Backcountry Ready · a proposal · working name

A better reason to take the class

More people are heading into the mountains without the basics, and rescue teams are feeling it. Here's a voluntary fix: finish an existing backcountry course, and outdoor retailers take $100 to $200 off your gear.

Rich PriceDenver, ColoradoSeptember 2026Draft for discussion

What rescue teams are seeing

Busier every year

In September, Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team in North Wales reported the busiest month in its history: 59 callouts in August. Their read was blunt. The mountains haven't become more dangerous. More people are visiting, and too many arrive unprepared for the terrain.

Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team callouts

2026 is the team's own projection. Sources 1–2.

Colorado's Alpine Rescue Team reshared the post, saying we may be headed the same way here. They added a line I'd put on every trailhead sign: the Ten Essentials “are not nine oz. of water and hope.”

Colorado doesn't publish one statewide count. A 2022 study for Colorado Parks and Wildlife put it at about 3,600 search and rescue incidents a year, the most of any state, answered by roughly 2,800 volunteers. Rescue here is free. The $5 CORSAR card helps teams cover their costs, but it isn't insurance and it isn't training.3–4

The idea

Reward the class instead of requiring a license

Good courses already exist. What's missing is a reason for the people who most need them to show up. So give them one.

  1. 01

    Take a course that already exists

    The Colorado Mountain Club and others teach the Ten Essentials, navigation, weather and what to do when things go wrong. No new school, no new curriculum.

  2. 02

    Get a completion code

    The course provider issues it. It says you finished a course. It doesn't say you're an expert, and nobody is certifying anyone.

  3. 03

    Use it once at a participating shop

    $100 to $200 off gear, from a co-op like REI to the local running store. That's about the price of a multi-week course, so the class pays for itself the first time you gear up.

  4. 04

    The store carries the message

    Class dates and a short explainer at the register, right where people buy their first running vest or headlamp.

Voluntary, start to finish. Nobody needs a card to go outside. The discount is the hook. The class is the point.

Why not a license

Other places have reached for rules

About ten years ago I was in these conversations with some well-known international trail runners, back when licensing to enter the wilderness was being floated in Europe. None of us wanted that here. I still don't. But the pressure behind those ideas hasn't gone away, and you can see where it leads.

Italy

Since 2022, skiing off-piste in avalanche terrain means carrying a transceiver, shovel and probe. It's the law.5

Mont Blanc

A required-kit order on the main route in 2017. This August, the local mayor made 32 climbers pay for their own helicopter ride down.6

Nepal

Foreign trekkers have needed a licensed guide since April 2023.7

New Hampshire

The state can bill hikers it finds negligent. A voluntary $25 Hike Safe Card generally exempts holders.8

Closer to home: in 2017, five climbers died on Capitol Peak near Aspen in six weeks. A letter in the Aspen Times called for a permit system. What actually happened was education. The sheriff's office and Mountain Rescue Aspen started a peak-safety program.9–10 That's the instinct this builds on.

Who it's for first

Start with trail runners

I'm one, so I'll say it. We go light and fast, often without a helmet, and we cover a lot of ground in a short weather window. We're also the least likely people to sign up for a hiking class.

A discount on the shell, headlamp and vest we were going to buy anyway changes that. There's a gap to fill, too. The Colorado Mountain Club doesn't list a course built for runners. A short light-and-fast version, built around what fits in a race vest, would be a good first addition.11

The baseline

The Ten Essentials

The list grew out of The Mountaineers' climbing courses in the 1930s. It's organized by job rather than by product, which is why it still works for a runner carrying a small vest.12

  1. Navigation
  2. Headlamp
  3. Sun protection
  4. First aid
  5. Knife
  6. Fire
  7. Shelter
  8. Extra food
  9. Extra water
  10. Extra clothes

For runners on scrambles and loose ridgelines, I'd add an eleventh: a helmet.

What's in it for partners

Everyone gains, and nobody runs a new program

Outdoor retailers

A new customer who walks in ready to buy a full kit, and a safety story that isn't a lecture.

Course providers

Students who'd never have found them, and a reason for members to bring friends.

Rescue teams

Better-prepared people on the trail, with no new work. No rescue team runs, certifies or staffs anything.

Runners and hikers

A class that pays for itself the first time you gear up.

The pilot

Small, local, one season

  1. Fall

    Agree on what counts

    Talk with course providers and a rescue team about which courses qualify.

  2. Winter

    Sign two shops

    One running specialty store and one larger retailer. Simple single-use codes.

  3. Spring

    First codes go out

    Timed to the spring course season, 2027.

  4. Summer

    Count and decide

    Sign-ups, redemptions and what graduates actually carry. Then grow it or stop.

An honest caveat: one season won't show fewer rescues. It can show whether a discount moves people into classes, and that's the part worth testing first.

Interested?

For a spring 2027 pilot on the Front Range, I'm looking for one course provider, a rescue-team advisor and two shops. If that's you, or you know who it should be, reach me through richardprice.com.

Rich Price