BPL Schooling. Worth it? Reviews?

[Ed Biermann]

Hello all. Newish poster that is curious to hear feedback on the classes that BPL offers. I have not found much information from participants after the fact.

Mainly interested in the Wilderness Trekking classes. I am curious about the online bootcamp too.

Anyone?

They ever move around or always take place up there? I'm in the southwest.

[Cayenne Redmonk]

Anyone ?

Bump.

[Richard Rini]

I can provide some good information on the 3 day BPL trekking course ( I took the course about 4years ago ). The course will really depend on your your instructors. I had Mike Clelland and Sam Haroldson as instructors and they were awesome, complete professionals and very instructive and just cool to hang with.

I also took Ryan Jordan's Online boot camp course. I was not pleased with the course logistics but to be objective it was the first launch of the course.

I can provide you much more detail if you like. PM me with your email and I will address your questions.

[Ed Biermann]

Sorry for the delay in response Richard. I am aware of your story. Are there any other people out there who have taken the course?
Fair enough that the classes are new and will take some time to iron out the kinks. Just looking for more feedback before making any kind of decision.

[CW]

I'm one of the "instructors" for the ULBC course (as well as other WTS courses and the WTS Manager), so what I say may or may not count for much. :-)

The ULBC course was something Ryan developed somewhat outside of BPL with the help of myself and a few other members of the UL community. The virtual portion is divided in to modules (hydration, nutrition, packing, clothing, etc.) and you spend some time on each. The materials are mostly PDFs and videos unless you choose to do the mentored and/or trek options. With the mentoring, Ryan will communicate with you directly in regards to your gear choices, etc. The trek is more or less self-explanatory. If you're new to BPL or lightweight backpacking in general, the ULBC materials *should* help you pick up all of the ins and outs at an accelerated pace compared to searching out everything yourself. If you're more experienced, I doubt you'd learn a whole lot from the materials. The trek is a worthwhile investment (treat it like a learning vacation) either way, IMO.

Last year was the first time we've offered the ULBC program and there were definitely some kinks with the virtual portion that we *hopefully* won't experience this year.

The trek itself was excellent and we got nothing but positive feedback on that. Josh Levitt of Ruta Locura (formerly of Titanium Goat) and myself managed to hike something like 24 miles in 2 days while only covering 8 miles of trail. Long story short, we had to evac one of the other guests/students due to some physical ailments on day 2 and catch up on day 3. The rest of the group took advantage of a late break from camp (while waiting for us) by fishing Tenkara style in the alpine lakes. If you've never been in the Rockies, the trek is a great way to experience it without having to do any planning yourself.

[Ken Thompson]

Hey Ed. You can see some more information and video of the classes over at ryanjordan.com They are in his blog section.

[Cayenne Redmonk]

NDA ?

No attendance ?

Has all but one person who has taken a WTS course left BPL ?

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