From Planning to the Trail: Building Essential Outdoor Skills

Editor’s Note: This post begins our Outdoor Skills Essentials series, created for anyone who wants to become more capable and prepared in backcountry environments. Each post introduces practical concepts and skills that contribute to thoughtful preparation, responsible participation, and greater confidence while living and traveling outdoors.

Long before a group reaches the trailhead for a challenging day hike that concludes at the peak of one of Colorado’s 58 Fourteeners, there’s a ton of work to do. That also goes for a multi-day backcountry expedition such as the ones we offer here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE). 

Gear needs to be sorted, the route studied, weather checked, meals planned, and group equipment divided among packs. Participants also need to consider water sources, potential campsites, clothing, travel time, and what conditions or wildlife they may encounter along the way.

All of this happens before anyone takes the first step on the trail, yet each decision from that point onward contributes to what happens once the group starts moving.

At NCOAE, outdoor skills begin with this type of preparation. Participants learn skills and put them to use in environments where their decisions affect how they live and travel in wilderness. Before those decisions involve navigation, campcraft, climbing technique, or other skills in the field, participants need to think through where they’re going and what they’ll need, as well as how they’ll contribute to the group.

Outdoor Skills Begin With an Expedition Mentality

Our Outdoor Skills Essentials curriculum introduces Expedition Mentality as a “mindset of planning, preparing, and acting in order to sustain the emotional and physical safety and comfort of self and community.”

A backcountry experience (even one lasting less than 24 hours) puts people in an environment where individual decisions can quickly affect everyone. The equipment you bring and the responsibilities you accept influence how well the group functions, while your preparation can also determine whether another person in your party needs to compensate for something you or someone else may have overlooked.

Consider the gear being sorted before our activity or expedition. 

• Packing too much could leave you carrying unnecessary weight. 
• Forgetting an essential item could mean relying on someone else’s equipment. 
• Arriving without understanding the expected conditions could leave other group members carrying more responsibility for decisions you could have helped make.

Expedition Mentality asks participants to think beyond their own immediate needs and consider how their choices contribute to the experience everyone shares.

Great Backcountry Expeditions Begin With Great Questions

Trip planning begins with gathering information and asking questions about what’s ahead. For example:

• Where are we going? 
• How long will we be out? 
• What conditions should we expect? 
• What equipment will we need? 
• Where will we find water? 
• What will we eat? 
• What circumstances might require us to change the plan?

The answers influence much of what happens next. A weather forecast can affect clothing, shelter, travel plans, and how much time a group expects to spend moving each day. Terrain can influence footwear, equipment, route choices, and travel pace. Trip length affects food and fuel requirements, while the experience of the people participating can influence how the group approaches the route and other aspects of the expedition.

Planning connects these considerations before immediate decisions become necessary. Since outdoor environments can change, planning also requires you to understand that information available several days before departure may need another look as the trip approaches.

‘GO PREPARE’ Gives Trip Planning a Structure

NCOAE’s Outdoor Skills Essentials curriculum uses the GO PREPARE planning tool to provide a systematic approach to preparing for an expedition. 

• GO = Goals and Objectives
• P = Participants
• R = Resources
• E = Equipment and clothing
• P = Plan
• A = Access
• R = Rationing
• E = Emergency plan

Rather than depending on memory or assumptions, participants have a structure for considering factors that may influence the trip. A repeatable planning process can also help you and your backcountry travelers recognize when new information requires another decision.

Suppose the weather forecast changes after the group has already started packing. A planned water source becomes questionable, travel-time estimates change, or a piece of group equipment becomes unavailable. Each development may affect decisions that seemed settled earlier.

The original plan still provides a starting point, while thoughtful preparation gives the group information it can use to adjust. Outdoor travelers cannot predict every condition they’ll encounter, but they can prepare themselves to recognize changes and respond to them.

Your Pack Reflects Your Preparation

Eventually, many of those planning decisions become visible in what you’re carrying.

What goes into a backpack reflects where you’re going, how long you’ll be there, the conditions you expect, and the responsibilities you’ve accepted within the group. Clothing should fit expected conditions, equipment should serve a purpose, and group gear needs to be divided among participants.

Weight also deserves attention because everything that goes into the pack must travel with you. Organization affects whether you can locate what you need without emptying the contents of your pack when the group should be moving.

This turns packing into more than figuring out whether everything fits. Each piece of equipment raises practical questions: Why am I bringing this? When might I need it? Does someone else have responsibility for a similar piece of group equipment? How would changing conditions affect what I carry?

Learning to answer those questions contributes to becoming more capable outdoors.

Food Is Part of the Plan, Too

Menu planning offers another example of how familiar decisions change in a backcountry environment. At home, choosing a meal can involve little more than opening the refrigerator or making a quick trip to the grocery store. On an expedition, the food you plan needs to travel with the group.

Participants need to consider the length and demands of the trip, what the group will eat, how meals will be packed, and how food will be prepared with the equipment available. Meals also become part of the group’s shared responsibilities.

Thinking through those considerations before departure helps prevent the group from waiting until everyone is hungry to discover that a meal requires something they don’t have. Menu planning reinforces the same mindset that shapes other aspects of an expedition: think ahead, understand what you’ll need, and recognize how your preparation contributes to the group.

The ‘First 48’ Hours Put Preparation Into Practice

NCOAE’s Outdoor Skills Essentials curriculum identifies essential outdoor skills participants should ideally know before an expedition or learn within the initial 48 hours. We refer to these as the First 48.

The concept provides a bridge between preparing for an expedition and participating in one. Planning can help you understand a route, while time in the field requires you to travel through it. Equipment can be carefully selected, while experience teaches you how and when to use it. Meals can be organized beforehand, while someone still needs to prepare them outdoors.

The same progression applies to environmental conditions. A forecast provides useful information before departure, while participants still must observe what is actually happening once they’re outside and consider how those conditions affect the plan.

These experiences also demonstrate how outdoor skills work together. Equipment choices affect travel. Environmental conditions influence decisions about where and how to camp. What participants observe during the day may influence what the group does later.

Outdoor Skills Develop Through Practice

Participants don’t need to arrive at an NCOAE course knowing everything about living and traveling in the backcountry. They should arrive ready to learn and willing to put new knowledge into practice.

Reading a map at home differs from using one to determine your location. Knowing what belongs in a backpack differs from packing it, carrying it, and learning which equipment you rely on most. Understanding that weather affects outdoor travel differs from watching conditions change and considering what those changes mean for the group. The same applies to setting up camp after a day of travel, preparing a meal outdoors, caring for equipment, or taking responsibility for a task that affects everyone.

NCOAE’s experiential approach gives participants opportunities to move from instruction into application. Students can practice skills in context, receive feedback, reflect on their decisions, and continue developing their abilities as the experience progresses.

Over time, practice helps connect individual outdoor techniques into the broader ability to live and travel responsibly in backcountry environments.

What the Outdoor Skills Essentials Series Will Explore

Throughout this series here on the NCOAE Blog, we’ll explore knowledge and skills that help people prepare for, live in, experience, and travel through wilderness and backcountry environments. Upcoming posts will move beyond trip planning into subjects such as navigation, equipment, campcraft, cooking, and other aspects of outdoor travel addressed through Outdoor Skills Essentials.

If you’re considering our Outdoor Skills Essentials course or one of NCOAE’s hands-on outdoor education programs, we want this series to provide a practical introduction to questions you’ll learn to answer through instruction and experience:

• What should I consider before leaving for an expedition?
• How do I prepare for conditions that may change?
• What equipment do I need for the experience ahead?
• How does my preparation affect the rest of the group?
• What skills can help me become more capable and responsible outdoors?

Some answers begin during planning, while others become clearer through experience. Together, they provide a foundation for approaching outdoor travel with greater preparation and personal responsibility.

The Trailhead Isn’t the Starting Line

By the time your group reaches the trailhead, much of the work that shapes the experience should have already happened. If you planned properly, gear has been sorted and packed, the route has been studied, weather checked, meals considered, and responsibilities discussed. Soon, those plans will meet the conditions the group actually encounters.

You and your fellow participants will navigate, travel, prepare meals, establish camps, care for equipment, and respond to circumstances that may differ from what they expected. The decisions made beforehand give them a stronger foundation for doing that work.

Outdoor skills develop in many ways, including what happens on the trail, at a campsite, while climbing a mountain, and throughout an expedition, regardless of its duration. They also develop through the planning and personal responsibility that make those experiences possible.

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