Trip Leader School
Trip Leader School is your path to become a CMC Trip Leader. As a CMC Trip Leader, you will be qualified to lead hiking, walking, running, backpacking, and snowshoe trips. Please see below on how to become a Specialty or Technical Trip Leader if you want to lead trips doing other types of activities.
registration
Sign up for CMC Trip Leader School here. Regardless of what CMC group you are affiliated with, this is where you start your CMC leadership journey:
PREREQUISITES TO trip leader school
1. Be a current CMC member.
2. Be at least 18 years of age. Co-leaders 16 years and older are encouraged to apply.
3. Go on at least 3 CMC trips, of which at least one is not a school field trip. Best if the 3 trips are with two different leaders.
steps of trip LEADER school
1. Coassemble Course
Complete the online TLS course. It is roughly 4 hours of material to be read through at your own pace.
2. Wilderness first aid course
Complete a WFA course. If you already have a WFA certificate which has not yet expired and will not expire within six months of when you are starting TLS, you do not have to retake this course until your expiration date.
CMC will cover the cost of your first WFA Course tuition. In exchange for the scholarship, leaders must agree to lead 6 CMC trips over the next 2 years. After you finish this online course in CoAssemble, you will receive an email will instructions on how to register for an upcoming WFA Course.
3. Scenario Session
Complete a Scenario Session field day. The Scenario Session consists of up to 4 hours of discussion where the focus is on dealing with various real-life scenarios potentially encountered when leading trips. Find upcoming dates for Scenario Sessions here:
4. LIT Trip
The LIT trip involves leading a real trip with a Mentor Leader.
The potential new trip leader and the Mentor Leader must fill out the LIT Evaluation Form when the trip is completed. Mentor Leaders will either "Pass" students with sound leadership skills assessed and the student will become a CMC Trip Leader who can start leading trips OR the student will be assessed as "Having Areas of Improvement" and be asked to complete a second LIT trip with a Mentor Leander to achieve their CMC Trip Leader status.
If you plan to lead basic hiking and/or snowshoe trips, the second LIT trip may be of any hiking or snowshoeing classification. Hiking trips are allowed to have portions with difficulty up to class 3 scrambling, but cannot have any advanced technical components such as ice climbing or rock climbing, which have additional requirements.
5. Avalanche tERRAIN AVOIDANCE (ATA)
Avalanche Terrain Avoidance (ATA) is recommended for all CMC trip leaders (regardless of sport or season) and required for leaders who travel in snow-covered areas but do not travel in avalanche prone terrain. If you only plan on leading trips when there is no snow on the ground, you do not need to take ATA.
become a Speciality trip leader
If you want to lead trips other than hiking or snowshoeing trips, you must become a Specialty Trip Leader:
- Fly Fishing Trip Leader
- Biking Trip Leader
- Skiing Trip Leader
- Adventure Travel Leader
No additional steps of Trip Leader School are required to become a Specialty Trip Leader in one of these activities. The only difference is you must lead your LIT trip in your specialty activity of choice, instead of doing an LIT hike. For example, if you plan to mostly lead ski trips as a CMC Trip Leader, do a ski trip as your LIT trip. Choose a Mentor Leader to assess you who is qualified to lead in your chosen specialty activity.
become a technical trip leader
If you want to lead more technical trips, you must become a Technical Trip Leader:
- Top Rope Rock or Ice Climbing
- Sport Climbing
- Traditional Rock Climbing
- Multi-Pitch Rock Climbing
- Ice Lead Climbing
- Alpine Climbing