I'm looking to take the AST-1 course this fall and was wondering if anyone knows if there is a difference in quality or course content between the AST-1 course offered by Yamnuska Mountain Adventures and that offered from the Calgary Outdoor Center?

I know AST-1 content is *supposed* to be standard, but the same goes for standard first aid courses and with that I've had wildly different experiences depending on the company!

Any insight would be appreciated! Thanks!

I had a good experience with Yamnuska a few years ago with AST-1. I don't know about the Calgary Outdoor Centre. Our class was in their office in Canmore, and the field day was at Bow Summit. Both instructors were good, and I felt that we learned a lot.

The material is standard but the instruction can vary.
Unfortunately, the variance is not by the company, but by the instructor. People have had a good and bad experience with the same company on the same field day when out with different guides.
And many of the local guides work for both Yamnuska and the Outdoor Centre, so there isn't really one that can be considered standardly better for that.

I have generally heard favourable reviews from Yamnuska, and generally favourable from the Outdoor Centre minus one thread here where a person had a poor guide for the field day. The Outdoor Centre ended up giving them a replacement field day which they thought was good, though I don't know who the original poor guide was or whether he is still working for either company.

I don't know if you have a preference between field day at Bow Summit (Yam) or Fortress (OC). Yam runs most of theirs out of their Canmore office, but does also run courses at CAOC in Calgary, so with plenty of warning now, you can easily find Calgary courses for either.

I took my AST-1 with the COC. It was pretty good, informational. We spent our field day out at Fortress. It is probably a bit cheaper through the COC than through Yamnuska, and I know that the COC uses certified ACMG guides.

Thanks everyone for your input! It sounds like they're both fairly equal, so I'm going to pick the best dates and assume I'll get a good instructor.

Prices are about the same. It wasn't that long ago that AST-1 was $125. Ouch.