In the early spring of this year, the Outreach Committee presented four GDT trip preparation, planning, and helpful advice webinars:
- Webinar 1: Women’s Hiking/Backpacking Webinar
- Webinar 2: Risk Management Webinar
- Webinar 3: Planning a Hike Along the Great Divide Trail Webinar
- Webinar 4: Training for Your Hike Webinar
These webinars were well attended. For those not able to attend, videos and slideshows of these webinars are posted on the GDTA’s YouTube channel.
Links to these videos and slideshows are also included here for your reference.
The GDTA profusely thanks all the webinar panelists and contributors for all their time spent in preparing and presenting these webinars. And a special big Thank You to Austin Hager for organizing all these webinars, making them happen, and providing videos and slides of them.
Women’s Hiking/Backpacking Webinar
March 2, 2023
This was a webinar for women and by women.
The three panel speakers were Charlene Deck, Nicole Dubeta, and Eloise Robbins, all very accomplished thru-hikers, having all hiked the GDT. Additionally, they’ve hiked other long distance trails including the AT, CDT, PCT, and other trails.
During this webinar, the panelists addressed questions and issues that women typically have about topics such as hiking solo, taking up backpacking, gear, hygiene, safety, and other pertinent issues. Drawing from their vast experience, this was a very informative and relevant webinar.
Risk Management Webinar
March 9, 2023
This webinar discussed risks due to the “elements” – water crossings, snow hazards, and heat, when hiking the GDT. Facing these challenges and reducing their risk level to achieve a successful hike, was the theme of this webinar.
Austin Hager, a GDT thru-hiker and active GDTA member, brought his expertise to this webinar. Josh Wiebe, a GDT thru-hiker and water resources engineer drew upon his vast knowledge to unlock the mysteries of confronting tough water crossings.
The four main topics of this webinar were:
- Safely managing river crossings on the GDT
- Managing snowpack along the GDT
- Managing the heat
- Water carries
Places along the GDT where these risks are highest were presented and discussed.
Here is this webinar’s video with its slide presentation:
Planning a Hike Along the Great Divide Trail Webinar
March 16, 2023
This webinar began by introducing the Great Divide Trail Association and key facts of the Great Divide Trail (GDT). From there, each section, was discussed with an emphasis on planning information – access, campsites, permits, resupply options, and town facilities (accommodations, food, gear, stores, etc). Alternates were also discussed for each section.
Unfortunately, the audio was not captured for this webinar. However, the slide show with many of these details and gorgeous pictures is on the GDTA YouTube channel. Here is this webinar’s slideshow:
Training for Your Hike Webinar
April 6, 2023
This webinar featured Dr. Morgan Brosnihan, owner of Blaze Physio. She specializes in thru-hiker injury prevention and helping thru-hikers achieve their goals.
The main topics discussed were:
- Common hiking injuries
- Training and other preparation for hiking to reduce injury
- On-trail injury mitigation and care
This was a very detailed and pragmatically useful video.
Here is the video of this webinar:
