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Outside’s Guide to Getting Schooled The Thrill of the Skill Snow Sports
Mount Hood Summer Ski Camps Government Camp, Oregon Twenty-year-old Mount Hood Summer Ski Camps draws the best coaches in the business to the only year-round ski hill (elevation 11,235 feet) in the country. In the mornings at the Six-Day Snowboard Camp, when the snow's still firm, you'll practice drills at 8,500 feet on the Palmer and Zig Zag glaciers and rail slides in the terrain park; later, when it warms up to 65 degrees, burn turns in Lower Cuervo Canyon. Back at the chalet-style Lodges at Salmon River Meadows, nurse your glacial sunburn—and a cold one. End Game: Wowing your friends with a backside 540. Info: $725–$925 (all-inclusive), May to September; 503-337-2230, www.mthood.com Or Try: Southshore Soldiers Ski and Snowboard Camp, in Heavenly, California, where coaches include X Games gold medalists Jimmy Halopoff and Shaun Palmer; six-day sessions, $599; 888-712-7772, www.southshoresoldiers.com  AVALANCHE SKILLS/BACKCOUNTRY SKIING American Avalanche Institute Wilson, Wyoming The venerable Avalanche institute runs avalanche and backcountry ski seminars in five locations across Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado—including a three-day level 1 Course at Red Mountain Pass, in Colorado’s slide-prone San Juan Mountains. From the warm bunks inside the St. Paul Lodge, at 11,500 feet, you can talk surface hoar and slab avalanches with AAI’s wilderness pros. Then snowshoe or skin up to 12,500 feet on telemark or randonnée skis to assess real-time avalanche conditions and practice beacon-assisted rescues. End Game: Developing a healthy respect for volatile winter terrain—and the smarts to travel safely. Info: $470 (all-inclusive), December to April; 307-733-3315, www.avalanchecourse.com Or Try: Pro Guiding Service, in North Bend, Washington, for novice to expert snow-safety workshops in the Cascades; two- to four-day trips, $180–$340; 425-888-6397, www.proguiding.com
North American Ski Training Center Truckee, California Every year, NASTC snaps up the country’s top alpine instructors to teach its total-immersion ski camps, held in Tahoe and La Grave, France, and 15 powder points in between. Its weeklong alaska heli-skiing and powder technique course addresses the irony of skiing off-piste steeps: You’re ready for another thousand feet, but your legs and form aren’t. Stay at the posh Alyeska Prince Hotel, 45 minutes south of Anchorage, and spend four days finessing your edging and pole plants in Alyeska Ski Resort’s steep chutes and powdery terrain. On day five, fly deep into the Chugach Mountains’ 750 square miles of heli-accessible backcountry, where your skills—and your strength—will surprise you. End Game: Learning to carve thigh-deep powder. Info: $4,450 (all-inclusive), April 2005; 530-582-4772, www.skinastc.com Or Try: All Mountain Ski Pros, in Lake Tahoe, California, and ski with extreme-skiing film star Eric Deslauriers; three days, $495; 888-754-2201, www.allmountainskipros.com DOGSLEDDING Yogageur Outward Bound Ely, Minnesota Realize your Call of the Wild fantasies while mushing through the maze of frozen lakes and boreal forests of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Voyageur Outward Bound’s 22-day Northwoods Dogsledding Course trains neophyte mushers in the care and feeding of their four- to six-dog teams, basic winter-camping and survival techniques, and winter navigation. At the end of the program, students are encouraged to try a night or two of solo camping with the hounds. But it’s not that brutal—the canvas expedition tents are warmed by wood-burning stoves. End Game: Competently managing a dog team—and winter’s chill—in the backcountry. Info: $2,795 (all-inclusive), January to March; 866-467-7640, www.vobs.org Or Try: Paws for Adventure, in Fairbanks, Alaska, and embark on an instructional expedition in the wilds of the true north; three- to seven-day courses, $550–$3,300; 907-378-3630, www.pawsforadventure.com CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING Methow Valley Nordic Winthrop, Washington With its near-perfect conditions—dry snow and 124 miles of groomed trails through the ponderosa forests of the eastern Cascades—Methow Valley draws former Olympians and pro racers from the U.S. and Canada to teach its Three-Day Cross-Country Ski Camp. From your base at the swanky Sun Mountain Lodge, you’ll start with morning yoga, then hit the snow for instruction in classic and skate skiing. Evenings are filled with equipment demos and one-on-one video analysis. End Game: No more flailing when you point those skinny sticks downhill. Info: $300 (instruction and lunches only), December to February; 509-996-3152, www.mvnordic.com Or Try: Lone Mountain Ranch’s three-day Spring Ski Clinic in Big Sky, Montana, which ends with a nine-mile nordic tour in Yellowstone; $940; 800-514-4644, www.lmranch.com
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