by Chuck Boyd, Nordic/Backcountry Supervisor | Apr 26, 2026 | Program News
Bolton Nordic Patroller School was our big event of the season and Ullr, the Norse God of Snow, delivered. With fresh snow on both Friday and Saturday nights we were primed for both XC and backcountry skiing evaluations! We minted four new senior Nordic/Backcountry Patrollers as well as two new Nordic Patrollers. Typically, we also do a Nordic Master evaluation, but this year our candidate had a medical issue just before the event was to begin. They will be back for next year.
Saturday, we toured the Nordic center as our Nordic candidates lead the tour navigating using Caltopo and being evaluated on their ski skills along the way. Four to six inches of fresh snow helped make everyone a good skier. Low Angle Rescue skills were demonstrated and mastered in the afternoon before we started the Search and Rescue lost skier exercise. Everyone navigated successfully to locate their lost skier and the prize that awaited them.
Sunday delivered with more fresh snow as we headed up to the Bryant cabin to complete the skills check-off and ski powder in the glades. Skiing the powder in the glades was magical! It brought back memories of my senior evaluation where I chased our mentor Pete Snyder through these same glades, in the same conditions! It made me feel really good as the candidate patrollers followed me into those same glades.
We would like to thank the Bolton Valley Ski Patrol for their logistical support and camaraderie. Keep your eyes on the Patroller School website for next year’s events. We hope to see you there.
by Chuck Boyd, Nordic/Backcountry Supervisor | Apr 2, 2026 | Division News, Program News
What a time we had at Pike Glades! The weather was perfect, the snow was deep, and everyone made new friends! Thanks to Orest Ohar and Linda Helms from the Eastern Division’s OET Training Team, we received training in the use of two types of breakaway two-piece toboggans.
One was a two-piece Cascade 100 with belay points and handles typical to the Cascade Legend. The other was a carbon fiber, four-handle AKJA two-piece toboggan. A big thank you to Jay Peak’s ski patrol for letting us use the AKJA! We all learned a lot about running these sleds through the glades.
Our SAR exercise using Caltopo teams had all searchers recovering their hidden prizes. Look for this event again next season, especially if your ski area deals with lost area skiers out of bounds.
If you ever wanted to learn about what Nordic/Backcountry patrollers do, come next year to our annual Bolton Nordic Patroller School at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Bolton, VT. Bolton Valley has all types of Nordic terrain including XC track/skate, backcountry, and lift served alpine. We will be doing Nordic basic evaluations, Nordic Senior evaluations, SAR lost skier searches, and skiing with a Skedco rescue litter through the woods. As a patroller, learning to use Caltopo in a SAR situation is extremely useful for a successful outcome. Groups will be skiing on all types of Nordic skis, with some riders on AT gear and split boards.
by Chuck Boyd, Nordic/Backcountry Supervisor | Feb 24, 2026 | Division News, Program News
Highland Forest in fresh snow.
Are you ready to be signed off as a Nordic senior or would you still like additional training with the division staff? If so, come join us at Bolton Valley, VT on the weekend of March 21-22, 2026. Bolton Valley has some of the most diversified terrain in the division. It allows us to evaluate XC skiing, backcountry skiing, and alpine touring.
If you are looking to complete your Nordic/Backcountry basic or senior, or train for Nordic Master, come out and join us. Registration is on patrollerschool.org or contact the Nordic/BC Program Supervisor Chuck Boyd.
Registration is still open for the Pike Glades event, but it is filling up. We currently have two slots left. This backcountry event is a must for all uphill skiers, whether you are on telemark skis, alpine touring skis, or a split board. Besides learning uphill technique, we will ski the glades, run toboggans in the glades, and focus on lost area skier SAR techniques for those patrollers who have to go look for riders who duck the ropes and head out of bounds at your area.
Nordic Senior evaluation L-R Tyler Lewis, Jennifer Jones, & Sten Winborg
Sten Winborg teaching classic Nordic skiing
Nordic Fest was a blast and a bit chilly, but everyone braved the cold and learned new skills. Our PSIA instructors did a fantastic job of teaching both skate and classic lessons as the program strives to make better skiers of our Nordic patrollers. Sunday, we conducted both Nordic basic and senior evaluations. This has become an annual event, and I’ll let a few pictures tell the rest of the story.
by Chuck Boyd, Nordic/Backcountry Supervisor | Dec 22, 2025 | Division News, Program News
As I woke up this morning the temperature was 9 degrees with 3 – 4 inches of snow in my yard. What a great way to start this ski season. This is the best start that we have had here in the east for several years, so let’s take advantage of it. I’ve been out skiing on two types of Nordic skis so far, for a total of four times. Waxing skis in the evening has become a ritual, with fellow patrollers coming over to chat and wax their skis.
Congratulations to all the new NSP BOD members. This is the first time that everyone I voted for was elected. Did you vote?
We are working on getting all the online course materials up on the Patroller School website. This is a huge undertaking for the staff to have all this material online five to six weeks before the start of each program. We hope to have most of this material open to the students by Christmas.
Nordic Fest is a go for the weekend of January 31 – February 1, 2026 at Highland Forest in Fabius, NY. This will be a fun time, and I look forward to seeing many of my fellow Nordic patrollers!
Pike Glades Backcountry patroller school is scheduled for the weekend of February 28 – March 1. Hope to see a lot of you skinners there.
Bolton Valley’s Nordic Senior/Master weekend is scheduled for March 21 – 22, 2026. Come out and help us get our Nordic senior and master candidates through their evaluations. Bolton Valley always has great snow conditions and is open already.
All of the above events can be found at Patrollerschool.org.
I’ll let you know next month how the December skiing was. See you out there!
by Larry Davis, Santiam Pass PNW Division | Nov 19, 2025 | Program News, Spotlight Articles
Reflections from Larry Davis Pacific Northwest Division, Nordic Master #22
Before boots hit the colorful fallen leaves on the ground at Pike Glades, AMN25 (Avalanche, Mountaineering, Nordic) instructor participants were already deep into the work. The Annual AMN Instructor Refresher was successfully hosted at Pike Glades, NH September 25-28, 2025, and provided 80+ instructors with the opportunity to hone their instructional skills together in this rugged outdoor center. Avalanche, Mountain Travel & Rescue, and Nordic instructors and instructor candidates worked together to elevate learning.
Flipped Learning Model
Patroller School’s online AMN curriculum laid the groundwork — four content areas, each building on last year’s AMN24, designed not just to inform but to prepare. This wasn’t fluff. The material was practical, mountain-professional grade, and built for the field. By the time participants arrived, they weren’t just reviewing — they were ready to coach and be coached. AMN’s flipped-classroom model isn’t just a clever phrase; it’s a shift in how we instruct and model effective outdoor instruction.
The whole point of bringing everyone out for three days was simple: elevate the skills and align the content. We’re running under a new mission too: “Rescue Ready Resource Smart.” It sounds like a bumper sticker, but it has deeper meaning. There were no PowerPoints® or long classroom lectures during field work. If you’re going to teach you need to be out there doing it, coaching activity, and not just standing and talking.
AMN’s flipped-classroom model wasn’t just a talking point— it was the backbone of AMN25. Patroller School’s Moodle LMS delivered four tightly focused modules ahead of the event, each building on last year’s AMN24 foundation. The content was practical, mountain-grade, and designed to stick. For many, it wasn’t just a refresher — it was a reset and level up. New accessibility features like text-to-speech made the material more inclusive to learning styles, and the Patroller School content remains available as a resource long after the tents are packed. In the field, CalTopo on mobile devices replaced the GPS standalone units, with offline downloaded layers giving patrollers the edge in planning and navigation. It’s a quiet shift, but a meaningful one — evolving to standard technology used by rescuers, without tech for the sake of technology.
Meet up in Pike Glades
Eastern Division instructors and others from as far as Oregon and Idaho came together to learn from each other, align, and elevate our instruction in Pike Glades. This is an excellent environment for a backcountry patroller school, with camping space, just the right number of rustic amenities, and expansive woods, trails, and hills perfect for practicing backcountry skills. Pike Glades is an area established for backcountry travel by the Granite Backcountry Alliance, with ongoing development of trails and amenities. GBA members were part of the weekend, both as volunteers and local experts helping patrollers understand the significance of the location and filling in local area knowledge. https://granitebackcountryalliance.org/
Instruction Technology – Prep for the Wilderness
The entire weekend was run on the philosophy that coaching replaces teaching. How’d we pull that off?
Instructors did the “classroom” homework before they even packed up the gear for travel. All the foundational knowledge was delivered online through the PatrollerSchool.org on the Moodle LMS. We’re serious about making this accessible too. We even rolled out Text-to-Speech (Natura Reader) as a new service in the Moodle courses this year, so everyone gets a fair shot at the material no matter what their learning style.
This pre-event preparation in Patroller School online meant that when you showed up at Pike Glades you weren’t wasting daylight. Every hour was dedicated to hands-on evolutions built around a tight cycle: “Content Delivery interspersed with Student Activities, monitored for effectiveness then repeated.” It’s about making a mistake, seeing it, fixing it, and owning the skill.
The Heart of the Lesson
The stations were focused on practical competence, standardization, and a couple of essential new tricks:
- Instructor Development lessons from Patroller School and coaching on the mountain helped participants to lean into the 6-Pack concepts of the Heart of the Lesson. Use the Heart of the Lesson and the Experiential Learning Cycle to guide the student’s growth collaboratively through active learning and coaching. The ID concepts permeated the other stations.
- Mountain Travel & Rescue (MTR): The focus was on low angle rescue systems. We’re standardizing these rope rescue systems education across the Eastern Division and simplifying the components so rescuers can get it right when it counts. The systems this year featured:
- minimizing gear hauling requirements, e.g. munter hitches over descender devices, improvised webbing harnesses consistently tied,
- anchors created with basket hitches, allowing sewn slings or pre-tied webbing to be used,
- adding safety by using two inline prussic hitches for secure load capture,
- rigging for simplified Up/Down directional changes during early system rigging, and
- safety factor calculations for use in the field.
- Nordic/Backcountry: “You have to know where you are in these woods.” The Nordic station put the hands-on into navigation with mobile phone technology and SAR Topo app navigation. Following the trend for rescuers to use their mobile devices for navigation, we drilled skills with SAR Topo on mobile phones which is becoming a standard for rescue groups. The AMN leaders demonstrated, coached, and prepared each participant for a custom solo-route to find waypoints through the rugged New England woods. We brought it full circle after the electronic route-finding to plot our waypoints on paper maps and create a bearing and distance record of the adventure. Participants found their way, overcoming low cell signal by utilizing offline maps and pre-selected data layers. A sunny Sunday hike sealed the Nordic knowledge as participants collaborated to set and follow a route to the top of Iron Mountain, complete with snacks and a group photo opportunity.
- Avalanche : The practice focused on Avy transceiver search techniques and treating victims post-avalanche rescue-patient care for hypothermia. Skilled leaders coached participants to quickly and efficiently locate Avy victims in multi-burial scenarios while using common transceiver models and varied search techniques. The highest skill was the introduction of the Hypo Wrap technique. It’s a smart, simple backcountry method for keeping a hypothermic or an injured patient warm until additional resources and ground transport arrive. Don’t leave home without knowing it. Participants practiced with standard rescue equipment and improvised systems from whatever was available in their rescue packs.
Why We Show Up
The true value of AMN far outshines the checkbox for continuing education credits; participants experiencing community. You had patrollers and candidates from all over the Eastern Division and even some West Coasters camped out sharing a potluck on Saturday night and hashing out the details with program leaders. This event is where we build our leadership core. instructor candidates got essential mentoring and networking time, and many took home new instruction to share in their home area. The up level of consistency and professionalism you teach on your mountain this winter starts right here.
by Chuck Boyd, Nordic/Backcountry Supervisor | Nov 19, 2025 | Division News, Program News
Nordic Fest is back, but with a new date…January 30-February 1, 2026! We will again be at Highland Forest in Fabius, NY, with most of us arriving on Friday January 30. You can enhance your ski skills with L3 PSIA XC instructors who will provide personal instruction on your specific skill set needs.
Group meals, good lessons, and great people will make this an awesome learning experience. If you’re looking to test out as Nordic Senior, contact both your patrol director and me.
By the time you read this I will already have skied the toll road on Whiteface. The only way to catch this early season snow is to earn your turns. This is what Nordic skiing is all about.
It will be a couple more weeks before ski areas start spinning their lifts, so if you feel the urge, now is the time to get out there before everyone else. Just don’t be too aggressive as the snow will not be deep enough to hide all the hidden obstacles. Don’t hurt yourself before the season gets started. Work on getting in shape and having fun.
See you out there.
by Chuck Boyd, Nordic/Backcountry Supervisor | Oct 23, 2025 | Division News, Program News
As the leaves begin to turn color and the temperatures begin to drop, the refresher season has started. This year is Refresher Cycle C. We have divided the Nordic skills list into three recommended refresher cycles running parallel to our OEC refresher cycles. The skills list and refresher cycles can be found on the division website’s Nordic/Backcountry page.
The main topic of most refreshers is to be updated on your local mountain’s requirements. For the skills requirements, try to make that fun. Think of games and challenges. Even if you are a seasoned veteran at basic and senior skills, how fast can you perform these skills? Are you able to teach others?
I attended the Thunderbolt Backcountry refresher on October 18 and plan to be at the Nutmeg Nordic refresher on November 16. Let me know some of your refresher dates and I’ll see if I can attend.
This is the time of year to think about new gear. There are plenty of pro deals to be had, and the shops would rather have you come in earlier than their regular customers. Try to avoid weekends when the shops are busy and I’m sure that you will get better service. Look for ski swaps, these are good ways to sell preowned equipment, or maybe also find what you are looking for!
If you’re selling gear at a swap, take the time to clean it up and make it sellable. At the swaps where I volunteer we turn away dirty and abused items. Make your gear shine like two dollar signs in your eyes.
Hope to see a few of you before the season begins.
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 Chuck Boyd, Nordic/Backcountry Supervisor | Sep 13, 2025 | Division News, Program News
I hope everyone had a great summer and accomplished their goals. Now it’s time to go to the AMN Instructor Continuing Education Event, September 26-28. This year’s event will be held at Pike Glades, NH as we move these events around the division.
Instructors, instructor candidates, and interested patrollers wishing to get involved with Nordic, MTR, or Avalanche are always welcome at this event. This year’s registration will close on 9/22, allowing all attending to have time to complete the online material before they arrive.
The Nordic/Backcountry station will focus on navigation, using CalTopo, and plotting a waypoint on a paper map. The MTR station will focus on low angle rescue as we try to standardize our systems throughout all NSP programs. The Avalanche station will do transceiver searches and exam prep for L2 avalanche and Nordic Master transceiver tests.
Plus, this year they will introduce the Hypo Wrap, a backcountry technique to help keep your hypothermia or injured patient warm until more help arrives and transportation is complete. With the online material ahead of time we can now adjust our schedule and spend more time outside doing hands-on training. This should make things a bit more exciting and fun!
We will announce the upcoming season’s events for Nordic/Backcountry on patrollerschool.org. When you sign up and access AMN you’ll find a video presentation of our program updates. AMN events will be posted on the division website calendar when the events are finalized. As a heads up, one of the events will be at Pike Glade, NH in February.
Did you know that Jesse Diggins came to Vermont and held training camps at Stratton? It’s fantastic to see Olympic Nordic skiers come east to help train our future Olympians.
See you all soon at the AMN. The winter outlook for the east coast shows lots of snow and cold temps for us.
