The Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club’s Wilderness Travel Course is offering an early-admissions discount to anyone who’s interested in taking the class next year, but it ends very soon.
If you sign up before December 15th, you’ll save $15 off the tuition for the class, which covers pretty much everything anyone would need to know about staying safe in the wilderness – from map reading and orienteering to water purification, rock climbing, snow camping, and how to make tasty trail meals at camp.
It’s a three month long class that meets once a week, and is a mix of classroom lessons and four hands-on outings. I haven’t taken the class myself, but I’ve known a few hikers who’ve gone through it and they all said they learned invaluable survival skills … and had some fun while they were doing it.
For more info and to sign up, head to the WTC web site.
Have any readers done the WTC? What were your impressions? I’ll have to make a note in next year’s calendar to sign up for the 2011 course!
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I took WTC last year, and it was a blast. I had been camping before plenty of times, but not real backpacking trips. I would have survived doing backpacking without taking this class, but it made it many times more enjoyable. If someone has been hiking for many years, some material they cover will invariably be “review” but it’s always good to hear things from a different perspective- and I’m sure anyone would be able to learn a lot from this class.
Does anyone know anything about a shorter course that concentrates specifically on backpacking? I believe that the Sierra Club sponsored it also, and it was just a few weekends of classroom instruction plus a culminating backpacking trip.
I did the WTC back in 2007. I have been an avid backpacker for years but thought it might be fun to meet some new hikers. It was also a great excuse to get out and hike. Even though I had plenty of experience in the course material it was still good to refine my nav skills and get opinions on equipment, food, places to visit, etc. from the others. The class was probably 1/4 newbies, 1/2 intermediates and 1/4 fairly experienced people just looking to have fun and meet new friends. I highly recommend the class even if you and with Erik: no matter how experienced you are you will likely still learn a few things…and make some new friends along the way. Just thinking about it makes me want to do it again. I had even considered training to become an instructor but got too busy with work. Who knows what the future holds though.
Katharine, the Sierra Club has a backpacking course that sounds just like you describe. The class normally is in May. I’ve heard the class is good from graduates who go on to take WTC.