by Rob West, Avalanche Supervisor | Oct 23, 2025 | Division News, Program News
The dates for all the avalanche courses are now up on the Eastern Division calendar. Registration for the classes will be open by the middle of November at Patroller School. We will be running three Level 1 and one Level 2 courses. The IOR for the classes are listed with each one individually. If have any questions on any individual courses, please reach out to the IOR or me.
The program goal is to provide premier avalanche safety and rescue education, specifically designed for the needs of patrollers, mountain search and rescue teams, and snow recreation stakeholders. To achieve this goal, the program provides distinct curricula appropriate for different stakeholder needs and different geographical conditions.
The Eastern Snow and Avalanche Workshop (ESAW) 2026 date is Saturday, December 6 at the Fryberg Academy in Fryeberg, ME. A one-day, live-in-person event, it is a great opportunity to further your avalanche education and spend time with fellow avalanche instructors. Tickets are on sale now. There will be an ESAW after party at Ledge Brewing in Intervale, NH.
I will be offering continuing education for all avalanche instructors that attend in person. Even if you’re not an avalanche instructor, it is a great opportunity to learn more about avalanches and safety in backcountry skiing. I hope to see you all there.
by Trail Sweep Staff | Oct 23, 2025 | Division News, Program News
If you were not there, you missed it! The AMN 25 instructor continuing education refresher was a huge success! It’s going to be hard to find a location that will beat Pike Glades in New Hampshire. The weather was perfect, and we had the largest attendance ever for this event. This year we had many people who only did the online portion of the refresher. This is going to become a yearly requirement, with you only needing to attend an in person refresher once every three years.
AVALANCHE – Rob West, Supervisor
The leaves are changing, and the air is getting crisper. Winter will soon be upon us again. We had a great AMN refresher at Pike Glades in New Hampshire the last weekend of September. The avalanche station ran two beacon rotations, focusing on long-range searching and close-range bracketing. We also ran a station refreshing everyone on how to build hypothermic wraps for an injured partner in the back country with what they had in their packs. Thank you to all the instructors who came and helped out, and all the instructors who attended to continue their education and bring new knowledge to the students.
MOUNTAIN TRAVEL & RESCUE – Joni Porter, Supervisor
This portion of the refresher covered ‘How to Teach Low Angle Rescue’ utilizing a down-up-capture using a carabiner, pulley, and release, known as ‘DUC-CPR’ for short. This method has been chosen as the standard of training for the Eastern Division. Participants got lots of hands-on practice on Saturday, followed by an optional LAR Enhancement Seminar on Sunday.
The online lesson prepared the participants for the fieldwork by introducing the following objectives:
1. Why are we referring to foundational LAR as DUC-CPR?
2. The details of the process of Down-Up-Capture (DUC) using carabiners, pulleys, and release (CPR).
3. Show that there is room in DUC-CPR to create variations to fit specific needs.
Doing the online work in advance allowed AMN participants to dive directly into “doing” upon arrival at the field stations.
NORDIC/BACKCOUNTRY – Chuck Boyd, Supervisor
The field station involved navigation and built on the online pre-course work. Participants were given a set of coordinates which they had to add to their CalTopo app and plot a course. Then they went and located the plotted locations, which all returned to the start. Once back at the station HQ the students were given paper maps, and had to plot the same coordinates on the map. Patrollers learned a lot.
by Joni Porter, MTR Supervisor | Jun 5, 2025 | Program News
The Avalanche (AVY), Mountain Travel & Rescue (MTR), and Nordic/Backcountry (N/BC) programs have scheduled the Instructor Refresher AMN 2025 for September 27-28, 2025, at The Pike Glades in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
AMN 2025 is open to instructors and instructor-candidates from all three programs. A gentle reminder that Avvy, MTR, and N/BC instructors need to recert once every three years. If you haven’t been able to do this, please contact your Region Advisor and/or your program’s Eastern Division Supervisor.
There will be pre-attendance refreshing to be completed online at Eastern Division’s Patroller School in addition to the in-person Global Continuing Education and program-run skill stations at The Pike Glades. You will be able to register for AMN 2025 at PatrollerSchool.org. Keep checking, AMN 2025 isn’t there yet!
Here are just a few of the details (more to come):
• On-site camping is available both Friday and Saturday nights.
• Breakfast and Lunch will be provided on Saturday.
• Breakfast will be provided on Sunday.
• Dinner on Saturday night will most likely be the usual potluck (we each bring something to share) but we’ll let you know.
Check out The Pike Glades or @ThePikeGlades on all social platforms.
Read the next Trail Sweep for more details!
