Yesterday concluded the last avalanche course of the season. Every course had interesting snow conditions to look at, engaged students, reasonable weather, and some pretty good skiing at the end of the day!

With 5 human triggered avalanches on Mount Washington in March alone, one which resulted if serious life threatening injuries, people are starting to realize there is a need for education before heading into the mountains. While I admire John Muir’s “Throw some doughnuts in a knapsack and hop over the backyard fence” sense of freedom, we owe it to our families and loved ones to put some thought into how much risk we are willing to take (and how to recognize when we are at risk) when traveling in the mountains.

I want to thank everyone who attended an avalanche course with Eastern Mountain Sports Schools this season. I hope to see you out in the mountains applying your newly acquired skills soon!

While we have no more official AIARE courses scheduled for this season we are still running our Backcountry Ski courses which include some good basic “Avalanche Awareness” instruction. Check out http://www.emsski.com for details.

Yesterday brought the conclusion of the 2nd to last Avalanche Course of the season. 6 aspiring mountaineers, skier’s, and climbers spent 3 days in North Conway and surrounding notches learning the basics of traveling in avalanche terrain and backcountry decision making.

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Our last course of the season is March 25th-27th, but it is already full. If you didn’t get into an avalanche course this season check out http://www.avalanche.org for some great online learning tools. And next October/November call us to book early! We’ve had two avalanche accidents on Mount Washington in the last two weeks, and neither of the victims had ever taken an avalanche course.

Knowledge is power, get educated, practice safe travel skills and terrain selection based on the conditions, and climb on!

This winter’s avalanche courses have been excellent as we seem to get some new snow the day before every course! This past weekend’s course was no exception, with over 8 inches landing in North Conway, and much more up on the mountain!

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Only two more courses scheduled this season!

http://www.emsclimb.com/aiare1.html

Over President’s Day weekend we were able to have John Kascenska come over from Vermont to co-teach, allowing us to open enrollment to 12 students. We spent the 1st two days at the Highland Center in Crawford Notch with a mixture of classroom and field sessions. On a very chilly President’s Day we toured below Tuckerman Ravine, investigating the snow conditions around Hillman’s Highway and the Little Headwall. I wasn’t too trigger happy with the camera this go around, but here you go!

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One of our attendees was avid outdoorsman and blogger Phil Werner. Phil took close to 200 pics and some video during the course and will be writing a piece associated for the course soon. Check it out on http://www.sectionhiker.com!

Only two courses left this season that are not full! Get the details here:

http://www.emsclimb.com/aiare1.html

Another great Avalanche Course ended yesterday. The mid-winter snowpack is providing us with lots to see and learn as we develop the skills necessary to safely travel in the backcountry.

There’s still time to sign up for a course this season! Check out http://www.emsclimb.com/aiare1.html and check the available dates. So far we have been fully booked for each course so call early!

Another 3 day AIARE Level 1 Avalanche Course came to a successful close yesterday. Multiple snow storms have started giving us a nice variable snowpack with interesting layers and observations to be made.

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There’s still time to sign up for a course this season! Check out http://www.emsclimb.com/aiare1.html and check the available dates. So far we have been fully booked for each course so call early!

The second Avalanche Course of the season ended yesterday. While we did not have a deep snow base the Avy Danger was “Considerable” during our field day and we were able to make some great observations! If you are thinking it’s time to learn about Avalanches go to http://www.emsclimb.com/aiare1.html and check the available dates. So far we have been fully booked for each course so call early!