Wilderness Guide Training Desert

Do you want to be a wilderness guide that specializes in the desert ecoregion? If so, this is the course for you.

This is an official Level 2 backcountry training course of the Wilderness Guides Association (WGA), presented by Bigtime Aventura and Southwest Survival. It is the first WGA-certified Level 2 (advanced backcountry) desert course. It's also the first WGA-certified course in the USA. The successful candidate will earn an official WGA Level 2 certification in the Desert ecoregion.

This WGA Level 2 course requires advanced skills and experience. It's not an introductory course. You will learn new physical and mental skills but before entering this course you should already have a wide array of outdoor experience, knowledge, skills, and proficiency in several ecoregions.

A particular interest and moxie in the desert ecoregion is fundamental to becoming a desert 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 arid regions.

What is a wilderness guide?

A wilderness guide is a person with extensive knowledge and skills in various topics pertaining to the natural world, specifically in remote and wild areas isolated from human influences. It is someone that has completed rigorous professional training and is able to safely and confidently take groups of people into these remote wilderness areas.

A wilderness guide is not a mountain guide. Although there is some overlap in the training and skills of these types of guides, they are two distinct career paths.

A wilderness guide focuses on connections to the natural world, developing knowledge of the areas where they work, the flora and fauna, geology, meteorology, cultural history, and intrepretive guiding. A wilderness guide is a master of bushcraft and survival skills and strategies, they are well-rounded leaders, excellent teachers and communicators, and they understand human psychology and group dynamics. They can plan trips and expeditions, are terrific problem-solvers, and are flexible and adaptable with changing conditions in the field.

Wilderness Guides Association Standards

As with any career path, it is important to be a part of a professional organization that regulates and sets standards for that profession. In the world of wilderness guiding, the Wilderness Guides Association is that organization. It's based in the Netherlands, and the majority of the training institutes are based in Europe, however, there are some in North America. The WGA continues to evolve and expand while maintaining strict standards to ensure that the brand maintains a high standard.

There are three levels of guide certification in the WGA. Level 1 is the first level of training and it is not ecoregion-specific. Currently, Bigtime Aventura offers an official WGA Level 1 course in Spain, which exposes participants to several ecoregions. This augments nature awareness and broadens general outdoor skills and knowledge. Level 2 courses are ecoregion-specific, so the training focuses on skills relevant to the particular ecoregion. In this case, the course focuses on guiding in the desert ecoregion. Level 3 training is also ecoregion-specific and it's based on extensive professional experience.

According to WGA Level 2 standards, after completing a Level 2 course of 28 days of in-person, in-the-field 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 2 Backcountry 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. Joining the WGA connects you to a growing network of wilderness guide professionals across several ecoregions, an important step in building your career.

Course Objectives

The intention of this Level 2 desert backcountry guide course is to develop experienced outdoor recreationalists and WGA Level 1 guides into Level 2 wilderness guides in the desert ecoregion. This one-of-a-kind comprehensive course will guide you through the physical and mental skills necessary for wilderness living, cultivating advanced desert skills, understanding and navigating complex landscapes, and guiding groups in various desert terrain.

Unlike other courses that focus on providing a personal journey and self-enlightenment experience, this course focuses on training you to become a guide in the desert. The personal journey is inherent to this training but in the end you'll also possess the skills to guide others in the desert.

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 gratifying career in the desert ecoregion.

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. The skills taught in this desert course will improve your general outdoor skills while focusing on the application of desert-specific skills.

During the course, the softer 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 desert expeditions. You will have ample opportunities to mock guide your classmates during immersive backcountry expeditions in the course.

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 geographical sub-areas that we'll visit. Continual practice, steady improvement, and constant mock guiding will prepare you to be a desert 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 the desert backcountry and providing a memorable and safe experience for your group.

Overview

The course takes place in the state of Arizona, USA and consists of 28 total days of in-the-field instruction, practice, mock guiding, evaluations, and desert experience. These 28 days consist of two 14-day modules. Each module builds on the previous one with new information successively provided throughout the duration of the course.

In this way, participants will have ample opportunities to learn, practice, refine, and master the skills, concepts, and knowledge necessary to successfully complete the course. The course is designed to maximize the participant’s time and experience in wilderness desert areas while minimizing contact with the modern world. Immersion in the desert is a vital part of the training.

Seasons and Modules

The course is offered in the Fall and in the Spring, each time as 28 consecutive days. Module 1 (days 1-14) and Module 2 (days 15-28) can be completed back-to-back in one season, or separated and completed individually in different seasons. Participants must complete Module 1 before starting Module 2, as skills and concepts learned in Module 1 lead to more advanced practices in Module 2.

For example, if a participant completes Module 1 and Module 2 in the Fall (28 consecutive days), they have completed the in-person training part of the course. However, if they are only able to do Module 1 in the Fall (14 days), then they must complete Module 2 (14 days) either in the Spring or the following Fall.

Registration

Initial registration is open to start in either season. This allows for flexibility in personal scheduling with the intention of providing multiple opportunities to complete the course. Ideally, each participant will finish the course within two years of starting.

These modules are open to anyone, with the proper prerequisites, that wants to improve their outdoor skills, especially those related to the desert ecoregion. However, to be considered for WGA Level 2 Desert Guide certification, both modules must be successfully completed.

Block 1: Advanced Desert Backpacking & Camping Skills and Basic Desert Bushcraft

Duration: 6 days
Location: Low Sonoran Desert
Overview: During the first three days, we’ll sleep in basecamp and explore the surrounding area during the day as we teach and learn skills. The last three days will be spent on a backpacking adventure, taking everything with us and setting up bivouacs and overnight camps in the field. The last night will be part of a 24hr solo for each participant. The aims of this block are to learn navigation, backpacking, camping, basic desert bushcrafting, and guiding in the low desert.

Block 2: Complete Desert Survivor

Duration: 5 days
Location: Desert Mountains and Valleys
Overview: An incredible 5-day immersion into desert wilderness living. Each night we’ll sleep in the basecamp area that we set up but we’ll explore the mountainous terrain nearby during the days. The goal of this block is to introduce more advanced desert survival techniques and strategies, practice them, and learn how to put them into real-world, long-term practice through desert homesteading.

Block 3: Capstone Expedition (putting it all together)

Duration: 3 days
Location: Mountains, Canyons, and Low Desert
Overview: During this final block, we’ll start in a mountainous wilderness area and follow a canyon system downstream to reach lower elevations and higher temperatures. The goal of this 3-day mini-expedition is to put into practice and test all the skills learned during the module. This is the culmination of several skills and concepts associated with the low desert.

Block 4: Advanced Survival and Wilderness Living Skills

Duration: 6 days
Location: High Desert Mountains
Overview: During this 6-day block, we’ll spend half the time at one basecamp and half the time at another basecamp. These basecamps will be connected by a day hike. We’ll spend our time exploring the areas around these basecamps and working on advanced survival and wilderness living skills and guiding skills in mountainous terrain in the high desert. The last day will include a 24hr solo experience with only a knife.

Block 5: Ultralight Trekking and Minimalistic Desert Skills

Duration: 5 days
Location: Canyons and Drainages
Overview: We’ll be on the move and sleeping in different spots each night based on our hiking route. The aim and mantra of this block is, “the more you know, the less you need.” Hence, minimal gear allows each participant to fully challenge themselves and their skillset. You'll learn how to guide in these conditions. The last day will include a 24hr solo with only the gear you have. This will test your knowledge, skills, and resilence.

Block 6: Capstone Expedition (putting it all together)

Duration: 3 days
Location: High Desert Mountains, Canyons, Drainages, and Low Desert
Overview: During this final block, we’ll start in the mountains and follow a canyon system and explore its tributaries for 3 days to reach the confluence with a larger river and open valley where our trip comes to an end. The goal of this 3-day mini-expedition is to put into practice and test all the skills learned during the course. This is the culmination of several weeks of learning, practicing, guiding, and experiencing multiple ecosystems in the Sonoran desert.

Guiding & Leadership Skills

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 backcountry expeditions in the desert. Learn the skills and develop the knowledge required to design, organize, execute, and guide in the desert ecoregion.
Leadership, group dynamics, client behavior and psychology: Learn how to evaluate client behavior to apply specific leadership methods to manage group dynamics.
Daily guiding practice. Each participant leads the group during hiking, technical skills, interpretation, and safety explanations.
Business development, networking, client communication: Learn how to develop a business plan, network within the guiding profession, and reach out to potential clients.
Nightly campfire discussions about guiding and leadership styles and techniques

Wilderness Survival Skills

Survival: physical and psychological approaches, learn to develop resilience in extreme and challenging conditions.
Water: learn methods to locate, filter, and disinfect water.
Shelters and wilderness camping: learn to choose optimal locations and construct effective shelters, with natural materials and ponchos.
Fire construction and management: learn several ways to build a fire in the desert and safely manage it. Fire lays, tinder, and ignition using modern items such as Fresnel lens, ferrocerium rod, batteries & steel wool, and flint & steel. Carve your own sets of primitive items such as bow drill, hand drill, fire saw, and fire plow and learn advanced trouble shooting techniques for fire making success.
Tracking: learn how to track mammals, birds, and reptiles in the desert, including print identification, tracking, and trailing exercises.
Trapping & Fishing: learn how to make and set basic traps for small animals and techniques for catching fish.
Nature Awareness: learn traditional Native American skills to tune in to the environment, how to see and hear more, move efficiently and silently in the wilderness, blend in and approach animals without them knowing you're there.
Flora and Fauna: learn about the plants and animals in the desert including useful properties of plants and making tools from foraged animal parts.
Pocket survival kits: be prepared for the unexpected! Components of a well-rounded emergency kit, including gear selection, survival priorities, and adaptability for different environments.

Advanced Bushcraft

Desert homesteading: learn how to live in the desert, cultivate food, source water, and set up power systems
Knife skills: knife care, sharpening, and woodcarving techniques
Cordage: produce cordage from native plants and use it for bushcraft and survival purposes.
Campfire cooking techniques: Cook a meal on a campfire without modern cookware. Learn how to pit bake, boil using hot stones, and make useful cookware items like tongs, and coal-burned bowls.
Personal hygiene: learn and implement healthy hygiene habits in desert areas, make a toothbrush and source sunscreen from plants.

Environmental & Cultural

Desert ecology and geology: learn about desert ecological systems and geological features and how to understand your surroundings based on natural indicators.
Plant identification: learn about basic medicinal, edible, and non-edible plants.
Animal safety and behavior: learn about desert animals, how to safely co-exist with them, and appreciate animal behavior and how the presence of certain animals provides vital information for natural resource procurement.
Seasonality: train in the desert during changing seasons.
Sustainability and leave no trace practices: learn and practice low-impact travel methods.
Cultural and human history of the Southwest region of the US with a focus on Native Americans
Understand canyons and drainages: Learn how to assess dangers based on land forms, how to cross rivers, floating, scrambling, and avoid flash floods
Altitude and terrain: train in different desert terrain based on changes in altitude.

Hiking and Navigation

Hiking: Learn techniques for hiking, pacing, timing, route planning, alternative routes, escapes, decision points, and safely leading a group in complex desert terrain.
Navigation: Learn how to navigate in the desert with map, compass, map & compass, natural and celestial indicators
Orienteering: Learn orienteering techniques and how to locate man-made and natural markers in the wilderness

Wilderness First Aid and Search and Rescue

Wilderness First Aid: patient assessments, trauma care for common situations, breathing, bleeding, burns, fractures, bites & stings, and medical symptoms from environmental conditions (heat stroke, hypothermia, gastroenteritis, soft tissue injuries, etc.). Practice during several real-life scenarios involving typical injuries and illnesses encountered on desert expeditions.
Self-rescue and signaling: learn strategies to effect self-rescue including different signaling methods for search parties and communication protocols

For each module, there are two main evaluations. Both evaluations from both modules must be successfully completed to pass the course.

During the modules. Participants must pass their in-person, hands-on exams during the modules. These include locating navigation checkpoints, effective shelter construction, campsite selection, campfire cooking, various bushcraft skills workshops, plant and animal knowledge checks, environmental awareness, tracks and signs, guiding a group, and timed exams such as fire-making and orienteering races.
After the modules. Final online exam to be completed within one month of the final day of each module. This is an objective multiple-choice exam with 50 questions emanating from each 14-day in-person module. Therefore, there are two written exams, one from each module. Each exam has 50 multiple-choice questions. A passing grade is ≥70%.

WGA Level 1 certification (or equivalent training/experience. Cases will be assessed individually)
Wilderness CV/resume
Selected individuals will have an entry interview (online conference call)
Wilderness First Aid, Advanced Wilderness First Aid, or Wilderness First Responder certification (needs to be active during the duration of the course)
Positive attitude
Desire to learn and be present
Intermediate/advanced level of physical and mental fortitude
Ability to hike 4-10 miles per day in rugged desert wilderness