Basecamp Outdoor School

A digital field ledger that captures instructor sign-offs at the trailhead and syncs when connectivity allows.

What they came to us with.

Basecamp Outdoor School runs wilderness courses for 8,500 students per year. Instructor sign-offs — the official record that a student has demonstrated competency in a skill — happen at trailheads, on mountains, and in places with no cell service. Their paper ledger system worked for 25 years but was starting to fail as the organization scaled: records got lost, handwriting was illegible, and tracking certifications across instructors took hours.

What we built.

We built a digital field ledger that captures sign-offs at the point of instruction and syncs when connectivity allows. Offline-first by design: instructors can record a full week of certifications in the backcountry and sync everything when they return to base. The system resolves conflicts intelligently when multiple instructors work with the same students, and surfaces certification gaps before courses begin.

Where it landed.

The system has been tested on week-long mountaineering courses with no connectivity and now handles all 8,500 students annually. Administrative time for tracking certifications dropped from 6 hours per week to under 1 hour. Three partner outdoor schools are now piloting the system.

Have a similar challenge?

If your organization is wrestling with problems that sound like this one, we should talk.