The field sessions both started at the lifts in Fernie Alpine Resort, which made it easier for us to access avalanche terrain with the minimum of effort. Strolling past the "Resort Boundary" signs we donned our snowshoes/skins and started hiking into the back of beyond. The field sessions were very good and quite extensive, covering a variety of topics including terrain recognition, route finding, safe travel, group management, stability evaluation, hazard recognition and small party self rescue.

Crossing the resort boundary at the start of Day 2

This mostly involved watching Steve while he pointed out certain features of the terrain/snowpack, digging snowholes and carrying out stability tests and avalanche transceiver practice (both single and multiple rescues). Of course, the best way to teach a group of people how to ascend and descend safely in the backcountry us to actually do it, so we did get 4 or 5 powder filled runs to satisfy our powder lust as well. The suggested field total is a minimum of 7 hours, however we must have totaled about 11 or 12.

Our first hike, viewed from a different location on Day 2

Transceiver practice, before and after

I won't go into explaining the ins and outs of the course material or try to explain the nature of avalanches here, because if you are really serious about traveling in this type of terrain, you NEED to go on one of these courses (I can't emphasize this point enough).
To summarize this whole experience is easy. Do the course, get the proper equipment, use your common sense and talk to as many people as you can before venturing out of bounds. Then, and only then, if you feel supremely confident about the safety of yourself and your group, are you ready for..........The Backcountry.

Our very first snow holes

There is some powder involved obviously