High Adventure Leadership Trek Training

This past weekend, I participated in the final session of High Adventure Leadership Trek Training (HALTT). This training is for scouting adults who wish to lead high adventure activities for older boys.  


 The HALTT training consists of two classroom sessions, one weekday night, one full day Saturday, and an overnight backpack at Mataguay. The council’s high adventure training has a long storied past. It has been in exisitence since the 1960’s, and the current director Val Leonard has been running it since 1984!   The high adventure team is a group of seasoned, extremely experienced (thousands of backpack miles), and knowledgeable old timers. 


These guys are current on the latest ultra-light back packing philosophy and techniques.  This fully loaded pack weights less than 20 lbs with food and 100 ounces of water!  They have created a shopping list for a new scout to equip a fully loaded ultra-light pack to cost less than $100.  


 We are super fortunate to have this resource. This training does come at a cost, and most of us can budget for over a couple years. The entire three day course, which is taught by no less than 8 different experienced instructors costs a whopping $6.00. Yes, you read that right six dollars!      I highly recommend this course to any ASM / adult scouter who wants to learn the basics of leading backpack trips and have a fun weekend outing!


Check out the council training website for upcoming HALTT sessions!  No need to sign up, just show up for the class!  


Here are pictures from the hike at Mataguay:

 Terry Thompson’s ultralight pack.  This fully loaded pack with food and water is less than 20 pounds!