New Student Welcome
So you’ve registered and paid for the online course. Now what?
Instructors
To help me run this course we have Program Manager Hunter Hall, who should be your primary contact and who will be posting most of the materials; and a team of instructors — Ella Nuttelman, Mikaela Osler, Tina Currin, Jose Mendez, and Witt Wisebram — who bring their own expertise and who will review your work.
Co-Director Katie Gerber helps oversee the operations.
Join Classroom
A few days before your course is scheduled to begin, you will receive an email invitation to join our Google Classroom. Please accept it. Note: This invitation is sometimes flagged as spam.
If this direct invitation is unsuccessful, you can join Classroom manually with a code from us.
To access and use Classroom, you must login with a Google account. If you don’t already have one, you’ll be prompted to create it.
Join Google Group
Last year we started using Google Groups for the exclusive use of participants of our guided trips and online planning course. You will be added to the Planning Course Google Group.
The Group will not house any essential information, but it is a valuable communication tool with your classmates. We hope you will use it to:
- Find hiking partners;
- Exchange trip reports, gear reviews, and tips; and,
- Buy and sell gear.
Gear Guide
You will be mailed a signed copy of The Ultimate Hiker’s Gear Guide. Some sections are required reading, and other sections will be helpful in completing the assignments.
If you live outside the US, you will be contacted directly and instructed to purchase a copy online.
Freebies and discounts
Instructions to redeem the CalTopo subscription will be distributed during the module on mapping.
Redemption instructions to our other recommended vendors will be sent after the first four assignments. In particular, you will be required to:
- Introduce yourself to your group;
- Submit a goal trip;
- Research environmental and route conditions;
- Participate in the fitness module; and,
- Submit a gear list.
A High Route download coupon is given upon the completion of a course evaluation. This is to solicit feedback to increase the value of this course for future students.
This standard is by design. We want students to engage with the content, not simply register for the perks.
Schedule
The full curriculum and schedule is available.
Expectations
The total anticipated time commitment is 8 to 24 hours, depending on your existing knowledge and your engagement with the materials. Like most things, the more time and thought you put into it, the more you will get out of it.
Start thinking about…
At the start of the course, you will need to select an overnight trip that will be used as the foundation of the course. This “goal trip” should be interesting to you, appropriate for your skill set, and realistic.
Important trip details include:
- Where?
- When?
- For how many days?
- With who?
- How many miles or how much vertical? And,
- What style, in terms of camping versus hiking?
If you don’t have a particular trip in mind, we can help you identify one.
Many of our students are aspiring thru-hikers, and the 9-week course proved too quick for them to plan their entire trip. So for the sake of this course, our recommendation is to select a small section of a thru-hike, which will be more manageable. After the course is over, reapply what you learned to the rest of the trip.
Contact us
Hunter Hall will be your primary point of contact. Email him at [email protected].
You can also contact Andrew.