SNOW, NAVIGATION, AND RIVER SKILLS COURSE
Duration: 5 Days
Location: Arthurs Pass
Cost: $2295
21-25 October 2027
Are you a tramper, hunter, or adventure racer and feel like you’ve been lacking confidence to attempt the harder trips or events? Do you want to improve your skills across the board, to undertake remote trips in a mix of forests, subalpine, and alpine terrain? This course has been designed for you.
Join us for five days and learn:
- Skills for travelling in snow (with and without crampons), including understanding avalanches
- How to read topographic maps so that you can choose a good route, estimate how long it will take, and keep track of your location as you go
- Campsite selection
- River crossing techniques
- Weather forecast interpretation
- Equipment considerations (tents/shelters, stoves, boots, clothing, sleep systems, and more)
- Weight-effective food and meal options for long trips
Course cost includes:
- Accommodation. Our base for each course will be a basic lodge showers, a full kitchen, and bunks in a shared room (you’ll need your own sleeping bags and towels). We may only spend one night at the lodge if the weather is good enough for us to do a multi-day journey, or we may stay a few nights at the lodge while poor weather passes, doing day trips to cover the required skills.
- Alpine equipment. We can provide crampons, ice axes, helmets, harnesses, and avalanche rescue equipment for anyone who needs them.
- Tents and cooking equipment. We’ll provide high quality 2-3 person Hilleberg tents for use during our journey, along with stoves, pots, and cooking fuel.
- Some meals and hot drinks: We’ll provide two group breakfasts and any group dinners not covered by the shared meals provided by each participant. We’ll also provide soups, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and herbal tea for the entire course.
- You’ll need to organise your own lunches/snacks for the entire course, most of your own breakfasts, and one shared group dinner – we’ll provide more information to help with this.
- Courses will finish at 4pm on the final day. You’ll need to arrange your own transport to return home from there. We’ll put all participants in touch with each other pre-course to help with carpooling.
