Learning Technical Snow Travel on East Coast

[Tim C]

I live in Central PA.  In the past, there are some trips out west I’ve shied away from, especially early- and late-season ones, because they require technical snow travel, ie potentially use crampons or ice axes.  The conventional wisdom I’ve seen time and time again is, “Don’t carry an ice axe unless you’ve been taught how to use it.”  So this winter / spring, I’m looking to learn and open up some new trip opportunities.

Obviously there’s not much need for these skills where I live, but I’ve been trying to find training as close to home as I can.  The best I’m coming up with is NH, the Catskills, or the Adirondacks.  But typically, snow travel like I’m after (ie, beyond basic snowshoeing) is contained in mountaineering courses, requiring investment in thousands of dollars of mountaineering gear to participate.  I’m not interested in mountaineering, but there’s certainly some overlap in skill sets between that and early / late season backpacking.  It’s that overlap I’m after.

So with all that said, can anyone suggest training resources as close to the mid-atlantic as possible for snow travel, self-arrest, hiking crampon useage, etc?  Winter navigation would also be a great offering.

[jared h]

https://fareharbor.com/northeastmountainguiding/items/8796/

2-day, intro to mountaineering course, $185. Delaware Water Gap, PA.

I did not go through this course, but it is pretty basic stuff so at least a good place to start.

Once you go through a course remember to practice until you are comfortable with it and keep up with it whenever you go adventuring.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

See if you can monitor a National Ski Patrol “Mountain Travel and Rescue” course. Lots of great info there and in the NSP book of the same name.

I’d go for the Adirondacks 1st B/C they are closer to your. I lived in Erie, PA for decades when I was teaching high school there. I was a Nordic ski patroller and was in the Adirondacks for the ’77 Nordic Olympic Ski Patrol selection course for the ’80 Winter Olympics Nordic patrol. At the ’79 pre-Olympics it got down to -50 F. in Keene Valley and -40 F. at Mt. Van Hovenberg Nordic area. So this is not a bad place to train.

[Bob Moulder]

So you’re looking for instruction in use of crampons and ice axe? Self-arrest?

Believe it or not you can get a book such as Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills and teach yourself a lot of this, including flat-foot crampon technique, on a very moderate, snowy/icy slope with a good run-out.

When you can consistently self-arrest while sliding head-first on your back, you’re well on the way.

 

[Lester Moore]

You can get a taste for self arrest skills by finding the steepest sled run near your hometown during the next “big” snow storm in PA (if there are any this winter). While growing up near Latrobe PA we would go sledding on the powerline access roads (clear cut corridor under the powerlines) up on Chestnut Ridge. Long, steep, icy, tree-lined slopes on sleds with no steering ability – amazing that nobody ever died.

[Tim C]

This looks like exactly what I’m after.  And doesn’t get more convenient than DWG.  Thanks!

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