Actually, NATO stands for North American Telemark Association. This is a group in Vermont run by Dickie Hall. He does educational events in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.
So I had this "NATO Telemark Adventure Tour" on my calendar for a little while. I had picked up a copy of their brochure and put some optimistic events on my calendar. Somehow last weekend showed up earlier than expected. I called Friday afternoon to reserve a space, waited for Katie to come home with the (more fuel efficient) Subaru, and headed up to Waitsfield, VT at around midnight. Yes, midnight. Got there at 4am then caught about three hours of sleep in the back of the Suby.
Met the other participants at Easy Street Cafe bright at early (OK 9:00 am) Saturday morning. After some intros and a quick stop for lunch food, we headed up a side road past a bunch of farms. We got our touring gear on and set out on a three-hour tour. Well more like four hours, but I always wanted to say "three-hour tour" in a sentence and have it mean something!
Backcountry skiing on the East Coast is significantly different than out West, where Katie and I both cut our touring teeth. Except for the couple times I've hiked Tuckerman's Ravine, that is, and that doesn't count 'cause I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Avalanche beacon? What's that, something that tells you when there's an avalanche going to happen?
I'll try and write more later, but here's some pictures of the tour up, or should I say "out?"
Some action shots of tour leader Dickie Hall and another participant.
And one of me even!
And some scenic ones from the way back.
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