On January 3rd and 4th, 14 of us took an Intro to Ski touring course led by Josh S. around the Mount Washington area. We had an amazing time and learned a lot! My partner and I have both wanted to start ski touring for a number of years, but the logistics of how to get started, travelling, what days looked like etc, had always been barriers (I’d been out only a handful of times a few years ago, and he never had).
Each day we started the morning with a conversation about weather sources, avalanche risk, and trip planning. We then geared up for the day out in the snow. We talked about travel in the mountains and route finding. We got lots of tips for travelling on skins and time to practice them. We joked that our trip leaders had pre-placed logs and obstacles in our way for skill building! We even got in some fun runs with fresh tracks!
There were some great discussions around risk, decision making, and human factors that I found super valuable. I also really appreciated the chance to meet other people who are new to touring and build connections for future trips.
A huge thank you to Josh, Keith, Harry, and Nadja who volunteered their time to take us out and share all their knowledge and passion with us! We had a blast, and I’m super stoked to spend more time in the mountains.