Whitewater Boating & Guide School

Our most intense, comprehensive and popular Guide course 19+ years running...

This course is designed for those seeking true adventure and comprehensive instruction, enhance personal boating skills as well as summer employment opportunities as river guides for the upcoming season, if desired.
Details will be sent with your enrollment form).

This area in Northern California offers some of the most divers river environment, river volumes, remote scenery and overall epic boating. One will be immersed into the world of river navigation from early mornings to late evenings working on knots, land based rescue scenarios, essentially living and breathing the art of river navigation and all aspects associated with it.

Rivers that are included in our training include the California Salmon River, The south fork of the Salmon, The Lower Klamath, Clear Creek, and potentially sections of the Upper Klamath. These details will be decided in early April. Factors include river levels, weather, and since some of the rivers are free flowing the snow pack will be a factor.

A brief description of the itinerary:
Day one at camp: The first half of the day consists of a camp, gear and location orientation, description as well as an overall introduction to the world of whitewater and guiding. After which you go on the river and begin learning the art of river guiding and all it entails. The evenings consist of discussions of the day’s events and various dry land activities readying us for the next days adventure.
Day 2: From here on it is a rapid and intense succession of river training, rescue and navigation learning exercises. The majority of the course, conducted on the river, learning and experiencing all the skills needed to successfully “guide” in a whitewater environment. As a student you will be exposed to and learning the following: Leadership & Guiding Philosophies, River Hydrology, Reading whitewater, Flipped-Raft Drills, Unwrapping Rafts, Wilderness First Aid for the River, Basic River Rescue, Class II-V River Captaining in a paddle raft as well as an oar rigged raft configuration, Wilderness Camp Preparations, boat rigging, river and guide etiquette, river knots & many more necessary skills to be able to guide in a private or commercial environment.

The week will be spent camping in a wilderness setting along the river, running a river everyday. High Country Expeditions chooses not to try to go to more than 2-3 rivers during this course since with experience we end up spending more time in the vans than on the water. Instead, we set up one or two base camps and stay there for the duration. These rivers offer whitewater experiences from class I-II up to class V. There are only a few locations in the Northwest where all these levels can be experienced on the same river, and we choose our locations to utilize this, for maximum exposure to our students.
This course offers you the opportunity to experience every water level classification with an extraordinary 1:3 instructor student ratio. We are confident this will be more than just an amazing learning adventure, but a lifelong memory as well.
Days do not only consist of running rivers, but also engaging in a wide array of boating exercises. In the evening, relax around the warmth of the campfire while practicing various knots and rope work, and enacting land based scenarios such as camp setup and guest hospitality.
This course is highly recommended for all first year future High Country Expeditions guides, and for anyone else interested in river guiding on a professional level. We are confident that this course will lay the groundwork for anyone seeking to become a professional river guide.

We will also assist those interested in finding work as river guides for the upcoming rafting season, either with High Country Expeditions or one of our many partner Outfitters in the Northwest.
The cost of this true 5 day course is $995.00. This includes dinners, travel, instructors, literature, all boating equipment and necessary gear and maximum river and guiding time.


If employed by  High Country Expeditions and work one season with us you will receive 1/2 of the boating school cost back.