A while ago, I started thinking about what makes for good trip leading. I finally got around to writing everything down. (Now you know what I do when I’m awake with caffeine late at night.)
I’m sure some of this may be controversial. You may well disagree with my general approach, and you may be right. I know some of the best trips I’ve been on did not follow these ideas. These suggestions are not necessary for a successful trip. I do wonder, however, if they might at least be helpful for someone who is new to running trips and wants things to go smoothly.
So what do you think? Do you agree/disagree? Am I thinking about trip-leading entirely the wrong way? Are there things I missed? You can tell us all in the comments at the bottom!
1. Post on the trip agenda a month in advance.
The further ahead you post, the more participants you’ll get. You can certainly post a trip only a week in advance, but fewer people will sign up.
2. Give as much detail as possible on the trip agenda page.
You want as much detail as possible for two reasons. First, the more info you give participants, the better they will be able to grasp whether the trip is a good fit for them. If the trip is not a good fit, it’s best if they figure that out now. Second, writing out the details makes your life easier. A detailed trip agenda page doubles as an outline for the pre-trip meeting. You’re going to have to prepare for the pre-trip meeting anyway. You might as well just put in the work now.
A good trip agenda page will probably include:
- Short introduction—why should you go on this trip?
- Skills and experience required.
- Pre-trip meeting—where and when.
- A map with the intended route (links to AllTrails etc. work great).
- An itinerary that says where and when you will go (e.g., meet at the Pemberton McDonald’s at 8 o’clock).
- A link to a weather forecast.
- A list of the gear everyone should bring, with a link to the gear hours page.
- Links to trip reports and beta, if there are any.
- A reminder that you aren’t a guide and that participants are responsible for their own safety.
Here is an example with lots of details. This one also includes everything but is more concise.
3. Set clear required skills and don’t make exceptions.
Decide what skills people need. Put it on the trip agenda page. Stick to it. You don’t want woefully unprepared people who will cause problems on your trip. Unless that’s the kind of trip you’re going for.
4. Schedule a pre-trip meeting on a Tuesday or Wednesday before the trip.
Assuming your trip is on a weekend, it works well to hold your pre-trip meeting the Tuesday or Wednesday beforehand. This way people have time to rent gear after the meeting. You don’t want to have the meeting too soon, though, because then you’ll have people contacting you wanting to join despite having missed the meeting.
5. Send an email reminder about the pre-trip meeting the day before it happens.
Otherwise no one will remember. I speak from experience.
6. Determine the participants at the beginning of the meeting.
That way people who didn’t make the trip don’t waste their time.
7. Use your trip agenda page as a meeting outline.
Now your prior work pays off! Talk through everything on the trip agenda page. Of course, you may want to talk about other things too. What you don’t want to do is just talk about random trip-related stuff, without a plan, because you’ll inevitably forget something important.
8. Assume people know nothing.
Unless you’ve verbally checked with participants that they have specific skills, don’t assume that people have any outdoors knowledge at all. For example, if you’re running a beginner-friendly trip to Phelix Hut, tell people that they should use a hiking backpack, not a duffel bag, and that there aren’t any showers or cooks at the hut. These misunderstandings have happened before. Don’t let them happen on your trip.
9. Tell everyone when the gear hours are.
That way they’re more likely to actually go and not later ask to borrow your gear because they missed all of the gear hours.
10. Plan who will bring safety gear and safety skills.
If you have a first-aid issue on your trip, you will be glad if you already know who has first-aid training.
11. Be safe but minimize extra gear. Light is fast and fast is safe.
Plan to bring what you need to be safe. Don’t bring lots of heavy, unnecessary stuff “for safety”. You’ll just move slowly and hold everyone up and get caught out in the dark and create safety problems. Again, I speak from experience.
12. Determine emergency contacts.
There are two strategies. As trip leader, choose one, then discuss.
Option 1: Everyone has their own private emergency contact who is told to call the police if they don’t come back. Everyone gives their emergency contact a trip plan–maybe that nice trip agenda page that you made before?
Option 2: You have a single emergency contact for the group who will call the police if you don’t come back. That person has everyone’s name and phone number, as well as the trip plan.
13. Tutor everyone on how to get the map.
If you tell everyone, “Yeah, here’s a GPX file, put it in your favourite mapping app before the trip,” only half the participants will actually do this. The rest will forget or not be able to figure out how. You need to walk everyone through the process. If anyone doesn’t have a mapping app yet, help them download your favourite mapping app and get the map set up for the trip.
14. Discuss contingency plans.
Discuss what you will do if things go wrong. For example, if the weather forecast turns bad, is there somewhere else we could go instead? If someone gets injured, is there a shorter option we could use to get out of the backcountry?
15. Email everyone a summary of the meeting.
We all forget things.
16. Expect people to bail.
Some people bail because they decide your trip is too scary. This can be a good thing. If someone is not suited to a trip, it may be better if they bail than if they come and potentially cause problems. Ideally, you’d like them to bail sooner rather than later, which is why you give lots of details on the trip agenda and at the pre-trip meeting.
Other people will bail because they get sick, have to study for a midterm, or found a trip that’s more fun than yours. That’s OK. It always happens. But definitely mark them as bailed on the signup page so there’s no confusion about who is actually going on the trip.
17. Manually assign people to cars in a spreadsheet.
Sometimes trip leaders ask participants to sign themselves up for a car group in a spreadsheet. In my experience, this usually leads to inefficiencies, with people who live close together going into different cars.
It’s better if you ask participants to put their name, phone number, and address in the spreadsheet. Afterwards, you can sort everyone into efficient car groups.
18. Assume people will not bring essential items: so bring extra.
People forget headlamps. That’s why I usually bring three. And if you bring extra ski straps, you will soon become everyone’s best friend.
19. Know how many people there are.
Count everyone at the start so you know whether you’ve lost someone.
20. Stick together in a large group with a sweeper, or break into smaller self-sufficient teams.
On some trips, where route-finding is simple, it makes sense to allow people to spread out, with an experienced person at the front and an experienced person at the back. Then everyone can go at their own pace. The experienced person at the back is called the “sweeper”. Their job is to help out anyone with problems and generally maintain good morale among the slowest people. It’s useful for the sweeper to communicate with the person at the front by radio. As trip leader, you can rent radios during gear hours.
Another option is to break into smaller teams. Three to five people is a good number for communication and decision-making. Make sure each team has appropriate gear and skills to be self-sufficient. You should usually avoid teams of six or more people unless there are dangers that warrant sticking together. With larger groups, it’s tricky to consult everyone when making decisions, and people tend to wander off.
21. Take food breaks.
During a long day, it can be tempting to keep pushing into the night without stopping for dinner. After all, wouldn’t it be nice to eat dinner at the campsite rather than in the middle of the trail somewhere? Unless you have only very easy terrain, however, it’s usually worth it to stop and cook food at the usual dinner time. After eating warm food, you will feel much happier, travel much faster, and be much less likely to make stupid mistakes. The same logic applies to snack and water breaks. This is not just a matter of comfort, but of safety.
It is especially important to remind beginners to eat food and stop for lunch and dinner. Beginners will sometimes forget to assess whether they should eat because they’re just kind of going along with things.
22. Check in regularly.
A simple “How’s it going?” shows people you care. It is essential to create an atmosphere where participants feel like they can discuss how they are feeling. The last thing you want is participants afraid to speak up.
23. People come before the objective.
Sometimes you have slow people, broken gear, bad conditions, etc. that prevent you from completing an objective. That’s OK. Make the best of it and don’t let any disappointment show. Never allow your desire to complete an objective to trick you into making a decision that compromises safety.
If you really really want to bag a certain peak or ski a certain line, you should set a high bar for requisite skills, experience, and fitness, and communicate this as frequently as possible (on the trip agenda, in a reminder email, at the pre-trip meeting, etc.). That way you’re less likely to have people slowing you down. But even then, people come first.
24. Crystallized ginger and electrolyte mix are your friends.
Crystallized ginger calms an upset stomach and gives salt and sugar. Electrolyte mix is good after exertion and after vomiting. Both are lightweight.
25. Have fun.
Remember, you’re doing this because you enjoy it. Don’t worry about having a perfect trip. Everyone on your trip will be grateful for what you’re doing, so get out there, don’t worry too much, and have fun!
26. Publish a trip report.
Write it yourself, or find someone else to write it. Just get a #!?& trip report on the VOC website. You will immortalize that awesome thing that happened—and pass on beta to future trip leaders.
Wow, good bit of writing.
I think if you are in grizzly bear country you should travel in groups of 6 or more.
If going somewhere you should perhaps describe how far it is in what direction how long a drive, and what you owe to your driver for gas.
There seems to be a chronic shortage of cars lately. Including addresses on member lists might encourage people to drive. If I live in North Van I don’t want to drive to UBC to get passengers.
Nice writing! I especially liked number 22. Seems like regular checkins can really benefit the success and avoidance of disaster on a trip, plus everyone just feels more connected!