Hello fellow car nuts. Yeah, most on here are car nuts, but as evidenced by the popularity of Off Topic and many of the discussions about people's other passions, we're a pretty diverse group that loves all kinds of other stuff too.
My passions include backcountry skiing and mountaineering. My profession is teaching.
Every summer I combine my profession (which is also, I suppose, a passion) and mountaineering, and conduct a trip into the Rockies to introduce people to mountaineering. The primary targets of these trips are my daughter and a group of her friends, but we have had "rogue" adults come along, and they have loved the experience.
The trip is focused on learning and fun, and not on frightening people with exposure and highly technical climbing. We learn the very basics and the peaks that we climb are docile as far as technical difficulty goes. However, they do require some specialized skills, and therefore there is something special about the places we access.
We typically go out for 4-5 days, using a very comfy hut (the Bow Hut, located on the Wapta Icefields in northern Banff) as our base. The hut has sleeping bunks with pads, stoves, all cooking utensils, and a wood-stove. It also has an "indoor outhouse" meaning no going outside to visit the biffy. We have to carry in our food, sleeping bags, clothing, and climbing gear, but by not having to bring camping gear, we save space, and more importantly, weight. It's also nice that we can dry out each evening and spend the night warm and comfy.
Here is a trip report from 2011, along with the same offer I'm making in this thread. There is lots of pictures and a ton of info in the thread, so if you're interested, read through.
http://www.autos.ca/forum/index.php/topic,75295.msg736773.html#msg736773We book the trip far in advance for a few reasons, including that we need to get the hut space, and allow for people to book vacation time. I don't have the 2013 dates yet, but will be working them out with those interested in the next month or so. There is the possibility to join closer to the date, space allowing, but not generally more than 30 days prior to departure.
If you have kids, you're MORE than welcome to bring them. The annual event was created to expose kids to this experience.
