Year after year, backpacking is the most highly rated activity at Adventure Treks for many reasons, including shared challenge, lack of electronic distractions, and what we call “shared humanity.” There’s magic in overcoming obstacles, and it’s even more powerful when challenges are shared with friends. Without electronics, people able to focus on what’s in front of them, and what’s important: themselves, their friends, and creating long-lasting memories. Students are able to step into different leadership roles, and backpacking highlights commonalities and interests that form strong, unbreakable friendship bonds. Backpacking offers opportunities for both type I fun (seeing beautiful views, having deep trail conversations, jumping into swimming holes) and type II fun (steep inclines, inclement weather, forgetting something and having to problem-solve)—both of which create rewarding, meaningful experiences.

Students will hike through North Cascades National Park and Olympic National Park on extended backpacking trips, honing such skills as:

• Expedition management and safety
• Orienteering, map-reading, and navigation skills
• Leave No Trace principles
• Camp set-up and take-down
• Building temporary shelters
• Fire-building
• Backcountry cooking

Not only is it important for outdoor enthusiasts to have a basic understanding of wilderness medicine, but the wilderness first responder course is also the standard minimum medical certification for outdoor leaders like guides, search and rescue professionals, and educators. (Adventure Treks alumni often go on to become instructor interns after having gained this certification.) It’s also an extremely beneficial course for anyone who takes extended backcountry trips and wants to pursue emergency medical training. Students will cover topics like:

• Patient assessment systems
• Risk management
• Vital signs
• Anaphylaxis, allergies, and airway management
• Heat- and cold-related injuries
• Spinal and traumatic brain injuries
• Wounds and soft tissue injuries
• Trauma and shock
• Burns and blisters
• Bites, stings, and wildlife safety
• Splinting and patient packaging
• Dislocations
• And much more

On Leadership Summit, students will have the opportunity to earn up to 8 academic credit hours through Western Carolina University.

Parks and Recreation Management (PRM) course 254, “Introduction to Outdoor Pursuits” (4 credit hours):

This is an expedition-style course in a wilderness environment. Expedition skills are taught experientially to enable students to lead others safely using minimum impact techniques that preserve the environment. Modes of travel include backpacking, mountaineering, and rafting. Students will receive the wilderness first responder medical certification. This course is designed to give students the confidence and proficiency in understanding how to lead their peers in any environment, as well as giving them the skills necessary to work in an entry-level job in the outdoor industry. Students will be encouraged to develop their teaching and leadership style and personal philosophy about backcountry ethics.

PRM course 357, “Wilderness First Responder” (4 credit hours)

This course trains participants to respond to emergencies in remote settings. The 80-hour curriculum led by SOLO Schools includes standards for urban and extended care situations. Special topics include but are not limited to wound management and infection, realigning fractures and reducing dislocations, improvising splinting techniques, monitoring patients, and long-term management problems. Adult/child cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with automated external defibrillation (AED) is included in this course.

The Pacific Northwest is known for its ancient volcanic peaks that lend themselves to beautiful mountaineering opportunities in the summer. On Mt. Adams, we’ll learn how to use ice axes and crampons on snow school before attempting to summit the 12,281-foot peak. Then we’ll take that knowledge and apply it toward Mt. Olympus, where you’ll begin your backpack in a lush, vibrant rainforest before making the dramatic transition to crossing the Blue Glacier on a rope team.

Skills covered in the syllabus include:

• Proper use of crampons and ice axes
• Glissading and self-arrest techniques
• Traveling on a rope team
• Weather considerations and planning for summit attempts
• Leave No Trace ethics for alpine terrain, snowfields, and glaciers

The New York Times has rated the White Salmon River as #13 among 46 places to visit worldwide. This Wild and Scenic River is federally protected, leaving the water and forestry in pristine condition. Teamwork is required as you bounce down fun, sustained rapids; laughter is recommended.