Basic winter mountaineering classes in Oregon

TRADITIONAL MOUNTAINEERING ™
www.TraditionalMountaineering.org ™ and also www.AlpineMountaineering.org ™

TraditionalMountaineering Logo - representing the shared
companionship of the Climb ™

Print a copy for a friend!
Print a signup form:

A recommended one day hands-on indoor class!
Backcountry adventures in the winter
**Basic Winter Backcountry Exploration Safety Skills**

This class was FULL (last year) with 20 attending! A great success and lots of fun!

Saturday, December 3, 2005, one day, 9AM to 3PM or so . . .
The Central Oregon Environmental Center, 16 NW Kansas Street in downtown Bend

Class Description:
This class is about informed backcountry adventure in the winter. This class is based on traditional Basic Winter Mountaineering Training provided by major climbing clubs in in the North West.

Participants will learn more: A. About the Basic Responsibilities of the wilderness traveler, traditional backcountry Leadership, the new Essential Systems and clothing and the identification and possible mitigation of Risks in outdoor winter adventures, B. About planning a reasonable adventure and finding your way with map, compass and optional GPS and C. About safe and comfortable light weight winter camping with good food and water management.

Hands-on training includes working with:
1. The suggested personal light weight Ten Essential Systems, personal First Aid Kit and the suggested winter day pack;
2. Appropriate footwear: shoes or boots, snowshoes, poles;
3. Winter clothing layers: sox, Capalene underwear, XC-3SP pants, GorTex gaiters, wicking insulation layers, fleece tops, soft shells and hard shells in several combinations, various hats and gloves;
4. Winter bivy and four season tent options, goose down and synthetic sleeping bag options and insulating pads in the winter backpack and shovels, safe caves and possible emergency shelters;
5. Winter water management and cooking including required light weight food, stoves, pots, spoons, plates and cups, filters and water bottles;
6. Planning a reasonable trip to suggested local points with map, compass and optional GPS and route finding in the winter;
7. Making the required setup changes to GPS factory defaults that are necessary for the most basic use "out of the box"; simplifying the marking/saving/creating and finding of landmarks/waypoints in UTM position coordinates; setting up the inexpensive hand held baseplate compass to eliminate the dangerous local 17 degree magnetic declination error. We will practice these skills with maps in the classroom;
8. Climbing steep snow slopes with minimum gear, demonstrations and discussion;
9. Avoidance of known avalanche areas and application of simple danger assessments for safe travel in our local backcountry.

Robert Speik, your instructor,
Is an experienced backcountry leader/instructor and editor of student and leader handbooks. For six years, he taught popular Mountaineering, Alpine Rambling, Backpacking and Wilderness Navigation classes and field seminars at Central Oregon Community College. Bob is the author of the popular world wide website www.TraditionalMountaineeing.org.

Group dynamics -
The class includes lunch and time for planning a free adventure with new classmates and others. We will be working together with the actual gear recommended in the class.

This basic to advanced training -
Can be completed in this interesting day. Cost per student is $35.00 (just $45.00 for couples!), a donation benefiting the nonprofit website www.TraditionalMountaineeing.org. Handouts will include a printed summary of the class information.

For more information and to join this class: email info@traditionalmountaineering.org or call Robert Speik at 541-385-0445 or print a Sign-Up form:

Reserve your places! We may have a wait list!

Search this site!