Tyler's Backcountry Awareness

10/22/2026

Backcountry Winter Survival Presentation
October 16, 2026, 6:30 PM
Colorado SnowMo Expo

Retired U.S. Army Green Beret Jeff Hartsough, who taught winter warfare for six years and is an avid snowmobiler and avalanche instructor, leads a practical backcountry survival course through Tyler’s Backcountry Awareness.

The training focuses on surviving when plans go wrong in remote mountain terrain, covering threat prioritization, hypothermia management, hasty and deliberate shelters, water procurement, navigation in whiteouts, signaling and findability, essential gear and safety checks, multi-night sustainment, first aid, and mechanical recovery so participants can stay alive until help arrives or they can self-extract.

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10/19/2026

Note where you plan to stop, check in with the group, and reassess your plan.

Use maps and other tools to plan key vantage points and route finding points along your planned route. Identify and record points and times where your group will plan to check in to reassess your plan.

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10/15/2026

Jeff Hartsough will be sharing sought after information regarding winter survival Friday night of the Colorado SnoMo Expo.

Get details here: Colorado SnoMO Expo

Brandon Alan, Tudizzle Films

We have some amazing Seminars lined up this year for SnoMO including Friday Night at 6:30 pm with Jeff Hartshough.

Learn practical winter survival skills with retired U.S. Army Green Beret and avalanche instructor Jeff Hartsough of Tyler’s Backcountry Awareness. Drawing on six years of teaching winter warfare, Jeff covers staying warm, building shelters, finding water, navigating whiteouts, signaling for help, and handling backcountry emergencies.

10/13/2026

Practicing avalanche rescue is rehearsing for an unlikely but possible emergency situation. Learn how to best conduct an avalanche rescue by taking an Avalanche Rescue Course. To keep your skills sharp and make sure you are reinforcing the correct habits, frequently review this avalanche rescue section, practice throughout the season, and regularly retake the Avalanche Rescue Course to gain experience working with others in realistic scenarios and receive coaching from experienced professionals.

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10/10/2026

Dig in the Layered Snowpack

The conditions that form avalanches can result from a storm event (new snow accumulation and/or wind transporting and depositing snow onto steep slopes) or a warming event (sun/heat or rain warming the snow surface layers to 0°C/32°F). However, in cooler mountain regions (Intermountain and Continental climates) unstable conditions frequently linger beyond the initial storm cycle or weather event. It is during these conditions that experts and the avalanche advisories warn about Persistent Slab and Deep Slab avalanche problem types.

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10/07/2026

Your learning with us will include new knowledge, hands on experience, AND we will have fun too!

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10/04/2026

After the group has checked in, shared observations, and if necessary, reassessed the plan, the group should assess the terrain on the next leg of the trip. When creating a trip plan, the group planned to limit exposure to avalanches through a careful examination of terrain in maps and photos. Now in the field, the group should ground-truth their assessment by reevaluating all slopes the group will travel on or near for their avalanche potential.

When assessing consequences, ask yourself:
• Does this slope have the potential to avalanche?
• If so, how big and destructive could the avalanche be?

Realistic terrain evaluation—and a respectful fear of an avalanche’s consequence—are the two most valuable assets when deciding where you go and how you go.

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