Curriculum

Our comprehensive navigation course equips students with the skills to confidently plan and execute backcountry travel using a combination of modern tools and traditional techniques.

Students Will Learn

  • Pre-Trip Planning
  • Analog Map and Compass Techniques
  • Digital GPS Techniques
  • Terrain Association
  • White-Out and Green-Out (thick brush) Navigation
  • Route-Finding Techniques
  • Understanding Lat and Long and UTM Coordinates
  • Analog Coordinate Mapping
  • Munter Units and Other Mountain Time Planning Techniques

 

Details

This is a classroom-based course held at the AAI Mountain Center at AAI’s headquarters in Bellingham.

The course covers all the baseline skills required to travel in a wilderness setting for hikers, backpackers, snowshoers, skiers, mountaineers, climbers, SAR volunteers, and hunters. After addressing the baseline skills, the course goes much deeper, delving into trip and tour planning at a professional level.

And though the program is classroom-based, instructors use a variety of techniques to teach wilderness navigation. These include:

  • Lecture and In-Person Instruction
  • Multi-Media Presentations
  • Navigation Games and Competitions
  • Analog and Digital Navigation Games and Exercises

 

Course Options

This is an excellent program to add to any entry-level, intermediate or advanced-level wilderness-based program. The additional information learned here in a front-country classroom setting will help you to understand how your instructor or guide is making route-finding choices and wilderness navigation decisions.

The dates for this program have been designed to precede an Alpinism 1 or Alpine Mountaineering and Technical Leadership 2 (AMTL 2). You can also take it after an Alpine Mountaineering and Technical Leadership 1 (AMTL 1).

And of course, the program may be taken on its own without another program.