training

S.T.O.P. With over 25 years of technical snowmobile riding and mountain travel experience, industry training advisor Doug Washer created S.T.O.P. to help sledders improve on their situational awareness skills and to make safety conscious decisions while traveling in the backcountry. This simple, effective, habit forming tool encourages sledders to make observations about critical safety factors throughout the day.

Sledders travel great distances through ever changing, unique terrain features, inconsistent snowpack and micro climates, often without stopping to observe the changes that have taken place.  Read more »

The following hand signals were developed by Doug Washer to address safety and communication challenges in the professional mountain snowmobile guiding and mountain film production industries.

Snowmobiling in mountainous terrain presents a series of challenges to communication that are well addressed by understanding and incorporating these simple, yet effective measures into your every day professional and recreational snowmobiling environment.  They help to address basic issues from talking over the engine to advising others of preferred routes or warnings of avalanche activity that a sledder Read more »