10-Week Wilderness Travel Course Will Begin Monday in Long Beach

The Sierra Club’s annual Wilderness Travel Course will begin Monday, teaching would-be mountaineers about the basics of safe travel on rock, snow and desert terrain.

The 10-week course includes weekly meetings at 7:30 p.m. Mondays at Stanford Junior High School in Long Beach for lectures, films, demonstrations and small-group practice sessions. Four field trips are scheduled on weekends to the local mountains, Joshua Tree National Monument and the Sierra Nevada.

Other subjects taught by an all-volunteer staff include navigation with map and compass, mountain safety and rescue, winter camping, mountaineering medicine, food planning, equipment selection and physical conditioning.

The cost is $115 for Sierra Club members or $125 for non-members, plus $15 for a textbook. The fee includes a student handbook, maps, chartered bus transportation to two of the outings, completion certificate and award patch. Other expenses may be incurred for rental or purchase of equipment for the trips.

Information is available from the course registrar, Virginia Allen, at (714) 978-1613. Walk-in applicants should report an hour before class Monday in the school cafeteria, 5871 Los Arcos St., Long Beach.

The course will accept about 100 students from throughout Long Beach, the Southeast and South Bay areas of Los Angeles County and all of Orange County. The only other branch of the course is offered in the San Gabriel Valley area.