The Eastern Division held its annual meeting of Avalanche, Mountain Travel & Rescue, and Nordic (AMN) instructors at Northfield Mountain in Northfield, Massachusetts, over the weekend of September 7 – 9. Thirty-eight instructors and trainees registered, most camping out for two nights on the banks of the Connecticut River.

The indoor program included items of business and presentations on mountain bike patrols, instructional techniques, and the new Nordic Master designation.

Outdoor stations for the three AMN disciplines gave participants the opportunity to demonstrate skills in avalanche beacon use, snow density measurement, map and compass, and improvising nordic rescue toboggans.

Rick Toman, Civilian Search and Rescue Administrator for the Massachusetts State Police, discussed the Incident Command Structure, preservation of evidence, and transition from patrol to public safety.

Two dozen major manufacturers and retailers of outdoors equipment contributed catalogs, demo items, and giveaways to the event, making possible a large display of avalanche safety gear, a generous “schwag bag” for each attendee, and a raffle drawing with door prizes for all.

Bruce Sysyn, rep for several companies, demonstrated the NTN boot and binding system.

The Northfield Mountain Nordic Ski Patrol was presented a Certificate of Appreciation for organizing logistics support.

For further details, visit the event web site, http://amn07.nmnsp.org.
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Bill Schweikert
KB1NNZ
http://www.nmnsp.org
http://nordicpatrolling.blogspot.com