What makes backcountry touring different from resort skiing? Come find out on this trip why backcountry skiing is the best winter sport ;)

We’ll start with a morning briefing in the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center gear room. Once we’ve discussed our route and organized our gear, we’ll ascend via the Tuckerman Ravine Trail. At ~2.5 miles, the Tuckerman Ravine Trail comes to the Hermit Lake hut, where we will transition our equipment to downhill mode and ski down the ~2 mile John Sherburne Ski Trail -- a wide backcountry trail with an average slope of 15°, similar to a resort blue run.

MITOC has a great rental fleet of AT (alpine touring) boots and skis. We’ll use skis with pin bindings and frame bindings and teach you how to adjust them to your boot size. We’ll also teach best practices for applying, removing, and storing skins.

For those that are new to backcountry skiing you may not realize the following: - You will not get a chance to warm up on an easy slope and may have to start off on challenging terrain.

• Conditions are unknown and objective hazards (exposed rocks, bushes, etc.) may make runs narrower or more difficult than slope indicates. For instance, you may have to navigate a slope that has exposed rocks because of low snow coverage.
• Snow conditions will be highly variable, and different from what can be found in a resort (breakable crust, water ice, etc)
• Skinning up is equal in difficulty to a strenuous hike (i.e. a continuously steep uphill climb) with the extra weight of skis on your feet, so good fitness is important.

To participate in this trip, you should be a good resort skier (comfortable on all blue runs, able to get down black runs, no matter whether they're groomed or not).

The fee for this trip is $25 including backcountry ski/snowboard rental or $5 if no rentals are needed.

There will be a mandatory pre-trip meeting on Thursday, Jan 9th at 6 p.m. in the MITOC office to get everyone fitted with equipment.