Workshop Tour Coach Notes


Meeting Up



Active participation is the point of scenario-based learning. Be sure that the activities have a leader, and that leadership is rotated among the participants.

Appoint the first leader of the tour. Mention that tour leading will change to give every participant a chance at leading.

By this point, all participants know the importance of knowing everyone’s name. This is the time to put introductions into practice. Emphasize the importance of everyone sharing something memorable that applies to outdoor activities to make it easier for everyone to remember names.

Equipment Check



Facilitate the equipment check. Find the GPS units in the tour group. Be sure they are set up for the tour: reset all the trip data, reset the track log, decide who has the best receiver for recording a track of the tour.

Facilitate the discussion of the route and the condition of snow cover in the area.

Route Conference 1



Facilitate sharing information on the destination. Make sure everyone has a map and that the proposed route is marked on those maps.

Non-Mountaineer guests are encouraged to try snowshoeing on Easy and Easy+ level tours. Explain to the scenario group that while incidents are rare, all it takes is a block of ice falling from a tree to turn a fun tour into a stressful accident situation. To make sure that what happens in the woods stays in the woods, the mountaineers need to limit the liability of the club as a whole. Release forms are on this page: https://www.mountaineers.org/membership/membership-forms under the heading: Membership waiver form. A copy of the April 2014 form is appended to the bottom of these Facilitator Notes.

Winter Route Finding



The tour should proceed until the first clothing and adjustment stop. This can also be a time to handle body functions. Not far along after this stop, encourage the tour to take a jaunt away from the planned route. The purpose is to get into some cross country travel where route finding is important to travel efficiency. See if the GPS users can provide some time and distance information so the group can get an idea how fast it is moving. Do this on the flat, through trees, uphill and downhill.

Encounter obstacles and potential hazards. If there are tree wells, ice patches, brushy spots, streams, marshes, blowdowns and more, that is what the tour needs for experience.

Every half hour or so, gather the group and ask for assessments of conditions. Situational awareness needs to be reinforced to become a significant safety factor.

Be sure to get in some uphill practice in making switchbacks. Let every participant have a share in uphill travel.

GPS and Map Coordinates



With the tour up in the woods somewhere, the opportunity presents itself for the group to find its way back to a track to the original destination. Have the group get together to stare at maps, compasses, and GPSes and come up with a bearing and distance to the destination. Have everyone set the bearing into their compass. Head for the destination while getting a feel for rough routing with compass alone.

Tour Progress: Level Ground and Uphill



This was covered in the previous section. Here, the group is challenged to go a little faster in order to see just how much snow can be covered in, say 20 minutes.


Scenario: Incident Response

The 7 Steps of Incident Response are explained in depth in Mountaineering First Aid, 2004 Lentz, Macdonald and Carline, First published in 1972, This book has been the standard mountaineering first aid guide for over 43 years. The book is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. It is available for $12 from the Mountaineers bookstore with the 20% discount with the pomo code ira spring. This scenario is meant to apply to an incident, not just the most serious. The procedures of first aid are not expected to be taught here. The group might be lucky enough to include someone who can deal with injuries in a way that does not aggravate the injury. At the end of this scenario, the group will have an appreciation of what it takes to handle an incident under winter conditions.

Tour Conclusion and Debriefing



Facilitate a discussion on the tour. What went well, what didn’t. Suggestions for the next workshop? Don’t forget making sure all the cars start and everyone on the tour has been accounted for.