River Guide School ( Basic and Advance River Guide course)

Navigate Outdoor offer whitewater based courses in Nepal. Our excellence is our professional international certified instructor and outdoor leader. we offer two type of courses A. Basic River Guide course designed for fresh newcomers  water enthusiastic to the rafting field, who are yet to guide commercially on whitewater. This course will equip you with the skills and confidence needed to become a commercial guiding on up to level II- III water. Our Advance River Guide course is designed for those who have been commercially guided on up to class III level River or grade rapids and have basic river guide knowledge, but who need further skills in order to be able to lead and guide malty days expedition on level IV-V (Grade IV-V water) river.

Basic River Guide course training

Want to be a river guide? Navigate Outdoor’s basic river guide course and program cover  the full range of river guide/ rafting guide skills; whitewater river guide training, river rescue training. When you complete your river guide training you will have the foundation needed to become a commercial river guide or to lead your own whitewater river expedition on class II-III water. We provide our students with one of the most comprehensive hands on introduction to the profession of river guiding, our course attracts students from all over the world and teach both Nepalese and English language. This is great opportunities for those who want to learn Nepali culture and more.

Navigate Outdoor’s basic river guide course is a truly hands-on outdoor adventure experience. we believe in learning by doing and we focus our energy to having our students experience as much as possible hands-on rather than just being shown or lecture. We believe this makes for a much more effective learning experience and really helps our students retain what they have learned. this guide school encompass not only the fundamental skills of reading white water and maneuvering rafts or kayaks, they also cover knots tying, raft rigging,  river signals, safety talk, dealing with clients/communication, cooking & camping skills, Leave No Trace/ environment effect and conservation, local history, being in the wilderness and the finger points of creating safe, enjoyable river trips and  risk assessment and management. We also offer a 5 to 7 days kayak clinic for those who wants to focus on their white water kayaking skills and sports.

Advance River Guide Course

Navigate Outdoor/ Navigate Rivers advance river guide course will give you the solid educational foundation that critical in the unforgiving river environment. This is a hands – on learning opportunity for class III guides wanting to upgrade their skills to become class VI outdoor leaders. The course including advanced teaching of all the skills covered in the basic river guide course, such as raft maneuvering on class V water, and other advance skills on river rescue techniques. In addition, you will learn how to plan and prepare for a malty days expedition, leadership and communication skills and decision making and risk assessment & management skills.

Our Instructors

Navigate Outdoor provide highly experienced and skilled international level certified leader and Kayakers with lots to share. They are certified from National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and International Rafting Federation river instructor level IV –V, experience and possess up to date Wilderness First Responder (WRF) and Whitewater Rescue Technician (WRT) qualifications.

Course itinerary summary

We start our course in Kathmandu spent two days to prep and teach some soft skills before we head out to the rivers in our boat house. Here we will get to know each other, you will get over view of the course plan for the next three weeks plus days. We learn about and familiarize ourselves with the equipment we will be using over the next three weeks. We also learn how to prepare for a long trip, including meals plan and other supplies for the trip.

Our basic course river guide course start on the Sun Kosi, one of the biggest and longest raftable rivers in Nepal, and a great place to play and learn. This section of the course will focus on teaching outdoor skills, river hydrology and guiding skills including both oar and paddle rafts orientation and maneuvering. We also learn and practice some basic river rescue skills such as self- rescue and raft-recovery rescue techniques.

We’ll spent maximum time on the water and base camp before we proceed malty days expedition which is great but we have limited time before getting in camp and set up.

After we finished first expedition and learn camping and other outdoor skills now we focus running rapids on class II – III water until all the participants get some level of confidence to run rapid without instructor support/help.

We will be camping either Trisuli or Marsyangdi River for practicing guiding raft on rapid and reading skills for 5 days.

By the end of the course you will be provided with a certification of course participation with detailing all the skills and topics covered. If you are willing pay extra we can certify from international rafting federation certification (level 2-3 or 3-4). You will be a proficient class 3/ level II guide with little more practice, will be able to lead trips commercially on Whitewater River internationally and create your own career in the outdoor tourism industry.

Advance River Guide course

Navigate Outdoor offer advance river guide course in several of river in Nepal.  Normally we organize advance guide course that has already guiding skills on class 2 and 3 water more than a season in different rivers. This course designed for skillful who is seeking for more advance skills to guide on commercial rafting world big and technical rivers. Our course takes place some of the best big volume river on Karnali, Sunkosi and Tamor rivers. For the technical advance course we teach on Marsyandi River.