Trails in the Northeast

I am interested in getting into backcountry skiing this season, as I am
looking for bigger and better things than the ski resorts of
Pennsylvania. I haven't been able to find any decent websites with a
listing of backcountry skiing locations in the northeast. Can anyone
recommend either a website or a book I could pick up that would help me
find a place to start out?

Also, I'd like to take a backcountry/avalanche safety course. Any help
pointing me in the right direction to get started with that would be
greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

On 11 Dec 2004 23:03:28 -0800, wrote:

I am interested in getting into backcountry skiing this season, as I am
looking for bigger and better things than the ski resorts of
Pennsylvania. I haven't been able to find any decent websites with a
listing of backcountry skiing locations in the northeast. Can anyone
recommend either a website or a book I could pick up that would help me
find a place to start out?

Also, I'd like to take a backcountry/avalanche safety course. Any help
pointing me in the right direction to get started with that would be
greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Two books, written by David Goodman and published by the Appalachian
Mountain Club, may be helpful:

Backcountry Skiing Adventures: Maine & New Hampshire
Backcountry Skiing Adventures: Vermont and New York

http://users.adelphia.net/~davgood/index.html

EMS and REI stores in New England carry them, I could not say if ones
outside NE carry them. Can also be ordered direct from AMC or Amazon.

There is also the New England Lost Ski Area project, which brings up
some interesting possibilities.

Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
------------------------------------------------
at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence

Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom

Thanks for that link. I found that site the other day, and was planning
on checking out EMS for those (and other) books. Although, I was
hoping for an online source for info until I could make it to EMS. I'm
glad that you recommend those books; at least I will be starting off in
the right directions. I'll also do some asking around about the
avalanche courses while I am at the store.
Thanks again.

Our auction which closes Thursday has a copy of "Backcountry Skiing
Adventures: Maine & New Hampshire", it was a late addition earlier
today. So far its a great deal! We have a lot of books this year.

http://www.csac.org/auction/

We also maintain a list of avalanche courses and schools by state and
region:

http://www.csac.org/Education/Courses/

We list all schools and programs we know of, but nobody has volunteered
to keep the listing current so if any contact info changes we only know
if the program informs us. Courses are only listed for programs that
make a $35 donation to us so only a few are listed. (This doesn't seem
like a whole lot to ask of a business to give a nonprofit in return for
very targeted advertising, but only a few schools do.) For info on
courses we don't have listed you have to check with the providers
directly.

Also, make sure your course is based on the guidelines of the American
Avalanche Association, which assume 24 hours of instruction. The
complete guidelines are online:

http://www.americanavalancheassociat...idelines1.html

You can read them first and compare them with the programs claims and
materials, then review them afterward to see if they were mostly
covered or not. There are some very short programs out there that can't
possibly cover these topics but claim to be Level 1 classes.
--
CSAC Avalanche Center
http://www.csac.org/