As backcountry skiing and snowboarding rapidly grows in popularity, industry experts are concerned the correlating growth in safety knowledge is just not there. There needs to be some type of movement towards a baseline standardized skill set one should acquire before entering the backcountry safely. Of course this type of credential can’t be enforced in most cases but getting the word out there is what important. Peer to peer enforcement is how something like this gains traction. Here is how the experts at The Utah Avalanche Center see it:
“With the freedom of the backcountry comes responsibility, and this social responsibility in backcountry avalanche terrain is paramount as backcountry use explodes. Establishing a clear set of expectations in terms of Knowledge, Awareness and Wisdom is imperative to protect ourselves as well as our access to backcountry terrain.”