technical skills—from movement to snow science to challenging conditions—to your students.
Socio-Emotional Skills
Opportunities in this track will be focused on developing the socio-emotional skills needed to create a positive learning environment and effectively instruct adults in an often-challenging environment.
Leadership Skills
Opportunities in this track are meant to develop the skills needed to lead an instructor team in the field. Some opportunities are geared toward course leaders, but anyone interested in developing these skills is welcome.
New Instructor Development
Opportunities in this track are intended to help new and aspiring AIARE instructors build sustainable careers in avalanche education. Participants in the AIARE Professional Growth Network are welcome and encouraged to join.
Non-AIARE Continuing Education Opportunities
We review and add non-AIARE opportunities to this list a on a regular rolling basis. General guidelines for acceptable CE opportunities are those that are open to any AIARE Instructor to enroll and are relevant professional development for avalanche educators. The courses in the list below have been approved as non-AIARE CE opportunities.
Non-AIARE Opportunities Approved for Continuing Education Credits
(as of 12/15/2025)
- A3 Pro Trainer Workshop (8 hours)
- AMGA Ski Guide Course, Advanced Ski Guide Course, or Ski Guide Exam (8 hours)
- AMGA Alpine Guide Course, Advanced Alpine Guide Course, or Alpine Guide Exam (8 hours)
- AMGA Alpine Skills Course – ski or alpine focus (8 hours)
- AMGA Alpine Snow and Glacier Module (8 hours)
- AMGA Ice Instructor Course (8 hours)
- AvSAR course from an A3 Pro course provider
- AAI – Professional Avalanche Search & Rescue Course (8 hours)
- CAA Operations Level 1 Course (8 hours)
- CAA Operations Level 2 Course Module 1, 2, or 3 (8 hours)
- CAA Operations Level 3 Course (8 hours)
- CAA Spring Conference Case Studies and Research Presentations (4 hours)
- *Emotional Safety in the Outdoors eLearning Course (5 hours)
- International Commission on Alpine Rescue (ICAR) event attendance (up to 8 hours)
- International Snow Science Workshop (ISSW) (attendance or presentation) (up to 8 hours)
- *Leadership Development Series with The Mountaineers (1.5 hours per session)
- Mammut Education Ambassador Training (4 hours)
- Mountaineers Avalanche Instructor Continuing Education Program (8 hours)
- National Avalanche School (NAS) Classroom session (8 hours)
- *North Sound Leadership Conference (up to 8 hours)
- PRO 2 course from any A3 course provider (8 hours)
- PSIA/AMGA Ski Guide Prep/Movement Course (8 hours)
- Psychological First Aid Online Course (4 hours)
- Regional SAW or Professional Avalanche Workshop (8 hours)
- *Responder Alliance Online Trainings (4 hours per training)
- Risk Management for Outdoor Programs training by Viristar (8 hours)
- Spring Professional Development Workshop with Sierra Avalanche Center (up to 8 hours)
- Weather Courses
- AAI – Winter Forecasting (8 hours)
- CAA Introduction to Weather (8 hours)
- CAA Advanced Weather Course (8 hours)
- Mountain Weather – Winter Weather Forecasting (8 hours)
- Mountain Weather – Advanced Winter Weather Forecasting (8 hours)
- Mountain Weather – Alaska Winter Weather Forecasting (8 hours)
- What to Say (and not say) When You’re Not Sure – Inclusive Language in the Outdoors (2 hours)
- Wilderness Risk Management Conference (attendance or presentation) (up to 8 hours)
Don't see your training listed?
Suggestions are welcome! If you would like to suggest a course, or want to know if a training you took (or taught) can count as CE, please send a course description, syllabus, and the number of hours, to Education Director Emma Walker ([email protected]).
*AIARE Instructors and Course leaders qualify for discounted access to these opportunities. Check out the "Find Opportunities by Track" section of this page to learn more about individual opportunities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Instructors are required to engage in at least 8 cumulative hours of continuing education each year in order to remain current as an instructor. This may be accomplished with one event, or by summing up hours completed from multiple shorter events. You may use in-person, virtual, AIARE-provided, or non-AIARE CE.
No. We recognize that there are tons of excellent resources out there to help AIARE instructors improve their skills as educators. You may use any combination of AIARE CE and opportunities listed on the Non-AIARE CE Opportunities list towards your 8 hours per season.
Non-AIARE courses are approved by AIARE on a regular rolling basis. General guidelines for acceptable courses are those that are open to any AIARE Instructor to enroll and are relevant professional development for avalanche educators. Suggestions of synchronous and asynchronous virtual training, as well as in-person training, are welcome. If you would like to suggest a course, or want to know if a training you took (OR taught) can count as CE, please send a course description, syllabus, and the number of hours, to AIARE Education Director Emma Walker.
Maybe! We're always looking to add more opportunities to that list. We'd like to ensure that anything on the non-AIARE CE list is relevant and rigorous enough to be a worthwhile opportunity to recommend to our instructors. Non-AIARE courses are approved by AIARE on a regular rolling basis. General guidelines for acceptable courses are those that are open to any AIARE Instructor to enroll and are relevant professional development for avalanche educators. Suggestions of synchronous and asynchronous virtual training, as well as in-person training, are welcome. If you would like to suggest a course, or want to know if a training you took can count as CE, please send a course description, syllabus, and the number of hours, to AIARE Education Director Emma Walker.
If you decide to take a season (or more) off from teaching with the intention of resuming your instructor status at a later time, we ask that you still remain current on CE requirements during the season(s) you take off. Instructors who are inactive for more than one season will need to contact the Education Director to determine a professional development plan to become an active AIARE Instructor again.
Each fall, when you pay your annual instructor dues and acknowledge the AIARE Code of Conduct on your Instructor Status Requirements page you will also need to upload a record (or select) your previous season of continuing education. You can choose to use your own documentation (such as this CE tracking template, a receipt, or certificate) or use AIARE's selection form.
Yes! Please just list (or select) your ITC when you update your CE from your Instructor Status Requirements page. Alternatively, you may upload your ITC certificate of training.
Because the purpose of CE is to engage in continuing education yearly, the maximum number of “credit” hours that will be honored as non-AIARE CE for a single course is 8, even if the length of the training exceeds the requirement. In other words, if you engaged in more than 8 hours of CE in a given season, the extra hours do not count toward your CE requirement for any future seasons.
It depends! We encourage instructors to engage in CE as learners, but we recognize that teaching often requires learning. For example, if you taught a course that required you to learn about a subject area or student demographic, or in some other way venture beyond what you typically teach, you can send a description and syllabus of what you taught, along with the number of hours, to Education Director Emma Walker for review.
We know that many providers already offer high-quality annual training for their winter staff. We are focusing on creating more educational content and activities that fit into training your employer provides for their staff. To that end, Providers can now apply to have their annual training count as continuing education. Providers who are interested in having their staff trainings count as CE for their instructors can fill out this application and submit it to the Education Director.