Snow basics course

[10-K]

Mountain Education has a "Snow Basics" course and I'm wondering if it'd be worth my time to travel out there and attend? In my mind, 3 days of instruction might be the difference between finishing and having to quit. I'm also keen on safety since I hike solo 95% of the time and am interested in anything that could save my butt.

What do you think? It's in the same realm as the WFA and wilderness navigations courses I've taken - I've never needed it but it's nice to have the info.

Free ($300 donation requested). Here's a description:

The SBC is a 3-day, short-distance, basecamp-styled, snow-skills training trip that will empower you with new abilities, teach you how to identify avoidable hazards, eliminate fears of the “cold and the wet,” and build your confidence backpacking year ‘round!

This course started in 1982 as a way to help hikers of the Pacific Crest and Continental Divide Trails learn how to safely travel over snow. It has grown to include skills instruction for all aspiring snow-hikers in:

Navigation Avalanche Awareness Creek Crossing
Getting Water Emergency Shelters Cooking Inside
Balance Traction & Edge Control Self-Arrest
Hypothermia Snow Pit Analysis Emergency Communications
Risk Assessment Hydration & Exposure Search & Rescue Basics

[Coffee]

I'm planning on taking the Mountain Education basic course prior to my 2015 PCT thru hike. I actually would really like to take both the basics and the advanced course in which the group hikes from Kennedy Meadows over Forrester Pass in early May ... but I would have to do that in 2014 obviously and the cost of travel would be too high. So I'm planning on just taking the basic course sometime in early April 2015 immediately before heading down to Campo.

[Malto]

Highly unlikely that the course would be the difference between finishing and quitting. Most of the folks that I saw that went to course had more confidence entering the Sierra. But I'm not sure that it statistically gave them a better chance if finishing. I never saw much need but I also had many snowshoe trips into the Sierra prior to my hike.

[10-K]

Living my entire life in the south I have almost no "real" snow experience and I wouldn't mind some extra confidence.

It's a long way and would require considerate expense though.

[Another Kevin]

East coast hikers might be able to get the training a little bit closer to home. The two courses that I know about - and both are sound - are the ADK Winter Mountaineering School, and the AMC Winter Hiking Training. (I haven't done either, but I know instructors in both. I did my winter mountaineering training with Dartmouth Outing Club, and it was enough years ago that I'm badly in need of a refresher. I'll sign up for one of these courses one of these years.) The AMC course is very thorough - there are also shorter workshops that are more focused on single trips. They have an activity list posted.

My personal belief is that you need one of these courses if you're going above treeline in winter. I'm not a Western hiker, so I can't speak to Western snowfield travel in spring and summer. I guess the summary is that there's no substitute for experience, and these courses are a way to get the basics while an instructor is looking out for you. Malto obviously had the experience with multiple snowshoe trips.

If you're going to be on crampons in steep terrain, then you need an ice axe and self-arrest training. Self-arrest is one of those things that has to be drilled, and drilled, and drilled until it's second nature. You don't have time to think when you're falling. You have to be able to get your feet downslope and your weight on your pick before you are even conscious that you're in trouble. I suspect that the PCT isn't that arduous, but I don't know.

[Mags]

Ned's course is good (from what I hear), but as Kevin suggested, something closer to home is probably just as good.

Obviously the Daks and the Whites are not spring in the Sierra. But if the idea is to get comfortable on snow, then they will do the trick quite nicely.

If anything, they are more advanced mountaineering courses and you will have a larger knowledge base than what is needed for the PCT in June. (Crampons and arguably an ice axe in certain snow years aren't needed on the PCT for example)

I am more familiar with the Appalachian Mtn Club, and I know they often did snow awareness courses up near Pinkham Notch (at least when I was living in New England )
Looks like they still do:
http://activities.outdoors.org/searc...tails/id/70814

[Coffee]

Seems to me that the cheapest way to get some confidence on the snow is to fly to Reno in April and take one of the basics courses that meets near Tahoe, then go down to Campo to start the hike. I've read that many PCT thru hikers take that course so carpooling could be an option but if not there are flights from Reno to San Diego on Southwest. By combining the flight west with the PCT thru hike the cost should be reduced vs flying out west just for the course.

After going over Forrester and all the other high passes in the summer this year without any snow I really can't imagine going in early season without at least some training in self arrest. I guess if 2015 looks like a really low snow year that might not be a problem but I'd rather be prepared and the donation for the Mountain Education course is pretty reasonable, travel costs not that bad when combined with the flight west to do the PCT.

[10-K]

Rambling Hiker, I should have scanned the threads before posting and continued the one you had already started about snow skills. Didn't see it, sorry.