Alpine Skills Weekend (ASW) is PATC-MS’s flagship winter mountaineering clinic — four days of hands-on instruction, team-building, and Type II fun in one of the most rugged and legendary mountain environments on the East Coast: Mt. Washington, home of “the world’s worst weather.”

Led by experienced PATC-MS trip leaders, you’ll cover foundational and intermediate alpine skills, including:

• Winter layering, cold-weather systems, and gear use
• Ice axe self arrest
• Crampon techniques
• Team movement
• Snow camping basics
• Summit attempt (weather and team dependent)

Due to the overwhelming demand for this event, an application process is used to select participants.

Why should you do ASW?

• You’ll push your limits in a challenging but supportive environment
• Learn real alpine skills that translate to bigger objectives
• Bond with a team of equally stoked and slightly unhinged mountain people
• You’ll have bragging rights forever (“Remember that ASW whiteout?”)
• You might even summit Mt. Washington in the winter (if the mountain allows it)