Boulder Mountaineer School

Boulder Mountaineer School at CMC Boulder

This year the family and I joined the Colorado Mountain Club.  They are the premier hiking club in the Rocky Mountain Region.  Their state headquarters is in Golden, but several groups have clubhouses in cities around the state and one of the most active is the Boulder Group.  The group conducts lots of hiking, backpacking, snowshoeing, cross-country and back-country ski trips.  They also have several environmental stewardship type volunteer opportunities.  The group publishes some of the best guide books around.  They also help maintain the Brainard Lake Skiing and Hiking Area and two nearby cabins.

One of the activities they conduct that I was most interested in is the Boulder Mountaineer School.  This is a group of introductory level courses in several of the areas they provide classes in, including hiking, climbing and mountaineering.  They also support back-country skiing courses.  I originally enrolled in several courses in hopes of completing the entire BMS curriculum this year.  But planning around family vacation and kids summer activities, I was forced to drop some.

Each course consists of a set of lectures held at the club house, usually two or three evenings from 6:30 PM and lasting a couple of hours a piece.  The lectures are then followed by a field trip of sorts, where the class goes out to practice the skills they've learned.

The first class is Hiking and Survival Essentials.  Honestly most of this class was review for me, but I suppose they have to make sure everyone has a foundation of knowledge, which is why this course is a prerequisite for most of their other courses.  There were several things that were new though.  There was a presentation about hiking and backpacking food from a nutritionalist that explained how much and what types of food your body needs while participating in outdoor activities.  Before I always just grabbed some beef sticks and some GORP and hit the trail.  Now I know better what to pack and how much.  The section on weather was also very informative, explaining what to watch out for, when to let the weather turn you around and when it's okay to stick it out.  They provided lots of information and talked at length about the "ten essentials".  They explained that traditionally this was a list of gear items you should take with you on every hike, but has recently transformed into a list of gear systems instead.  They gave a presentation about clothing that was kind of like a hands on version of the clothing section of Andrew Skurka's gear presentation.

The highlight of the course for me was the field trip.  We went to Big Elk Meadows off of highway 36 between Lyons and Estes.  We split into groups and built emergency shelters and practiced varying methods for starting a fire.  It was just like building a fort when I was a kid!  Okay, so maybe it was a tad bit more structured than that.  After all, we were trying to demonstrate what they had taught us, but it was a blast!

Here's me working away...

...and here's the rest of my group standing in front of our finished fort, I mean, uhm, emergency shelter!  Thanks to Jon Campbell for the pics.

The other class I took was the Hiking Navigation class.  This class was really great!  They teach you all about various maps and other hiking resources, but they primarily use 7.5 Minute USGS Quadrangles for the class.  Next they teach about compasses and which ones work best.  Then they teach you how to use the two together.  I had forgotten most of what I learned in the Army, so I got a great deal out of this class.  At the end we took a field trip to Green Mountain where we put our skills to the test.

I have also participated in a hike to the summit of Mt. Audubon and I had a great time there as well.  See the pic I snapped from the summit above.  One the best parts of going through the classes and participating in the hikes is the people that you meet.  I'm looking forward to taking more classes and going on more hikes with the group.

So if you're like me and you are looking to spend more time in the outdoors, but want to be safe and have the right skills, or if you are just looking to meet some great people that share your love of the outdoors, check out the Colorado Mountain Club!