Itineraries and routes
Where will your trip meet, and what will we do there? When will you start hiking, have lunch, and find camp each day? And where exactly will your group go? For answers to these questions and more, scroll down or jump to these sections:
- First and last day: Lower 48
- First and last day: Alaska
- Typical daily schedule
- Route selection
- Signature Series 2026
Lower 48 trips: the first and last day
Day 1 briefing
Briefings are always in the morning on Day 1. For specific meet-up times and locations, refer to this page. At this gathering, we will:
- Make introductions and some announcements;
- Update you on conditions;
- Distribute breakfast & dinner rations, loaner gear, paper maps, stove fuel, and some other supplies;
- Check your gear, and weigh your full pack; and,
- Model how to correctly pack a backpack.
If you are driving to the briefing location, please stay within at least three hours the night prior so that you’re not already tired when you get there.
The guides normally arrive 45-60 minutes early to set up. If you have been instructed otherwise or if you feel that you need a lot of help in checking your gear, you can arrive early as well, but please by no more than 30 minutes.
Please take care of yourself before and during the briefing:
- Have breakfast
- Get hydrated
- Go to the bathroom if you have the urge
- Protect yourself appropriately from the elements, like by applying sunscreen or wearing warm clothing
Food and water is not provided at the trailhead — please pack in what you will need. Most trailheads do not have potable water. We always try to meet in a location with bathrooms.
The rest of Day 1
Our goal is to depart the briefing location about 90 minutes after the meetup time. We’re able to start hiking so quickly because of all the pre-trip work that you and we have done beforehand.
In some locations, we start our hike from the briefing location. In others, we must drive (usually 15-60 minutes) to a trailhead.
Groups are encouraged to pull into camp early on the first night, especially beginner-level groups who may be using unfamiliar shelters, sleeping bags, and stoves. Also, it’s important to have a discussion about trip goals so that the guides can help accomplish them.
The last day
Expect to arrive at the trailhead between 10 AM and noon on the last day of your trip.
Some clients head home immediately, especially if they must catch a flight or have a long drive. Others linger for an optional post-trip lunch; guides can recommend locations and may join you, depending on their own schedules and mental needs.
Alaska trips: the first and last day
The 7- and 11-day trips in Alaska follow a different schedule. The logistics are more complex, and we will share with you a spreadsheet that has precise details.
Day 0
Most groups meet at 4pm the day before your trip officially starts. We meet at our hotel in Fairbanks for the briefing, where we will:
- Make introductions and some announcements;
- Update you on conditions;
- Distribute breakfast & dinner rations, loaner gear, paper maps, stove fuel, and some other supplies;
- Check your gear, and weigh your full pack; and,
- Model how to correctly pack a backpack.
Afterwards, your group may gather for an optional dinner. That night in your hotel room, you will probably fiddle for too long with your kit, wondering if you’re carrying enough food, enough warm clothing, and enough bug spray.
Day 1
Together as a group, we take a hotel shuttle to the Wrights terminal (on the other side of the airport as the main terminal). We have a few options for accessing Gates of the Arctic National Park, involving a combination of 9-passenger Cessna Caravans, 3-passenger Helios with tundra tires, or 5-passenger Beavers with floats.
At best, we’re in the field by early-afternoon. If everyone is in the field by dinnertime, feel fortunate. These flights are expensive but necessary — there’s no easier way to get into the Brooks that is faster or more economical. Plus, landing on a remote lake or gravel bar is a helluva way to start a trip!
Last day: Day 7 or 11
Groups typically finish in Anaktuvuk Pass, a Native village that sits on the Continental Divide and that has an airstrip with daily flights back to Fairbanks. We travel to Fairbanks as a group and most clients take a red-eye flight home that night.
We recommend that you build some flexibility into your return flight, because occasionally groups get stuck in the field for an extra day due to weather. Plan to fly out a day later, or have a flexible ticket.
Daily schedule
Each trip is different, and we do not expect (or want) groups to follow a universal program-wide schedule or routine. Each group will develop a schedule that works for the location, terrain, conditions, guides, and participants.
That said, most days look something like this:
- Around 7 AM: Meet for breakfast and to review the day’s plan
- Around 8 AM: Depart
- Between camps: Hike your planned route, with appropriate breaks for resting, snacking, water collection, navigation decisions, and curriculum modules. So long as the circumstances allow, we take a longer lunch break (about an hour) in early-afternoon, during which you can swim, wash clothes, nap, and dry gear.
- 4 PM to 6 PM: Pull into camp with sufficient daylight to set up camp and have dinner
- Dinnertime
- After dinner: Discuss the day and tomorrow’s plans, cover some light curriculum topics, and hang out until it’s bedtime
Route selection
By design, we do not follow fixed itineraries. Instead, each group is assigned a starting point and ending point (usually the same location, except for the Alaska trips), and given a “Core Route.”
Katie and I plot the Core Routes, sometimes with input from guides. We account for the specified fitness level and technical comfort of the group, and build in opportunities for shortcuts and extensions. Groups are expected to loosely follow the Core Route, but we expect (and want) adjustments to be made, based on the group’s abilities and goals, and on the actual conditions.
Core Routes will vary in difficulty, based on the group and location. Some routes are mostly on-trail, with limited and relatively easy off-trail travel. Other routes are burly, with extensive off-trail travel, significant vertical gain and loss, and frequent semi-technical features.
Paper and digital maps are provided for the Core Route and its potential alternates. About two weeks before the first session, we share the routes with the groups.
You may want to know exactly where you will go before you sign up for a trip and pay the fee, but that’s not the way this program works. And it works quite well — read our testimonials. By being flexible with our routes before and during the trip, we can:
- Better work within strict and competitive wilderness permit systems
- Respond to real field conditions (e.g. weather, water levels, snow conditions)
- Fine-tune them to closely match the abilities and goals of the group
- Elevate the sense of adventure and allow for exploration, since we’re not just offering standard “tours” on routes that guides have done many times before
2026 Signature Series
For our 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: Glen Canyon (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 2025 this group completed the southern half of the Overland Route, from Scorpion Gulch to Beryl Canyon. It involved 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). For 2026, the most likely itinerary is the Stephens/Fold Loop, as described exactly in Canyoneering 3 or modified slightly to perfectly match the time available.
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
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. Well, here you go.
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 (regularly if ever). Curriculum topics may include advanced anchor construction and assessment, Leave No Trace/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; 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 (7 and 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 (GAARHR). I’ve done about two-thirds of the route already, but always in short sections and in some cases many years ago. So for the next two seasons (2026 and 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: Yosemite High Route or Kings Canyon High Basin Route (11 days)
The Yosemite High Route is a circumnavigation of the remote upper headwaters of the Tuolumne and Merced Rivers. Encompassed within America’s third national park, seventy percent of the route’s core 94 miles is off-trail. It climbs or descends 630 vertical feet per mile, and crosses just one road.
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.
Depending on permit acquisition, the California 11-day Signature Series group will take on a long section of one of these routes. 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.
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: Peak bagging (7 days)
The focus of this trip will be on tagging summits, not hiking beneath and between them as we normally do. Wilderness permits will dictate whether this trip is run in Sequoia-Kings, Yosemite, or Inyo. In 2025, the Peaks trips took place in Yosemite with groups hitting several summits over 11,000 feet, including Merced Peak, Red Peak, Matterhorn Peak, and Mount Conness.
This route will include scrambles on Class 3 and possibly Class 4 terrain. Sketchy bits will be managed with buddy assists and hand lines; we will not be using ropes, rock protection, or belays, which significantly complicates things and adds a lot of weight. The trip is suitable for individuals who are already comfortable with exposure, who want to learn best practices for alpine scrambling, and who most enjoy itineraries filled with Type 2 Fun.
