Philmont Interest Sign Up

Hi Everyone -

Amazingly it is time again to register Troop 149 Crews for treks at the Philmont Scout Ranch. Philmont is one of the BSA High Adventure Triple Crown and Grand Slam trips. It is known to all Scouts, and most scouts who have been to Philmont consider it the high point of their scouting adventures. Troop 149 tries to attend Philmont every three years. Selection of a unit's crews is by a completely random lottery.

Visit the Philmont website to browse detailed information. As in previous Philmont trips, Troop 149 will be trying to send two crews for the summer of 2017 but there are no guarantees we will get selected. Each crew will take one of the standard 12 day treks described on the website. This means that Scouts and attending adults will be gone for two full weeks for this trip. The entire trip is at high altitude and we will climb as high as 12,000+ feet, so a few days of altitude acclimatization are needed and accounted for with a couple of fun activities in Colorado at the start of the trip and before heading down to New Mexico.

We need to know now if you want to attend. Applications are due in October. The lottery is held in November and we will be notified in December. Here are key facts in deciding if you would like to attend:

Dates: TBD till selected in the lottery but sometime late June to Mid-August 2017

Duration: 14 or 15 days

Cost: ~$2000 per attendee

Requirements: 13 or older, First Class or higher, completion of 8th grade

Priority: Age and rank for Scouts, Adults must be registered leaders

1. Previous Philmont attendees may attend again but will have lowest priority
2. Please note that based on our Troops rotation of BSA High Adventure trips every three years, this will be the only opportunity for going to Philmont with Troop 149 for all Scouts that are currently in grades 8, 9 and 10.

Crew Size: 12 (2 or 3 adults, 9 or 10 Scouts)

Number of Crews: hopefully 2

Training: Commitment to several long extended backpacking trips as well as several long day hikes with increasing amounts of weight in backpacks

1. A note on training: This is a rigorous and demanding physical event. Our crews should anticipate hiking each day for 10-12 miles at elevation and with a full backpack. Plan on backpack weights being between 40-45 pounds. In addition to the training trips, several Scouts have found it necessary to run and lift weights to get ready for the trip.

Sign-up with your interest No Later Than Wednesday, October 21. A signup sheet will be up on the Troop 149 blog shortly, and I’ll send a follow-up email to notify everyone that the sheet is up at that time. Note that no financial commitment needs to be made until we find out our lottery results.

Questions to Art L

NOTE:  You must be 14 years of age or 13 and completed the 8th grade and have achieved the rank of 1st Class or higher by the date of the trek.

Show Interest By Signing Up Here

See Who Else is Interested Here