Snow Sports Merit Badge

Requirement 7 has to be answered fourth

Two requirements name it outright:

4. "Discuss the importance of strength, endurance, and flexibility in snow sports. Demonstrate exercises and activities you can do to get fit for the option you choose in requirement 7."

5. "Present yourself properly clothed and equipped for the option you choose in requirement 7. Discuss how the clothing you have chosen will help keep you warm and protected."

Neither is answerable until the option is picked. Getting fit for a 4-mile cross-country tour is not getting fit for a snowboard, and the clothing you turn up in for snowshoeing is not what you would wear on a lift all day.

This plan therefore draws requirement 7 ahead of requirements 4 and 5, with a requires edge into each, because that is what the requirements themselves say. The numbering on the page is unchanged; only the order of work moves.

The four options, compared by what they need

Option D is the only one that needs no ski area at all. No ticket, no lift, no wax, no release bindings: snow, snowshoes, and a map and compass. Seven of its ten parts are explanation or discussion. That makes it the cheapest and most reachable route to this badge by a wide margin, and nothing at the heading level hints at it.

Options A and C both put you on a lift and send you down a gentle slope, then slightly steeper terrain, then a moderate slope, then an intermediate run, then varied conditions. They are the two that need a resort day.

Options B and D are the navigation options. Both ask for the proper use of a topographic map and compass, which neither A nor C mentions.

The adaptive alternatives are only in two options

• 7(B)(10), *"Note: Adaptive skiers may complete a 1-mile tour with prior approval from their counselor."* (instead of 4 miles)
• 7(D)(9), *"Note: Adaptive snowshoers may complete a 1-mile hike with prior approval from their counselor."* (instead of 2 miles) Options A and C state nothing equivalent. Both notes require prior approval, so the conversation belongs at the point of choosing the option, not at the trailhead.

Requirement 6 applies to everybody, including snowshoers

All three parts of requirement 6 are required whichever option you take:

• 6(a): Your Responsibility Code *"in effect at the location where you will ski, snowboard, or snowshoe"*. Site-specific, so you need to know where you are going.
• 6(b): the SMART Style safety programme, and how it applies *"at snow sport venues like terrain parks and pipes"*. Required even if your option never goes near a terrain park.
• 6(c): avalanche safety, including the responsibility of individuals. Required even on snowshoes, which, given where backcountry snowshoeing goes, is the right way round.

What the counselor decides

Options A and C both carry the same note: a gentle slope is generally a green circle, slightly steeper a green or blue, intermediate a blue square: "However, your counselor should determine what type of hill is most suited to your skill level and allows you to demonstrate each of the required skills."

So the terrain is not fixed by the badge. If a run at your area is graded harder than its equivalent elsewhere, that is a conversation to have rather than a rule to work around.

What this page is

The Snow Sports merit badge, drawn so the forward references in requirements 4 and 5 are visible and the four options can be compared by what they cost to reach. It is not a copy of the requirements: each step is a short label with a link to the official requirements, which are what actually governs and which change from year to year.