2D Backcountry Patroller School Held At Pike Glades
The training began on Friday evening, at the Stewardship Center staff meeting, followed by being ferried up in the mid-mountain cabin to set up base camp. With all the tents set up outside in the 20-degree weather, the staff held another meeting at dinnertime, and it was off to the sack for a busy Saturday and Sunday.
By Bernie Marvin
At the top of Iron Mountain, the class reviews the two types of rescue toboggans the class practiced with that weekend. The top toboggan is a Fiberglass split litter with conventional sled handles attached for control. The tub-like sled is also a split-in-half toboggan known as a “four-handle sled.” These are popular in Europe and in western Unites States. Seen left to right are Sherry Chang, Chuck Boyd, James Achard, Brandon Csongradi, Martin Csongradi, Orest Ohar and Laura Styer. Photo by Cathe Neuberger.
Pike, NH – Members of the National Ski Patrol assembled the first weekend of March 2026 at the Upper Valley Stewardship Center in Pike/East Haverhill, NH, for another weekend of rescue training at this popular Northcountry mountainscape and ski area.
The training course began at 8 AM on Saturday, where the dozen patrollers skied up Iron Mountain, a prominent peak on the backside of about 1800 acres located within the boundaries of the Stewardship Center.
They based their operations on the Warrior's Cabin, a former warming hut about halfway up the mountain, at an elevation of 2200 feet. Tentage for all participants was located there.
The theme this year was "out-of-bounds, lost skier." It was a search-and-rescue-based course. Heading up the training program was Orest Ohar of the New Hampshire Backcountry Ski Patrol, affiliated with the Granite State Backcountry Alliance.
He is one of five founders of the "New Hampshire Backcountry Ski Patrol which operates exclusively for the Granite Backcountry Alliance.
The training began on Friday evening, at the Stewardship Center staff meeting, followed by being ferried up in the mid-mountain cabin to set up base camp. With all the tents set up outside in the 20-degree weather, the staff held another meeting at dinnertime, and it was off to the sack for a busy Saturday and Sunday.
He said the classes still stress patient extraction by carry-in slit toboggans, but the surrounding theme will be preparing for lost skier searches. Saturday, the attendees met for a gear review and safety briefing.
Orest Ohar is one of five founders of the "New Hampshire Backcountry Ski Patrol" (NHBSP), which operates exclusively for the Granite Backcountry Alliance (GBA).
"We are two separate organizations. GBA's mission is to develop and maintain human-powered winter recreation ski glades, ensuring they remain accessible to the public. NHBSP is a "medical backcountry rescue unit" managed by GBA, set up to improve the safety of its members and the public attending GBA events. We serve year-round, including during community glade cut events during autumn months, as well as in the winter when GBA takes to the slopes on skis and snowboards during fundraisers, races, and ski festivals," ski patroller Ohar said.
GBA has an ethics education program known as Ski Kind, which is augmented by safety education programs that promote safety, self-reliance, and wilderness rescue. Both organizations serve GBA members and the public backcountry skiing community.
He explained the situation: "The difference between ski resort Patrollers and Backcountry Patrollers is that our rescues are often far from roads and access to the EMS system. The Backcountry Patroller's job is to locate, extricate, and evacuate patients injured deep in the wilderness and bring them out to local EMS waiting at the roadside. At a ski area, a rescue takes approximately 20 minutes. In the backcountry, rescuers must be prepared to work overnight to rescue their patients," Mr. Ohar said.
They then skinned up to the summit of Iron Mountain, with educational interludes along the way. There was the first Glade ski for area recon, with students setting up their camp. At 11:30 AM, toboggan laps began with skinning back to the summit.
Dinner was held at 6 PM at the Warrior Cabin. There was an SAR presentation, an SAR night Evolution and Navigation, and a 9 PM campfire and R&R. Sunday broke cold and clear; breakfast was held at the base camp, with a discussion with New Hampshire Fish and Game Officer Christopher McKee on an informant SAR discussion.
Another SAR session was held, then the team broke camp. Loaded their gear to be ferried down the mountain and prepared to ski the return leg to the base. On Sunday at 1 PM sharp, the event concluded at the Stewardship Center, and everyone headed home.
The group is about to strap on an “EMT Rescue Mannequin” onto a SKED SLED. The mannequin is used in place of a live human during technical rope rescue practice. Seen in the photo is Backcountry Instructor Linda Helms. Photo by Cathe Neuberger.
NH Backcountry Ski Patroller Orest Ohar, at left, also affiliated with the Granite Backcountry Alliance, briefs staff and students at a recent Backcountry Patroller School at the Pike Glades in Pike, NH recently. Their course began at the Upper Valley Stewardship Center and included training with the Search and Rescue-based theme of “out-of-bounds, lost skier.” Seen left to right are Orest Ohar, Laura Styer, Rachel Tobler, Sherry Chang, Brandon Csongradi, Linda Biyd, Michael Adamskowski and Martin Csongradi. The Bridge Weekly/Bernie Marvin
Coveted Listen Center Knick Knack Award given to Mt. Prospect students
For Mt. Prospect Academy students who have been traveling to Lebanon, NH to perform several important volunteer work assignments at the Listen Center, an award presentation ceremony was held in their honor during the final week of February, 2026.
By Bernie Marvin
The Knick Knack Award
Pike, NH – For Mt. Prospect Academy students who have been traveling to Lebanon, NH to perform several important volunteer work assignments at the Listen Center, an award presentation ceremony was held in their honor during the final week of February, 2026.
It was a special ceremony at the school campus, where the students were recognized for their excellent work. Presenting the awards were Academic Career Coach Guy Mitchell assisted by The Listen Center’s Marcy Innes, a Retail Volunteer Coordinator.
The students each received a Certificate of Appreciation and a chance to view the impressive gold-colored Knick Knack Award. This special statue was awarded to Life Coach Mitchell “and the students of Mount Prospect Academy for their dedicated service to our Lebanon store. With much gratitude from the entire LISTEN staff,” according to the inscription on the trophy.
Students who were honored included Grant A., Brian L., Logan P., Shane C., Kyle C., Grant A. and Lucian EG. Also participating in the awards ceremony was Kelley MacLean, a Student Transitions Specialist from New Hampshire Vocational Rehabilitation.
Life Coach Mitchell told The Bridge Weekly that Ms. Innes wanted to recognize the students for volunteering weekly at the Listen Store in Lebanon.
He said the students have several responsibilities while they are at the store, including work outside with employees while donations are being accepted. Once a cart is full, they transport the cart with all the items, that include either hard goods or soft goods(clothes).
The students also transported racks of inventory from the pricing department to the sales floor and put items on the display shelves for resale on the sales floor. They also hung clothing on the racks for sales, based on the clothing gender and size.
Some of the students have also sorted donated music Compact Discs and videos to be sold on the sales floor and some of the same students are helping with Meals on Wheels at Horse Meadow Senior Center in North Haverhill.
Every Wednesday a Mt. Prospect Academy a faculty member transported at least two students to pick up meals and deliver them along one of the routes. During all this activity at the school, Life Coach Mitchell noted that it was also Spirit Week and the students and faculty were showing off team sports all day at the school.
Ms. Marcy Innes told The Bridge Weekly “that every week, Academic Career Life Coach Guy Mitchell brings students from Mount Prospect Academy to our large thrift store and donation center in Lebanon to help with a variety of tasks.”
She said the boys help move filled donation carts from outdoors into the donation center to be sorted. “This is a tremendous help to us as we have a very busy, fast-moving donation stream that requires many hands and strong back,” she said.
She noted that the boys also put hardgoods (puzzles, lamps, dishes, etc.) away on the sales floor, as well as help put clothing out on the racks and keep the store organized. She added that “We love having the Mount Prospect Academy students at the store and always look forward to seeing them.”
Pike Glades hosts rope rescue, beacon search, and GPS navigation instructor courses
GBA has an ethics education program known as Ski Kind, which is augmented by safety education programs that promote safety, self-reliance, and wilderness rescue. Both organizations serve GBA members and the public backcountry skiing community.
By Bernie Marvin
An early morning briefing greeted National Ski Patrol Eastern Division instructors at the recent conference at the Pike Glades ski area at their base camp on Route 25 in East Haverhill. Speaking left to right at the front are Instructors and National Ski Patrol members Rick Shandler and Orest Ohar. The Bridge Weekly/Bernie Marvin
Pike, NH – The rugged terrain of Pike Glades, situated in the vast wilderness of Pike and East Haverhill, hosted an intense weekend of mountain rescue technique with continuing education classes led by instructors from the National Ski Patrol Eastern Division, featuring their backcountry rescue programs.
Their “Rescue-Ready, Resource Smart” program of backcountry rescue included Avalanche, Mountain Travel and Rescue, and Nordic Backcountry (AMN). It was an instructor refresher course conducted in the Pike Glades, a collection of northeast-facing glades accessible by ski touring, split-boarding, or snowshoeing in the Pike and East Haverhill areas.
The peak summits here are located above tree line at 2,200 feet, and the base area is situated at 700 feet. The Pike Glades is a proud partner of the Granite Backcountry Alliance and is thankful for their support and facilitation of the glade-building process. Warren Bunnel is the Glade Chief.
The AMN initials stand for “Avalanche, Mountaineering, and Nordic Back Country. These are three specialized educational disciplines that the 87-year-old National Ski Patrol organization has always taught. However, each of these educational curricula is a fraction of the size of the nationwide emergency medical technicians training and the on-snow rescue toboggan handling education.
Every member of the National Ski Patrol undergoes training in those two central educational departments, but AMN has always been optional. It is the education ski patrollers seek that allows them to be qualified to exit the boundary of a ski resort and conduct rescues deeper into the wilderness.
Saturday’s schedule began with a continental breakfast at 7:00 AM followed by the conference's official start at 8:00 AM. It was an all-outdoor education, and the groups broke into three sections. And by 9 AM, they were walking up into old cattle pastures at the bottom of the Glades to practice skills in the three educational disciplines that they were practicing—those included (1) technical rope rescue for search and rescue personnel and mountaineers. (2) avalanche beacon search and extreme hypothermia medical rescue, and (3) smartphone GPS navigation augmented by a paper map and compass.
Sunday included more training as the instructors developed coaching skills to teach students these essential survival techniques effectively. It was also a time to hike to the top of Iron Mountain to enjoy the views and the extensive glades work done over the past two years.
Orest Ohar of the New Hampshire Backcountry Ski Patrol, which is affiliated with the Granite Backcountry Alliance, told The Bridge Weekly at the conclusion of the weekend’s activities at The Pike Glades that “the program went extremely well.” He said that a total of 76 people, of which 62 were students, broke up into three different stations and rotated through three evolutions for the subjects of Avalanche, Mountaineering, and Nordic Backcountry drill clinics.
He said the avalanche team conducted a beacon search and an extreme hypothermia first aid course, the mountaineering team performed a technical low-angle rope rescue, and the Nordic Backcountry group practiced compass and map navigation using a new electronic navigation system. There was a larger turnout than usual for classes.
Ohar said that “We are teaching our instructors to be less PowerPoint-oriented and more coaching-oriented in the field.” He said it was their first training session, where instructors walked away from the ski lodge or classroom with PowerPoint presentations and sent the students directly into the mountains to do all the fieldwork.
Mr. Ohar is one of five founders of the "New Hampshire Backcountry Ski Patrol" (NHBSP), which operates exclusively for the Granite Backcountry Alliance (GBA).
“We are two separate organizations. GBA's mission is to develop and maintain human-powered winter recreation ski glades, ensuring they remain accessible to the public. NHBSP is a "medical backcountry rescue unit" managed by GBA, set up to improve the safety of its members and the public attending GBA events. We serve year-round, including during community glade cut events during autumn months, as well as in the winter when GBA takes to the slopes on skis and snowboards during fundraisers, races, and ski festivals,” ski patroller Ohar said.
GBA has an ethics education program known as Ski Kind, which is augmented by safety education programs that promote safety, self-reliance, and wilderness rescue. Both organizations serve GBA members and the public backcountry skiing community.
He explained the situation: “The difference between ski resort Patrollers and Backcountry Patrollers is that our rescues are often far from roads and access to the EMS system. The Backcountry Patroller's job is to locate, extricate, and evacuate patients injured deep in the wilderness and bring them out to local EMS waiting at the roadside. At a ski area, a rescue takes approximately 20 minutes. In the backcountry, rescuers must be prepared to work overnight to rescue their patients,” Mr. Ohar said.
Orest Ohar is a 37-year veteran of the National Ski Patrol. He has worked most of those years at Ski Resorts and as a leader at the Eastern Division of the National Ski Patrol. He has pioneered online education technology and educational courses, with a specialization in professional instructor development. Mr. Ohar sits on three committees for the Eastern Division NSP:
1. Eastern Division NSP's "Computer Technology Support Group" directs the online learning management system.
2. Eastern Division NSP's "Outdoor Emergency Transportation Steering Committee", where he oversees Instructor Professional Development
3. Eastern Division's AMN Curriculum Committee, where he oversees Instructor Professional Development
Most of his work for Ski Patrol revolves around training instructors, managing certification examinations, and organizing professional development conferences.
For New Hampshire Backcountry Ski Patrol, as one of two currently active founders, Mr. Ohar guides the patrollers and their leadership in maintaining the high standards required for wilderness backcountry "readiness."
Two years ago, Pike Glades Chief Warren Bunnell introduced Ohar to this area because he thought it would be good for the patrol to do training events there at the glades. It has proven to be very attractive to the training program.
The weekend session drew attendees from Rochester and central New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Eastern New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and several from New Hampshire.
The National Ski Patrol has 32,000 members nationwide and also maintains an international division that is affiliated with military bases and ski resorts owned by the military in Europe. Almost all of the 32,000 members are assigned to the large and small ski resorts throughout the nation.
Another outstanding participant in this group operating at Pike Glades is Rick Shandler. He is the chairperson of the AMN Curriculum Committee. The committee manages professional development curricula for the AMN Instructor Corps, which are distributed throughout the Eastern Division of the National Ski Patrol. This committee designed the Instructor's Conference that was recently held. The instructors teach at their local patrols, resorts, and often at their local regional level.
Rick is a member of the Valley Forge Nordic Ski Patrol, which works for the National Park Service on the winter grounds of Valley Forge. He lives in Havertown, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia. He is also the Safety Officer for most Division Nordic Courses, such as the one run by Orest Ohar at Pike Glades every February.
Rick said, “The Pike Glades just might be my favorite location ever during the 20-plus years I have been running this program,” he said at the end of Saturday’s intense schedule. “The staff and owners here have been more friendly, more accommodating, and more willing to work with us than anywhere I have ever run this program,” Rick said about his experiences in Pike.
He reported that his organization is very aligned with the mission they run at Pike Glades. “We all do the same kind of good work, and they recognize this.”
A group shot of all the instructors and students from the recent National Ski Patrol and Avalanche, Mountaineering and Nordic Backcountry groups that gathered for a two-day session at the Pike Glades area on Route 25 in East Haverhill. The Bridge Weekly/Bernie Marvin
National Ski Patrol instructors and students were busy with their avalanche beacon search training classes held recently at the Pike Glades. The Bridge Weekly/Bernie Marvin
A class gathers at The Pike Glades training area on Iron Mountain in East Haverhill to learn more about the dangers of extreme hypothermia medical rescues both on the slopes and in backcountry skiing. The Bridge Weekly/Bernie Marvin
Mount Prospect Academy Student Project Results In A Little Free Library in Pike
According to the program’s website, part of Mount Prospect’s mission is to provide a caring and safe therapeutic environment where students have the opportunity to grow and acquire the skills necessary to reach their full educational and social potential.
By Bernie Marvin
Pike, NH – Three students at the Mount Prospect Academy (MPA) in Pike have constructed and installed a small three-shelf library for the public to take out or add books. Included in the library is an assortment of books, a box of crayons, and a coloring book available for anyone’s reading or coloring enjoyment.
This interesting project, which makes books available to passersby at any time of day or night, was created, constructed, and installed by students Colton P, Greyson S, and Brian L. Mount Prospect Academic Career Life Coach Guy Mitchell told The Bridge Weekly recently that the project is part of a series of community improvement projects being completed by MPA Student Council members. Mitchell said it was a favorite way for the students to give back to a community that has been so supportive of them.
According to the program’s website, part of Mount Prospect’s mission is to provide a caring and safe therapeutic environment where students have the opportunity to grow and acquire the skills necessary to reach their full educational and social potential.
With the school’s mission always in mind, Mitchell works to help Mt. Prospect Academy students succeed in everyday life. He and other staff members work hard to provide the kids with the coping skills and tools necessary for successful future careers through technical training.
Mitchell said the program includes a monthly program of shared values. For instance, for the month the students installed their Little Free Library, the shared value was “Legacy,” represented by the original Pike School founder, John Wolter. The students learned that the definition of that month’s shared value meant “A gift handed down that supports growth in others,” which embodied the true meaning that their Little Free Library program strives to accomplish.
The Little Free Library is a national program whose individual identity at Mount Prospect Academy in Pike is included in a registry of 200,000 other Little Free Libraries around the United States and the world. Their library project helps build library communities, inspires readers, and expands book
access for everyone who has access to one of the available Little Free Libraries. Mitchell said the project was a good one for the students to
be involved with for many reasons. They had the opportunity to plan the event, take trips to the academy’s woodshop in Rumney, and, with various equipment professionals on hand, they got to manufacture the library that was cut from local wood sources.
The Little Free Library was then painted and installed at the site of the former Pike Library on Route 25 in Pike. The activities associated with building
and installing the Little Free Library are a perfect project for the Student Council.
The Student Council undertakes many other activities, Mitchell said, including many projects that involve the school and the community. He noted that recently, the students washed windows at several buildings on the school
campus, worked to improve their paintball course, and promoted a kayaking safety program, all activities in which they are involved to engage in positive projects that benefit the school or community. Mitchell said that all the projects show the kids how to connect the parts of any project they do, which will aid others and assist them.
“There is always something happening here, always something good that provides the students with opportunities to be successful,” he said.