Outdoor Leadership: Part 2 Water Prep and Climbing

After returning from 11-days of climbing, backpacking and kayaking, I needed a couple of down days to recharge the batteries.? Now that I am fully recharged, and have a little down time, I can tell you all about this amazing Outdoor Recreation Center led adventure.?

The first few days of the trip we did some water preparation and climbing.? Since we were all starting from ground zero and building skills within a curriculum, the ORC staff had us learn some basic safety procedures and water rescue scenarios in the Gibb Pool on campus.? Conducting this training in a pool setting allowed for us students to get comfortable with the skills in a safe environment.? After we completed a number of ways to right and enter a kayak or canoe in open water, we made our way to the climbing wall to learn some basic climbing skills and how to set-up a climbing area properly when leading a trip.? The instructors were great at explaining not only how to get an area ready for climbing and the proper way to wear equipment, but they gave us reasons why this way is important for safety and uniformity within ORC trips.? Each of our trainers taught these tasks a little differently and in their own unique way, while maintaining the basic principles.? This type of continuity and cohesion from the staff gave us students a vision of how we should be working in the future.?

The following morning we gathered at the ORC, packed our gear and headed out to Granite Point for some outdoor rock climbing.? While on the way, roughly a 40-min drive, the instructors didn?t waste time, they gave us information regarding what to do during emergencies at Granite Point and showed us a couple of different launch points for kayaking trips the ORC leads throughout the year.? Once we arrived at Granite Point, we gathered the gear and made our way up to the climbing location.? A helmet area was designated first to ensure safety while the top ropes were being set.? Before climbing, students were paired and asked to come up with a topic of climbing to teach to the other students.? By doing this, the instructors allowed us to get comfortable teaching others about an activity and it gave us a great way to cross-flow ideas and skills.? After the short teaching session we all got to climb!? While Granite Point isn?t a huge place to climb, it had fun routes which are great for teaching and the view of the Snake River is beautiful.? After everyone dominated some rock, we gathered our stuff and headed to Sunnyside Park for lunch and teambuilding games.? These games are great for icebreakers, teambuilding and time-fillers during activity set-up.

The next day each student had a rock climbing skill to teach to the rest of the students.? The instructors were there to provide feedback and give tips during the lesson.? Also, each of the students filled out a post-lesson evaluation so we could get some feedback from our peers as a way to help us learn. Since each of us is different, we all were able to gain skills by watching one other?s teaching style.? After the teaching session and some climbing at the bouldering wall we were released for a couple of hours to pack for our 3 day backpacking trip in the Blue Mountains.

Each day during the trip, our leaders gave us a question to write about.? This was a great way for us to reflect about the skills we were gaining throughout the trip and it was interesting to see how our answers evolved as we learned more about how to lead others in the outdoors.?? The next installment of Outdoor Leadership will be the backpacking portion, I hope you all enjoy!

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