The title of this post is the premise of our River Crossing Skills course and we ran our first one of the season this past weekend. Thankfully we had great weather, nice water conditions, and the bugs along the river weren’t too terrible. We aren’t always blessed. We run this course any time and sometimes it’s not ideal — because we cross rivers year ’round — but doing this on a warm, summer day is an absolute blast. Not only do our students learn in less trying conditions, but it’s just more fun and that is conducive to learning. Crossing rivers is one of the most dangerous activities hikers face, knowing this material, knowing how to use that judgement skill, is critical. Fun makes it best. Here are a few photos of our first 2019 class.
Test fit helmets, classroom brief complete, let’s get out there. (The food is for some up-coming backpacks.)
Helmets are for safety on the first part of the course where we discuss using rock hopping methods.
We are fortunate in our upstream crossing exercise to find a natural bridge.
It was a two-way crossing.
After all other crossing methods have been covered, we change locations and talk fording.
We teach individual as well as team fording methods. Here he is breaking the flow for his smaller partner.
Here we push our limits in a controlled way. We have to find out what we can safely do. Finding the edge of their comfort zones.
Congratulations class. When it comes to river crossings, you guys have a distinct edge over a lot of other hikers.
Well done, students. Thank you for choosing Redline Guiding.