WARREN, Vt. —- Maybe your idea of adventure is going on a moonlit snowshoe hike in the Green Mountains. Or taking an overnight ski trip and sleeping in a snow cave. Or skiing across untracked powder in a steep, forested wilderness area.

This is all possible through Sugarbush’s new Adventure Learning Center, which opened this winter. John Egan, 46, an extreme skier who has led expeditions across the Arctic, made first descents on mountains in Siberia and Greenland, and starred at least a dozen Warren Miller adventure ski teams, is director of the Sugarbush Ski and Ride School. He and his brother Dan, 41, also an extreme skier and an accomplished filmmaker, are running the new center, offering programs that help people improve their skills and safely explore and learn about the mountain environment.

‘‘The ALC lets people define their own adventures,’’ says John Egan, who grew up in West Roxbury and Milton. ‘‘It’s about exploring and pushing your limits, whatever those limits may be, and learning to do it safely.’’

‘‘We’re not defining adventure as extreme or dangerous,’’ says Win Smith, president of Sugarbush. ‘‘For you it may be one thing, and for John and Dan Egan it might be another. The Egan brothers are role models for the high end of adventure, but they also have fun teaching beginners, and they bring an energy and sense of excitement to all of the programs.’’

The ALC has 10 full-and part-time guides and naturalists, including Bridget Butler of Moretown, Vt., only the second Audubon-certified teacher-naturalist in the country. Programs include snowshoe tours, tree-skiing lessons, overnight ski trips with instruction on backcountry survival, and out-of-bounds ski and snowboard adventures.

‘‘In all of my clinics, I do a ‘detestosteroning’ session first, because there’s often an ‘I’m better than I think I am and I’m going to prove it’ mentality,’’ says Egan. ‘‘We always check out people’s abilities at the start of a program, and at every level there’s a fail-safe exit.’’

Guides are trained in wilderness first aid and carry a backcountry first aid kit and radio, so they’re in contact with the resort at all times. A rescue sled is also available in case of an emergency.

On the popular ‘‘Outback Tour,’’ skiers, riders, and snowshoers explore Slide Brook Basin, a 2,000- acre wilderness area — accessible only with a guide — between the mountains of Sugarbush, Lincoln Peak, and Mount Ellen.

The basin, home to bears, deer, moose, coyotes, and other critters of the wild, is shaped like a bowl.

Skiers and riders traverse along he top of a ridge, then drop into the bowl at various spots, depending on their skill and interest. Snowshoers stick to lower elevations, cutting through the basin on moderately sloped terrain.

Regardless of what’s strapped to your feet, you’ ll spend 2½ hours swooshing or stomping through a pristine wilderness of maple, beech, and pine trees, small meandering brooks, and granite and quartz boulders.

‘‘We talk to people about the local landscape — what type of forest we’re in, what type of animals live there, how and why glades are cut — and we’ll stop to see bear markings and other interesting things on the way down,’’ says John Atkinson, a guide and coach for Egan’s Adventure Blazers, a weekend program for children.

Here, in this sprawling wilderness, it’s common to see on beech trees claw marks made by bears as they scaled the trees in search of beech nuts, a big part of a bear’s diet. You may also see pine trees with bare patches near their bases, where porcupines have gnawed off all the bark, and trees with fist-sized holes made by pileated woodpeckers. Moose also leave their marks, scraping bark off trees with their lower teeth and rubbing their antlers against trees to remove the antler velvet. ‘‘The neat thing is that when people get out into the woods, they realize it’s not all about buzzing down the mountain at top speed,’’ Egan says. ‘‘They generally slow down and enjoy it.’’

Adventurers who want an overnight experience or to learn about backcountry survival can sign up for ‘‘Explore Sugarbush at Night,’’ a full-moon snowshoe/ski trip to Allyn’s Lodge on Lincoln Peak. Egan and his guides offer information and instruction on avalanche awareness, celestial navigation, backcountry rescues, and wilderness route-finding, plus building a snow shelter and operating an avalanche beacon. Participants can sleep in their snow shelters or in the lodge, where there’s a fireplace, electricity, and good food.

Each morning, the ALC also runs the ‘‘Secrets of Sugarbush,’’ a three-hour guided tour of the day’s best skiing, on off-trail glades and in-bound trails. <

The ALC also holds special programs for expert skiers and snowboarders, including a three-day ‘‘Ski to Live’’ clinic led by world-renowned adventure skier Kristin Ulmer, and the Xteam Advanced Ski Clinic (for expert-level alpine, freestyle, and telemark skiers and snowboarders) run by Xteam coaches the Egans, Eric Deslaurier, and Dean Decas.

‘‘I’ve done a lot of things on skis I didn’t think I could do,’’ says Mike Whinston, 46, of Warren, Vt., and Evanston, Ill., who’s done the Outback Tour, Xteam clinic, and the Explore Sugarbush at Night adventure. ‘‘One of the things that keeps me coming back is that I’ve been able to raise my skiing to a higher and more dynamic level.’’

Sugarbush plans to run the ALC year-round, eventually offering mountain biking, hiking, fishing, and other seasonal programs.

‘‘We want to take advantage of the wilderness we have here,’’ says Smith. ‘‘There’s a lot here for everybody, and you can find things for all levels of ability. Like all adventure, you have to begin.’’

Kari J. Bodnarchuk is a freelance writer in Somerville.

If you go: Sugarbush

By Kari J. Bodnarchuk, Globe Correspondent  |  March 6, 2005

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