Classic Backpacking Trips

Our Classic trips are each designed for a specific experience level:

• Fundamentals, for beginners;
• Adventures, for intermediates; and
• Expeditions, for advanced backpackers.

We recognize that not every applicant or group will fall neatly into one of these categories, so we reset our teaching level for every trip and we work with clients individually to help them reach their goals.

Because backpacking experience, physical fitness, and technical ability are not necessarily correlated, we run each trip type in up to five fitness levels and three technical difficulty levels.

If you have questions about the trips or are uncertain what trip type is most suitable for you, please contact me.

Adventure

An Adventure trip is best for intermediate backpackers who want to undertake a more challenging trip and to master more advanced skills, notably navigation. We also welcome beginners who are strong and ambitious, and advanced backpackers who are looking for a turnkey experience.

Fitness requirements are higher for Adventure-level trips than Fundamentals-level courses, due to the increased rigor and pack weight.

5-day versus 7-day

The Adventure 5-day is our most popular trip. You’re out there long enough to do something memorable, to emotionally recharge, to feel fully present, to get in a groove, and to bond with good people; but you need to take only 6-7 days off from family and work.

The 7-day trips are less convenient and more expensive, but they afford you two additional full days in the field. With this time, groups will get deeper into the wilderness, complete longer sections of high routes and cross-country routes, and have more opportunities to develop skills and lead the group. On the 7-day trip, groups are more likely to feel like teams, since you’ll have to work together more and overcome more adversity.

Typical itinerary

• For information about the first and last day, go here
• For a description of a typical day, go here
• For a discussion of routes, go here

These trips should start slow, so that you can acclimatize, eat through some of your food load, and learn (or review, if you’re an alumnus) our curriculum. In the second half, the focus should be more on doing, and less on learning. When the terrain is conducive, we also like to finish strong, by saving the aesthetic highlight or the most difficult element for the end.

Expedition

Our Expedition trips are the most advanced that we offer, and designed to be capstone backpacking experiences and to teach expert-level skills. In 2027 we are offering Expedition-level trips in three locations: Utah, Alaska, and California.

An Expedition is suitable for graduates of our Adventure trips (to whom we give priority) and for similarly capable newcomers who want some oversight when planning and executing a trip to a truly wild landscape. Due to the risky and committing nature of these trips, we expect that you will arrive in requisite fitness and with dialed-in gear and skills.

Alaska

• For information about the first and last day, go here
• For a description of a typical day, go here
• For a discussion of routes, go here

Our 2027 trips will be in Gates of the Arctic National Park, in the central Brooks Range. We’ve been operating here since 2019, but we’ve not yet explored every valley. When creating the routes, I’m often trying to fill in these blank spots on the map. Even if our program has done all of your route before, it’s likely that your guides have not, which will help maintain the sense of exploration and novelty.

Signature Series

In addition to backpacking trips in Alaska, we are offering 7- and 11-day Expedition-level backpacking trips in the lower 48, too, as part of our Signature Series. For our other Classic trips, we assemble a route that is appropriate for the group. With our Signature Series trips, we reverse this: we assemble a group that is appropriate for the route. These itineraries are not offered each year, and they get our guide team excited — we’d do them on our own as personal trips, and they can be very fun to guide.

Utah: Stephens and Fold Canyons (7 days)

This off-trail route explores the deepest, oldest rock layers of the Escalante watershed, near where the Escalante meets Lake Powell. This advanced-level backpacking loop will feature infrequently traveled canyons that will test your desert skills, physical fitness, and knowledge of the area and its layers.

In 2027, this group will complete the Stephens/Fold Loop, as described in Canyoneering 3 or modified slightly to perfectly match the time available. This itinerary involves extensive route-finding, many handlines and pack hauls, and multiple technical sections (Class 3, 4, and 5 — all made easier with a short rope, coaching, spotting, and a helpful hand).

Participants will encounter lush, green riparian zones in the canyon bottoms, sheer sandstone walls rising high above, frequent stream crossings, occasional wading of deep pools, and chockstones bypassed by scrambling around or over on nearby slickrock shoulders. Limited sections of unavoidable poison ivy exist on this route.

Extensive route finding will be necessary as much of your time will be spent in the precipitous Wingate rather than the more forgiving Navajo and Kayenta found farther north. Class 3-4 scrambling is required to complete this route and significant exposure is likely. Webbing will be used for pack hauls and to assist with safe ascent or descent.

Like the rest of the Escalante, the area has nearby opportunities to see Ancestral Puebloan rock art and ruins tucked into the numerous overhangs.

Utah: Expedition Canyoneering 201 (7 days)

Since 2023 we have offered expeditionary canyoneering courses that combine lightweight backpacking with technical canyoneering elements. This style of canyoneering allows access to canyons that are not practical as one-day objectives, and it’s a more unique experience than basecamp-oriented trips.

Since the very first year, alumni of these courses have been requesting a “201” course. In 2026, we piloted that course with great success so we’re bringing it back for 2027.

This group will go DEEP into the Escalante to access canyons that see very little traffic and that we have not yet done as a program. Curriculum topics may include advanced anchor construction and assessment, ghosting techniques for canyons, contingency rigging, rope ascending, basic haul/lowering systems, and knot passing, pending the specific route taken and the interests of the group.

This trip is being led by Jeff Wohl and is for experienced canyoneers only. The prerequisites for this course are our standard 5- or 7-day canyoneering courses, or equivalent personal experience.

Before applying for these trips, please consider that they involve elements that may be inappropriate for some people, notably:

• Significant exposure, including Class 3-4 scrambles (not always assist-able) and overhanging rappels;
• Extended time in cold conditions, including immersion in cold pools, and slow movement through dark and deep canyons;
• Wading and/or swimming in cold pools; and
• Passage through narrow slot canyons, sometimes requiring removal of your backpack and/or walking sideways

For a discussion of required and preferred gear for these courses, go here.

Alaska: Gates of the Arctic High Route (11 days)

In 2010 I traversed Gates of the Arctic as part of my Alaska-Yukon Expedition, and I have guided trips there each summer since 2019 (except 2020). It’s a huge place, and for many years my focus has simply been on “filling in the map.” When I sit down to to create my routes, usually I ask something like, “Okay, where have I not yet been?”

With time though, I’ve started to see a “best of” line across the park that maintains a higher level of awesomeness than any other line. We’ll call it the Gates of the Arctic High Route (GAHR). I’ve done about two-thirds of the route already, but always in short sections and in some cases many years ago. In 2027 I want to field groups who can help me explore the remaining sections and who can complete long sections of it. For now, I’m intentionally withholding details about the route — it’s a sensitive area and possibly a sensitive topic, and I also don’t want to give away the line.

This trip will follow the same itinerary as the other Alaska trips, so read that section above. This trip will be without resupply, which we understand translates into heavier loads. We’ve successfully run many 11-day trips without resupply and guides will pace the group accordingly.

California: Sierra High Routes and Kings Canyon High Basin Route (7 days)

The Sierra High Route is an alpine traverse along the crest and high basins of California’s High Sierra, tracing the rugged divide between Kings Canyon and northern Yosemite. Conceived by Steve Roper, roughly two-thirds of the route’s 195 miles is completely off-trail. It demands over 60,000 feet of total vertical gain across 33 high mountain passes, crossing only a single paved highway along its entire spine.

The Kings Canyon High Basin Route wraps 124 miles around the upper watershed of California’s Kings River in the High Sierra. Two-thirds of its distance is off-trail, and it averages 725 vertical feet of change per mile. It accesses many of the most remote and least traveled areas in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park, and is a wildly different experience than the John Muir Trail.

Exact routes will depend on permit acquisition. Both routes generally connect high off-trail valleys and basins with exciting off-trail passes. Expect to spend a significant amount of time above treeline, to encounter few or no other groups, and to have daily opportunities for swimming in alpine lakes.

Special Interest Trips

Technical Canyoneering

These 5- and 7-day trips are most accurately described as backpacking trips with technical canyoneering elements. We don’t operate out of a base camp; instead, we take on the canyons as part of a larger backpacking route. This “expeditionary canyoneering” approach is at the further edge of US canyoneering and gives us access to canyons (or sections of them) that are not practical done-in-a-day objectives.

Curriculum

The itineraries are purposely designed to methodically build and develop your canyoneering comfort and skills. The curriculum includes:

• Terrain types
• Canyoneering movement
• Scrambling on Class 3 + 4 features
• Managing steep terrain
• Helmet use
• Harness use
• Rappelling 
• Fireman belaying
• Rappelling practice
• Belaying practice
• Rope coiling/bagging
• Clipping into anchors
• Types of rope and uses
• Rappelling with a backpack

Anchor building will be taught, but not to the level of mastery or self-sufficiency. This skill requires more repetition than time will afford.

Typical itinerary

The itineraries are purposely designed to build up your canyoneering comfort and skills. We assume that our clients have little to no prior experience, so we spend the first day in a low-risk and non-committing area to teach the basics, including how to scramble, manage steep terrain, use handlines and assists, and rappel.

After this classroom-type instruction, your group will apply what you’ve learned by completing several technical canyons, with the exact number and difficulty being driven by the trip duration, group fitness, on-the-ground conditions, and the plans of our other groups that are in the field simultaneously. Due to impact concerns, we will not list them here. The 5-day trips should have about three days of canyoneering; on the 7-day trips, expect four to five.

Total mileage on these trips is less than on a pure backpacking trip, all other factors being equal. The canyons are just, well, slow.

The canyoneering itineraries are more precisely planned ahead of time than the backpacking itineraries, because the canyons are more committing (i.e. there are limited, if any, options to exit midway) and because they require unique combinations of ropes and anchor hardware.

Difficulty

The canyons into which we take clients are up to the 3BIII range. This designation means that the canyons:

• Involve intermediate-level rappels, technical climbing and/or downclimbing;
• Contain water and may require swimming, but the water is not moving; and,
• Require most of an entire day to complete.

Before applying for these trips, please consider that they involve elements that may be inappropriate for some people, notably:

• Significant exposure, including Class 3-4 scrambles (not always assist-able) and overhanging rappels;
• Extended time in cold conditions, including immersion in cold pools and slow movement through dark and deep canyons; and,
• Passage through narrow slot canyons, sometimes requiring removal of your backpack and/or walking sideways

For a discussion of required and preferred gear for these courses, go here.

Thru-hiking

New for 2027, our Thru-hiking trips are designed for intermediate backpackers preparing for a major long-distance endeavor (such as the PCT, AT, CDT, or Colorado Trail) or those wanting to experience the disciplined rhythm and high mileage of a thru-hike in a concentrated format. It’s an opportunity to shake down gear, build physical resilience, and eliminate costly trial-and-error before day one.

Most prospective thru-hikers drop out not from a lack of desire, but from preventable failures: overuse injuries, carrying the wrong gear, poor foot care, caloric deficits, or an inability to manage camp chores efficiently when exhausted. This course uses an extensive curriculum oriented towards multi-month, multi-environment journeys to build the physical durability, routine, and discipline required to hike big days back-to-back.

The curriculum spans the full life cycle of a thru-hike in three parts:

• Before the trip, including gear selection, training regimens, and resupply strategies;
• On trail execution, including hiking efficiency, proactive blister prevention, campsite selection, Leave No Trace, trail culture, and navigational tools like FarOut; and
• After the trip, including recovery strategies and post-hike reintegration.

Unlike our Fundamentals and off-trail High Route courses, this itinerary focuses heavily on trail speed, efficiency, and bodily maintenance. Expect a focused, demanding tempo designed to simulate the cadence of sustained travel. Because forward momentum depends on moving efficiently without breaking down, clients should arrive with solid baseline fitness and comfort on multi-day outings. Participants will leave with field-tested gear, good systems, and an honest assessment of your readiness for a full season on trail.

Naturalist

The Naturalist trip is designed for intermediate-level backpackers whose main goal is deepening their connection and understanding of the wilderness. Guides will review our normal skills curriculum, but focus more on the plants and trees, birds and mega fauna, rocks and thermal activity, land management and policy, and ancient and modern history of the operating area.

In 2027, the only naturalist course being offered will take place in the High Sierra.

Fitness requirements are consistent with our Adventure-level trips, but the daily itinerary is designed for a slower pace with more frequent, extended stops to allow for in-depth observation and teaching. Expect daily mileage to be slightly less than a pure Adventure trip of the same duration. We also welcome beginners who have solid baseline fitness and a strong desire for ecological knowledge, or advanced backpackers seeking a more immersive, contemplative pace.