Wilderness Guide Training Level 1

Wilderness Guide Training Level 1. Do you want to follow your passion for nature and the outdoors? Do you want to be a wilderness guide? If so, then this is the course for you.

This is an official Level 1 frontcountry training course of the Wilderness Guides Association (WGA), presented by Bigtime Aventura. This course takes place in Spain and is composed of two 14-day modules. There is a summer module and a winter module. Each module is separate and can be completed on its own by anyone that is interested in learning how to be self-sufficient in the outdoors. However, to be considered for guide certification you must successfully complete both modules, in any order.

Wilderness Guides Association Standards

According to WGA Level 1 standards, after completing both modules for 28 days of total training with an official WGA training institute, the next step is to complete 28 days of internship training. Then you will be awarded the WGA Level 1 Frontcountry Guide certification. It takes commitment, motivation, passion, desire, and time but it's all worth it for a rewarding and exciting career in the outdoors.

Course Objectives

The intention of this course is to build a solid foundation of practical skills and knowledge that will allow you to safely, efficiently, and successfully take people into wilderness areas. This Level 1 frontcountry guide course prepares you to share information and experiences with participants in remote areas within your Level 1 capacities of professioinal training.

A keen interest in the natural world, a particular sense of outdoor awareness, and ability to effectively communicate with people are instrumental to becoming a wilderness guide. Consider this course a vital step in your path to professionalism in the field of wilderness guiding and your ticket to a rewarding career in nature and outdoor environments.

Course Contents

The subject matter will focus on the hard skills. These are the hands on physical techniques that drive you through the course and real life situations in the wilderness. The hard skills are the lifeblood of wilderness guiding and spending extended time in remote, wild, and natural places. Mastery of these skills is essential for a wilderness guide. The skills taught in this course will improve your general outdoor skills while focusing on how to guide people in the wilderness.

During the course, the soft skills will also be developed such as leadership styles, group dynamics, client behavior and psychology, how to effectively communicate with peers and participants while under physically and mentally challenging conditions, how to design, organize, and execute wilderness expeditions. You will have ample opportunities to mock guide your classmates during immersive expeditions in the course.

It is the combination of hard skills and soft skills that is required of a wilderness guide. Being competent in only one of them isn't sufficient. A guide must be comfortable in conditions that will make most people uncomfortable. This means mastering the hands-on technical skills and the psychological skills necessary to maintain stability and morale in the group regardless of external conditions that are out of your control.

Course Outcomes

Topics will be introduced throughout the course and practiced, revisited, and repeated thoroughly. Basic skills can be tweaked and utilized in each of the different ecoregions and seasons encountered in this Level 1 course. Continual practice, steady improvement, and constant mock guiding will prepare you to be a frontcountry guide.

Upon completion of this course, your self-confidence will be justifable high and you will be well-prepared to spend extended time guiding in frontcountry terrain and providing a comfortable experience for your group.

Location: Picos de Europa, Spain

Ecoregions: Atlantic and Temperate Broadleaf Mixed Forests

This is a great module to take if you're interested in becoming a Level 2 backcountry guide in the Boreal or Arctic ecoregions

Picos de Europa is a national park in northwestern Spain. There are several different microclimates in and around the park, based on influences from the Atlantic Ocean, the high central plateau of the Iberian peninsula, and dramatic changes in elevation. This variety allows us to visit and train in several different ecoregions and environmental zones inlcuding lush dense forests and subalpine areas.
Basecamp: Serviced campground to the south of Picos de Europa National Park, in the province of León. We will have access to amenities including bathrooms, hot showers, a general store, a restaurant, and a campsite.
When we stay at basecamp, we'll train in the woods or mountains nearby during the day and return in the afternoon/evening.
Field camps: We will spend several days and nights away from the basecamp, doing multi-day overnight trips focused on mock-guiding and training.

Bushcraft

Knife, saw, and axe craft: Learn how to safely and effectively use these vital pieces of gear. These are essential skills of a wilderness guide.
Winter shelters and wilderness camping:Learn to choose optimal locations and construct effective shelters, with natural materials and with tarps. Tarp configurations to maximize warmth, stealth, or views. Natural materials like fallen trees, leaf piles, and snow. Quinzee and snow cave construction. You will sleep in your own snow shelter!
Fire construction and management: Learn about fire and how to make fire with your own hands using a ferrocerrium rod. Mastering fire-making is one of the most important skills of a wilderness guide, especially in winter.
Water: learn methods to locate, filter, and purify water. Learn how to melt snow, how to choose the snow.
Cooking: Learn how to cook on natural gas and open fires, how to prepare food in the winter, and what foods to eat and what to avoid.
Personal hygiene: Learn and implement healthy hygiene habits in winter conditions.

Survival

Survival: Physical and psychological approaches. Learn to develop resilience in extreme and challenging winter conditions.
Tracking: Learn the basics of how to track animals. The winter, with fresh snow, is probably the best time of year for learning to track.
Trapping: Learn how to make and set basic traps for small animals.
Solo: Complete a 24hr solo to test your physical and psychological skills.

Environmental

Ecology: Learn about ecological systems in winter and how they can help you understand your surroundings.
Geology: Understand the geological features and how they provide clues to your surroundings.
Flora and Fauna: Learn about the plants and animals present in winter conditions and how their presence provides clues to the area.
Plant identification: Learn about basic medicinal, edible, and non-edible plants and berries in the winter.
Animal safety: Learn to appreciate animal behavior and how the presence of certain animals provides vital information for natural resource procurement.
Seasonality: Understand, respect, and train in winter conditions.
Sustainability and leave no trace practices: Learn and practice low-impact travel methods.

Navigation

Navigation: Learn how to navigate in the winter with map, compass, map & compass, GPS, natural features, and celestial navigation.
Orienteering: Search for waypoints, man-made and natural.

Avalanche Awareness and Snow Science

Basic Snow Science: Learn about snow and water's amazing capacities as a liquid, solid, and gas.
Basic Avalanche Awareness: Learn how to assess snow stability and slopes.
Avalanche Rescue: Practice rescuing victims caught in an avalanche.

First Aid and Self-Rescue

First Aid: Learn, review, and practice basic first aid in remote natural areas.
Self-rescue and signaling: Learn strategies to effect self-rescue including different signaling methods for search parties.
Rope work: Learn some basic ropework techniques that can help you in the winter.

Leadership

Leadership, group dynamics, client behavior and psychology: Learn how to evaluate client behavior to apply specific leadership methods to manage group dynamics.
How to be a guide: Learn what it means to be a wilderness guide and how to become a responsible guide.
Plan, execute, and full-immersion guiding: Complete immersion during multi-day frontcountry expeditions in the winter. Learn the skills and develop the knowledge required to design, organize, execute, and guide in winter conditions.
Business development, networking, client communication: Learn how to develop a business plan, network within the guiding profession, and reach out to potential clients.

Location: Valencia, Spain

Ecoregions: Mediterranean and Continental

This is a great module to take if you're interested in becoming a Level 2 backcountry guide in the Desert or Boreal ecoregions

The province of Valencia extends from the Mediterranean Sea (sea level) to the beginning of the high plateau of central Iberia where it reaches over 1000m of elevation. This change in altitude causes a change in ecoregions from the Mediterranean to Continental. We'll spend time in the interior part of the province which allows us to train in both ecoregions.
Basecamps: We will split our time between 2 or 3 unserviced campgrounds in the interior of the province of Valencia. These have running water, toilets, bbq & cooking areas, covered pavillions, and camping areas.
When we stay at basecamp, we'll train in the woods or mountains nearby during the day and return in the afternoon/evening.
Field camps: We will spend several days and nights away from the basecamps, doing multi-day overnight trips focused on mock-guiding and training.