What to expect on different types of trips

Here are some of the most common types of trips we lead, and what they mean! If you have any more questions about a specific trip, please contact the guides through their emails listed on the trip page. For general questions, or to tell us you want to see more of a specific type of trip, Contact Us here.

Day hiking trips

If you’re signing up for a day hiking trip, that means you’ll be heading out to a natural area somewhere to go for a walk. These hikes can vary from a morning stroll along the beach to a challenging all-day trek up a mountain, so make sure you look at the difficulty on the trip page. You can check out our Trip Difficulty Scale here, which explains what those numbers mean. If this is your first time hiking, we might recommend starting out with a 1-4 / 10 on our scale, while those who have some hiking experience or are in very good physical shape could start with a 5-6, and generally 7+ are for those with experience looking for a challenge.

car camping trips

When we say that a trip is car camping, that just means that we will be able to drive up to wherever we will be sleeping, rather than having to walk there. Some trips may stay at established campgrounds, which typically have a bathroom, water, flat place to set up tents, and sometimes fire pits. Other trips may stay at primitive / wilderness campsites, which do not have any facilities, so the guides will provide all the water we need and everyone will have to use the restroom outside. If you’re not sure what type of campsite you’ll be staying at from the trip description and want to know, you can contact the guides with the emails listed on the page to ask.

Most trips will say if they are a good fit for your first time camping or not - typically the difficulty of these trips is related more to the other activities you will be doing like hiking, not the camping itself. We provide all the gear you need (tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, stoves, etc.), and our guides are always happy to show you how to use it and answer any questions you may have!

backpacking trips

Backpacking is a combination of hiking and camping where we pack up everything we need to stay the night into a big backpacking pack (tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, stoves, etc.) and go hiking with it. Once we’ve finished our hike for the day, we will set up camp in the wilderness wherever we are, which is generally not in an established campground, so there will be no facilities. Then the next day we repeat - hiking and camping somewhere else - until the end of the trip.

Backpacking is harder than day hiking, because you are carrying a very heavy backpack the whole time. If this is your first time backpacking, make sure to sign up for a trip that says in the description that it’s open to beginners. On beginner trips, we will usually do easier trails and spend more time explaining how to do everything for people who have never done it before. Once you get used to everything and want more, we also have trips that are for more experienced backpackers to enjoy!

Water trips

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climbing trips

On rock climbing trips, you will have the chance to ascend a vertical rock face / cliff by climbing with your hands and feet. There are different types of climbing, but on our trips we usually top-rope, which means that our guides will set up a rope at the top of the rock face and attach you to it using a harness, then belay you as you climb up so that they will catch you if you fall. There are of course risks with any type of rock climbing, but top-rope is one of the safer methods because if you fall, you should not actually fall more than half a foot before the rope catches you. This makes it a great way to try out rock climbing outside for beginners!

Most of the climbing trips we lead are geared towards beginners, but we always provide more details in the trip description. If you are a more experienced outdoor climber, you are always welcome to come, but know that you might not get the chance to try really hard routes or lead climb - for more details contact the guides leading the trip you are interested in.

snow trips

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basecamp trips

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