Every January, the Hulbert Outdoor Center in Fairlee, Vermont hosts  “Winter Skills Day” which, exactly as it sounds, is a chance to learn outdoor skills that will help you enjoy winter comfortably and safely. They offer two sessions, morning and afternoon, so you can take two different classes in one day. Price for each seminar is $27 per person, except for the Family Snowshoeing/Exploration seminar which has a per-family price. The price of the seminars includes lunch.

All proceeds benefit the Aloha Foundation (which teaches outdoor skills at summer camps and the Hulbert Center), so you know that your money is going to a great cause!

Among the morning seminars offered will be:

• Building Snow Shelters (haven’t you always wanted to build a real igloo?!?)

• Axemanship and Firebuilding (essential skills for winter wilderness travel)

• Traditional Winter Camping (with toboggans, canvas tents, woodstoves and bough floors – very comfy!)

• Introduction to Backcountry Skiing (Explore beautiful places and save on lift tickets and trail passes)

• Icefishing 101 (Family-friendly fun on ice)

• Exploration: Fun & Winter Skills for the Whole Family. (Get the kids – and you! – out into the woods on snowshoes!)

The afternoon offerings include:

• Basics of Dogsledding (They provide the dogs ans sleds)

• Winter Photography (Capturing the beauty in the cold and often difficult light of winter)

• Skate Skiing (Fast, fun, and fabulous exercise)

• Emergency Survival and Self Sufficiency. (Remember the ice storm two years ago? It could happen again tomorrow!)

• Lightweight Winter Camping.  (Exploring the winter wilds with camp in a backpack)

This particular offering is to be to be taught by (TaDa!) David Shedd and Tim Jones of EasternSlopes.com. Yes, meet the crew up close and personal; other EasternSlopes.com correspondents and editors may be helping out, as well.

This is going to be an active, hands-on tutorial. As a group, we’ll be setting up both a “cold” (unheated) winter camp and two camps with wood-stove-heated tipis. We’ll also help participants assess the gear they already have for winter suitability, and show the gear and techniques we use all winter to stay warm and happy on winter expeditions traveling on snowshoes or skis with a backpack and/or small pulk.

You’ll walk away from this three-hour session with lots of hands-on knowledge, plus gear checklists and  a detailed handout describing how to prepare for your trip. This will be laid out as a timeline starting days before the trip, and ending when you’re out and bragging to your friends about how cold it got, how comfortable you were, and how much fun you had.  You’ll get to see and compare some of the best new gear for winter camping (our thanks to Arctic Shield,  Coleman, Columbia, Crazy Creek, EMS, Gabel, GoLite, GSI, Hot Chillys, Icebreaker, Kahtoola, Kamik, Kelty, Kifaru, Leki, Life-Link, Little Hotties, LL Bean, MSR, Nordic Cab, Osprey, Outdoor Research, Pacific Outdoor, Primus, REI, Sherpa, Therm-A-Rest, TiGoat, TSL, and Wenger for providing equipment!).

After this course, you should be able to approach your first backyard or roadside winter campout with confidence, knowing that you know how to keep yourself safe and comfortable.

All these Winter Skills Day seminars are by pre-registration only: visit their website, call 802-333-3405 or email deb_williams@alohafoundation.org. If you have any questions about the lightweight winter camping seminar, don’t hesitate to email  timjones@easternslopes.com or dshedd@easternslopes.com.

Hope to see you there!