Today, I'm signing up for BCEP. What is BCEP, you ask? I've written before about Mazamas, the mountaineering/climbing/hiking society that I belong to, and which is a good part of the reason that I moved to Portland. Well, one of the things Mazamas does is teach classes on all of the above, and the class that they are best known for - the granddaddy of them all - is BCEP, or the Basic Climbing Education Program. It's a 6-8 week experience that combines classroom education, in-the-field hiking and climbing experience, and an overnight backpacking trip. It's not necessarily cheap - I believe it's $379 for members - but from what I've heard it's worth every penny. You're separated out into 12-person teams, each with their own instructor and one or two assistant instructors. Everyone is a volunteer, which is how they're able to keep the price down. (Believe it or not, a program like this from a private source - assuming you could even find one - would be over a thousand dollars, easy). If you're interested in more details and you're in the Portland area, there's an information night on Monday. If you're just curious, check out this link for more information. We're going to learn the basics of hiking and climbing a mountain, and more importantly, we're each going to emerge with a team of 12 or so people that we trust and can go climbing with on weekends.
I can't wait!
