Leadership Training Committee

Our story

In the early 1970s a few visionary Angeles Chapter leaders decided that our outings needed to become safer and better led. From their vision came a new idea: training for every leader of every outing sponsored by Angeles. They created the Leadership Training Committee to conduct the training and the Safety Committee to ensure standards were met and lessons learned. And to keep everybody on the same page, they wrote the original Leader's Reference Book.

Today Angeles conducts the largest volunteer-led outings program on the planet: hundreds of active leaders, thousands of outings, tens of thousands of participants each year. The LRB is now in its 17th edition, and an 18th is on the way.

We invite you to dip into our history through the window of the LRB. The first edition taught climbers how to measure the energy demands of hiking down to the minute. The latest edition uses techniques and technologies, from the Internet to the Global Positioning System, that were unimaginable to our founders.

But our goal remains the same: "To explore, enjoy and protect the wild places of the earth."

Leader's Reference Book

1st edition (1973)
2nd edition (1973)
3rd edition (1974-75)
4th edition (1975)
5th edition (1977)
6th edition (1979)
7th edition (1982)
8th edition (1982)
9th edition (1983)
10th edition (1984)
11th edition (1986)
12th edition (1987)
13th edition (1991)
14th edition (1997)
15th edition (2002)
16th edition (2006)
17th edition (2009)
17th edition revised with new rock checkoffs (2012)

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This page updated 12/22/2011