Compressed Alpine Scrambling Course

Alpine Scrambling fills the gap between on trail hiking and roped climbing. In the Alpine Scrambling course you will learn essential techniques of off-trail wilderness travel needed for reaching snow and rock summits. Alpine scrambling may at times involve unroped movement on and across low or moderately-exposed snow and rock terrain, but does not include roped climbing.

The Scramble course consists of 3 in town workshops and 3 single day field trips. The workshops introduce skills, which are then refined out in the field.

• Workshops

  • Course Introduction and Gear: Overview of what scrambling is, setting course expectations, and a gear show and tell.
  • Snow Travel: Snow travel safety (avalanche) presentation, ice axe introduction, ice axe arrest practice.
  • Rock Travel: Movement on a variety of rock surfaces, protected downclimb (emergency descent  method).

• Field Trips

  • Snow Travel: Moving through snow, walking in balance, ice axe self belay,  ice axe arrest practice, winter navigation.
  • Rock Travel: Moving on rock, protected downclimb practice.
  • Experience Field Trip: Putting it all together and final evaluation. Demonstrate all skills learned in the course on a trip including both snow and rock travel to a summit.

    Required Equipment

    In addition to the course fees, scrambling requires a substantial amount of gear. In addition to general outdoor gear (outdoor clothing, rain gear, backpack, 10 essentials, etc) there are a few technical pieces of gear required. These are Mountaineering boots (different from hiking boots, $300-$500), a ice axe ($70-$100), and a climbing helmet ($60-$100). The majority of the first workshop is dedicated to gear, we encourage you to wait until after the gear workshop to make purchases.

• Additional Requirements

  • Attend one conditioning hike.
  • Complete the online Low Impact Recreation quiz.
  • Complete a Stewardship event
  • Complete 3 scrambles
  • Complete the First Aid course
  • Complete the Navigation Course 
    • ** First Aid and Navigation are separate courses with their own fees.