Volunteer with us

For an assistant volunteer on an on-resort day: you have toured before, a handful of days is plenty, and you are comfortable on the terrain we use. That is it. You do not need to be a guide, an instructor, an expert skier or fast. Several of our best volunteers describe themselves as beginners.

Lead volunteers are different. A lead has volunteered on two IST tours first, at any location, so nobody is put in front of a group before they are ready. At a new location, where nobody has IST tours yet, we approve leads on experience.

You do not need to know every binding on the market. This is the thing volunteers most often ask for help with, so we cover setups in training and there is always somebody on the day who knows the awkward ones. If a binding needs adjusting rather than explaining, that is a job for the resort rental shop or ski patrol, not for you.

Welcome, and not required for on-resort days. Some of our volunteers are wilderness first responders and nurses. Plenty have nothing, or something that expired years ago. Tell us what you have and we will place you accordingly.

People ask us this a lot and worry about it more than they need to. Our affinity days are led and assisted by volunteers from that community wherever we can, and where we cannot, allies are welcome and useful. Say on your application which programs you are interested in and why, and we will place you somewhere it works for everybody. You are not taking a place from somebody by applying.

Yes. Volunteers bring their own touring setup. If gear is the only thing stopping you, tell us anyway.

Every volunteer is trained before the season, and in New England it is all online, so a long drive is never a reason to rule yourself out: a short orientation call, then the volunteer packet and a quiz on it. Lead volunteers also read the lead packet and join a call for their mountain with its coordinator, and new volunteers are paired with a volunteer mentor. In Colorado, training is in person in the Denver area.

We will teach you how we run a group, how no-drop works in practice, what to do if somebody needs to turn around, and enough about gear to be useful. If you cannot make any of the dates, email us rather than not applying, because we will usually find a way.

Reading the etiquette page beforehand is genuinely useful, and it is short.

Assistant volunteers help participants work out their layers, help with check-in, encourage people all the way up, and are the last person up and down the mountain so that nobody is behind you. You stay with the group on the descent as well as the climb.

Program days are claimed through an online scheduler and they go first come, first served. Backcountry days go fastest. We announce when the schedule opens by email, so watch for it.

No unsolicited technique advice, and ask before helping. Our participants are often people who have been talked over in outdoor spaces before, and the whole value of a no-drop day evaporates if somebody feels coached at. If that sounds like an odd rule, this may not be the right fit, and that is fine.