Equipment List

Dispatches

Extras

Skiing toward Bear Creek Spire, Rock Creek Basin, Sierra Nevada. Photo by Richard Steele

This program encompasses the skills of intermediate and advanced backcountry skiing, backcountry touring, winter camping, and avalanche hazard evaluation, and it includes some of the finest ski touring found in North America. Courses are offered for telemarking and randonnée gear, with an emphasis on alpine touring technique.The program is designed to advance each participant's skiing ability as well as to develop the skills required for travel in the cold temperatures, complex terrain, and varied snow conditions of the winter environment.

While this course is very much oriented towards wilderness skiing, many of the skills presented will also help prepare participants for the conditions found in the highest mountain ranges of the world. This course can thus provide excellent background both for those who want to concentrate on adventurous, backcountry ski touring and ski mountaineering, and for those who would like to move on to alpine or expeditionary climbing. This program does not include climbing skills, but when it is combined with one of AAI's summer alpine mountaineering or ice climbing courses on glacier ice, it provides excellent preparation for climbing in such areas as Alaska and the Yukon where approaches are usually made on skis.

To advance each participant's skiing ability as rapidly as possible, we may spend the first one or two days (depending on the group and the area) working on technique at a ski area. The use of lifts at a ski area allows for rapid advancement of skills before heading into the mountains. We also begin our introduction to the study of basic snow physics, examining snow accumulation, movement, and metamorphosis as well as avalanche release mechanisms.

In the backcountry portion of the program, we cover skills for observing and interpreting mountain weather and techniques for constructing improvised snow shelters. We continue to work on telemark or randonnée ski technique, including adjustments for varied gradients, different types of snow, and skiing with a pack on, while allowing participants to continuously work on route finding and route evaluation. Program members also make repeated snowpack analyses both to apply the theory they have learned and for the safety of the group as we explore new slopes and bowls.

Beneath Bear Creek Spire in Little Lakes Valley, Sierra Nevada. Richard Steele

For those of you interested in our comprehensive winter mountaineering program (Sierra and Rockies), there are three parts:

• Water Ice Climbing (2 days)
• Winter Mountaineering (Core Curriculum) (4 days)
• Backcountry Skiing (2 days)

You can take the parts independently because each functions as a unit and covers specific sets of skills, or you can combine them in an eight-day program to gain comprehensive training in all the skills of the winter and expeditionary environments. Upon completion of the core curriculum and the ice climbing segment of this course, you should be well prepared for winter ascents as well as for expeditions of moderate or intermediate technical challenge on Denali, in the Andes, and in the Himalaya.

Each of the dates and prices listed on this page correspond to the part of the trip that you are currently viewing. Please view the other parts of the trip by following the links above or in the text below.

In addition to the scheduled dates, private trips are available for arrangement.

• equipment, clothing, & nutrition for the backcountry skier;
• review of ski techniques for flat & gentle terrain;
• skiing skills for steeper terrain, including telemark turn, step telemark, stem christie, & parallel turn;
• adjustment in ski technique for variable & deep snow;
• adjustment in ski technique when skiing with a heavy pack or sled;
• introduction to human physiology in cold weather;
• prevention & treatment of cold injuries, frostbite, & hypothermia;
• shelter construction & improvised snow shelter;
• mountain weather: understanding & anticipating mountain weather;
• introduction to the physics of snowfall & accumulation;
• avalanche release mechanisms;
• avalanche hazard evaluation techniques;
• the use of electronic transceivers & procedures for avalanche rescue;
• route planning, selection, & evaluation;
• navigation in good & poor visibility;
• environmental considerations; Leave No Trace camping & travel skills.

Making turns in the deep powder Washington's Mt. Baker area is known for. Photo by Scott Schumann

On our way to the high basin area, we pass historic sites of gold and silver mining settlements and ski beautiful, open fir forests. After acclimatization, we ski on into the high country where we enter a cirque that surrounds us with the San Juan's high peaks and the region's characteristic, sharply etched ridges. From our high camp we enjoy a great variety of terrain and snow types as well as spectacular mountain scenery. At our other site of high pass skiing, we are able to drive to 11,000 feet, and from that point we can access slopes of whatever aspect and type we choose. Close at hand is tree skiing through aspen groves, where the light yellow bark and intricate dark shadows contrast with the pure white snows. We also ski high to the open slopes at the 12,000-foot level where we enjoy big bowl skiing at all levels of challenge and expansive views of scores of Colorado's high peaks. Like the mountain areas we use in the Sierra, the weather here is usually clear and cold, offering good conditions and terrain that readily accommodates skiers from intermediate to advanced levels.