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Spring Basic Backpacking
Feb 28-29, 2020
Winter Basic Backpacking
TBD, 2020
Desert Basic Backpacking
TBD 2020
Basic Backpacking
Learn the skills you need to take your scouts into the wild with confidence.
The course is organized around three components:
1. Classroom session focused on deep content (Friday evening / Saturday)
2. "In the field" map & compass day hike
3. Overnight backpacking trek with fellow classmates & a HAT Instructor
Syllabus
Adult Leadership
Bear Management
Clothing
Low Impact Camping
Mountain Medicine
Places To Go
Scout's Own
Stoves
Tents
Camps & Parks Guide
Backpacks
Boots
Food Planning
Map & Compass
Physical Conditioning
Putting It All Together
Sleeping Bags
Ten Essentials
Wilderness Survival
HAT Awards
John's Meadow, San Gorgonio Wilderness
Adult Leader Training
Our training courses are designed to help prepare the new Trek Leader for taking scouts into the wilderness and provide updated information for the veteran Trek Leader. Basic Backpacking classroom training is followed with a day hike to provide field experience with map and compass and a weekend overnight hike to let you experience what you've been told about. This training is offered twice a year, the first weekend of March and the last weekend of September. Winter Backpack training is put on in January.
We offer three courses
Do you enjoy backpacking? Maybe you have never been backpacking, but want to get started? Taking Scouts into the great outdoors is fun, exciting, and is a great developmental tool for youth. Whatever your level of backpacking experience, from none to expert, this course will provide you with important information to get started guiding Scouts on a backpacking trek. Come join your fellow Scouters in the fun!
Have you always wanted to take your Scouts backpacking in late winter and early spring but don't know where to go? Exciting possibilities exist in the deserts of California, Arizona, and Utah. Try the Boy Scout Trail or Camelback Trek in Joshua Tree National Park, Kelso Dunes in the Mojave National Preserve, Surprise Canyon or Telescope Peak in Death Valley National Park, to name a few. The slot canyons of northern Arizona and southern Utah beckon adventurous Scouts and Scouters over Easter/Spring Break.
Prerequisite: Basic Backpacking Course (taught spring and fall)
This course will serve as an introduction to low angle snow travel using basic mountaineering ice axe technique, with and without MICRO spikes on your boots. No crampons!!!
Prerequisite: Basic Backpacking Course (taught spring and fall)
Basic Backpacking
This course is in several parts:
Part 1 - Zoom Orientation from home
February 25, 6 pm - 9 pm
Part 2 – Outdoor Classroom Training
February 26, 7 am - 4 pm
Outdoor classroom training will be conducted at the Irvine Ranch Outdoor Education Center, 2 Irvine Park Road, Irvine, CA 92869,
Content consists of demonstrations and equipment round robins covering backpacks, tents, clothing, footwear, sleeping systems, stoves and cook gear, wilderness electronics, backpack cooking and food, water treatment, map and compass, critter encounters and food protection, planning a backpack with Scouts including adult leadership, and implementing “High Adventure” into your unit.
Part 3 – Day Hike with Instructors
February 27, 7 am - 3 pm
The day hike will include map and compass fieldwork.
Part 4 – Weekend Overnighter with Instructors
Weekend TBD; dates will be set by February 1, 2022
Practical application of skills taught in class
Desert Backpacking
This course is in several parts:
Part 1 – Outdoor Classroom Training
February 26, 8 am - noon
Outdoor classroom training will be conducted at the Irvine Ranch Outdoor Education Center, 2 Irvine Park Road, Irvine, CA 92869,
This course builds upon the principles and skills taught in the Basic Backpacking Course which is a prerequisite.
Covered in the 4 hours of classroom are seasonal considerations, how to choose your desert trails considering Scouts, what to wear trekking the desert, water availability and management, packing lightly but safely, and hazards specific to the desert such as day time radiation and night time cold, flash floods and sharp things like scorpions, cacti and rattlers.
Part 2 – Weekend Overnighter with Instructors
March 12-13, 2022, Boy Scout Trail Joshua Tree National Park
Practical application of skills taught in class
Winter Backpacking
CLASSROOM: FRIDAY NIGHT NOVEMBER 12, 2021...6:00 pm-9:00 pm
DAY HIKE IN THE SNOW: DATE IN JANUARY TBD DEPENDING ON SNOW LEVELS
PREREQUISITE: BASIC BACKPACKING COURSE TAUGHT SPRING AND FALL
Are we going to learn how to climb frozen waterfalls in this course? No, of course not! The key phrase in the title of this course is non-Technical. This course will serve as an introduction to low angle snow travel using basic mountaineering ice axe technique, with and without MICRO spikes on your boots. No crampons!!!
The course will include (1) anatomy of a mountaineering ice axe; (2) ice axe maintenance and safety; (3) how to carry and grasp an ice axe; (4) ascending low angle snow with an ice axe including climbing in balance, rest step and step-kicking; (5) making a direct ascent using the cane position, stake position, horizontal position; (6) making a diagonal ascent using the cane position, cross-body position, changing direction and traversing; (7) descending low angle snow including plunge stepping, backing down and glissading; (8) stopping a fall including self-belay and self-arrest; (9) introduction to MICRO spikes.
The day hike in snow will be scheduled on a Saturday in January of 2022, where students will practice ice axe technique on low angle snow with instructors. Students will vote on the date...snow levels pending.
Cost: $20.00...roster limited to the first 10 students who sign up. Additional sign-ups as cancellations occur. OCC-HAT SUPPLIES ICE AXES FOR STUDENTS
Important Forms Required for all Classes
Must Complete the Following:
Additional Attachments