IMG_6962With a stiff breeze on my face and the smell of emerging earth, I arrived at Black Mountain Ski Area in Jackson NH for an MTR Enrichment Seminar.  This past week really reminded me of how long and cold a winter we’ve had.  Snow, sleet, freezing rain, finally melted away and was replaced by brilliant sunshine and a cloud clearing wind.  Can’t believe we’re in April.

IMG_6878Most ski areas have closed.  Many closing with 100% of their terrain open.  But, it’s time for spring, and most everyone is ready.  Patrollers are beginning to take a breath and think about summer sports and warm days.  No disrespect to the patrollers still patrolling, including our brothers and sisters who have just started their Patrol season at Tuckerman’s Ravine.IMG_6886How was your season?

What did you experience?

Have you thought about what can you do to better for yourself and for your Patrol for next season?  We take many of our skills for granted.  We drill OEC annually and throughout the season.  We practice lift evacuation.  We build and improve our operational experience through patrolling daily.  How about your specialty skills?  Backcountry travel and navigation?  The mountains this winter received 100’s of inches of snow.  Could you travel safely in these conditions?  And, in the cold we had this winter?  Camp overnight in a snow cave?  Lower a patient safely down an icy slope?

IMG_6959Saturday April 11th MTR Instructors from EMARI, Maine, and NH gathered at Black Mountain Ski Area in Jackson NH to deliver an MTR Enrichment Seminar.  Focal points of the event were Search and Rescue Techniques for Ski Patrollers and Low Angle Rescue.

Our course was led by Instructor of Record David Tauber.  Our instruction team included David, Greg Banner, Jack Lalor, and Craig Garland, and candidate instructors, Deborah Brown, Dana Gray, and Connor Grenier.    Students from the CT Region, the EMARI Region, and the NH Region used training equipment provided by the Eastern Division, NH Region, and our instructors.IMG_6952

Special thanks to our hosts, Black Mountain Patrol Director Dave Aibel, and the Fichera Family, owners of Black Mountain.

If you’d like to bring a Mountain Travel and Rescue program to your patrol, please contact your Region MTR Advisor.  Next season’s programs will be posted to Region Calendars in June.  Come join us!

IMG_6954The Mountain Travel and Rescue (MTR) program, of the National Ski Patrol, has courses where students learn a variety of skills, including nutrition and how the body performs in a wilderness environment, weather patterns, survival skills, working with group dynamics, an introduction to search and rescue, rope rescue skills, improvised toboggan construction, and land navigation with map, compass, and GPS. The MTR courses are taught in classroom and field sessions, including mock scenarios to ensure the attendees can apply what they have learned to real life situations.

Whether you are an outdoor enthusiast looking to expand your survival and travel skills in the backcountry environment or a ski patroller preparing for one of the worst possible scenarios a parent can face at a ski area (a lost child), the MTR courses can help you get prepared.

Craig Garland
NH Region MTR Advisor