6Summer Opportunities Monday,
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By DONNA LEINWAND
State & National Editor
. So we packed our wool and
our polypropylene
Hopped on the plane and arrived on
the scene.
And we hiked, and we hiked, and
we hiked some more.
We hiked so much 'til our hair wan
sore.
When it was over and the work was
, done, ; ;
r '' ... l - a i ' j
rre jurgui uouui ine pain ana
remembered the fun. -
i at i n t
we reauy can t ten you tne truin, you
see. "
You have to find it out on NOLS
or OB. . .
National Outdoor Leadership
School and Outward Bound rap by
former UNC participants
During the summer of 1984
Camille Grady learned that she did
have a "second wind."
"I didn't eat much and it rained
continually. You could hear all the
animals," Grady said of her four-day
solo exDedition on Outward Round .
an outdoor experience-oriented,
survival course. "1 was in shouting
distance of another person but I was
aii by myself on a 10-acre island. The
thought crossed my mind that if I
were seriously hurt, I might not be
able to get help."
Grady's experience was similar to
what 15,000 other Outward Bound
students endure each vear. Outward
Bound, founded by an English
merchant ship owner in 1941, offers
about 600 outdoor courses in wilder
ness survival.
"We use the outdoor setting to
learn by doing," said Linda Bracken.
registrar at North Carolina's Out
ward Bound school in Morganton.
"We set you in purposefully stressful
situations."
. In 1961. Josh Miner brought the
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United States, said Audrey Sparre.
an administrative assistant in the
marketing department of Outward
Bound's main office in Connecticut.
The school, located in Colorado,
offers courses in rock climbing,
rappelling. backpacking and ropes.
Other schools in Maine. Minnesota.
Oregon and North Carolina offer
similar programs as well as courses
particular to their areas. All schools
hold programs year-round and are
independently run by directors.
March 30, 1987
utwar
Bo un d.
erness
In the Maine school, students can
participate in a sailing expedition and
sea kayaking, Sparre said. The school
also has land programs in the
Adirondak mountains and a cycling
tour of rural New England. A winter
program in the Florida Keys is also
offered.
A 15-day dog sledding course is
offered in Minnesota, Sparre said.
: Outward Bound offers some
semester courses, but most range
from four days to 30 days, Sparre
said. The minimum age for a student
is 14 years but there is no maximum
age. although the school may ask
some students to have a physical
examination.
"The bulk (of students) are high
school and college students," Sparre
said. "One woman in her 70s has gone
on two (courses). We don't require
any technical know-how r- just a
good physical condition and a wil
lingness to try,"
At the North Carolina school,
students can go rock climbing or
swing on an obstacle course 60 feet
in the air. They can also go back
packing in the Appalachians and
canoeing in the Florida Everglades.
"We are impelling people to
increase their physical abilities, their
self esteem," Bracken said. "Some
people come back and say it actually
changed their lives. It's self
sacrificing." Costs vary with the type and length
of the program. Brackett said. A
typical nine-day program costs about
$900, and the 23-day program is
about $1,300, she said. Everything
except personal items and clothing
is provided bv Outward Bound.
Outward Bound is an exercise with
specific goals, Sparre said.
"People go away thinking they've
done more than they thought they
could do." she said. "They have a
greater wealth of strength."
In most programs, students par
ticipate in a "solo." During the solo
experience, students are put in a
general area with a whistle and
minimal food and water, Brackett
said.
"It's not an exploring time. It's a
reflection time." she said. "After
spending so much time with the
group, it's nice to get away for a
while."
On a standard 23-day course,
participant; usually spend three days
and two nishts on their solo. Brackett
mures
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. said.
"My solo was very weird," said
Andy Ward, a freshman who went
on a rock climbing course in the
North Cascade mountains of
Washington; "We had to write a
letter to ourselves. I had to fast for
three days just water, no food.
You just concern yourself with you.
I wrote a lot about different things
like my family and my life.
"You get totally disoriented, but
you have the world's greatest view.
Most of the people sun-bathed nude.
There's nobody to see you."
He said the group went on a night
hike and runs, but the main focus
was rock climbing.
Although the group learned nav
igational skills, map reading and first
aid. hikes didn't always run
smoothly. Ward said.
- "Once we went on a night hike,
and it was nice because we couldn't
see and everyone had to listen to
everybody else. You know, you didn't
want to step on anything," he said.
"We were heading up a rock slope
and this girl wrenched her knee and
couldn't move."
Someone went to the top of the
ridge to scout out an instructor, he
said.
"This girl, on top of the ridge, just
starts screaming that she doesn't
know the way down. I mean, she had
a nervous breakdown on top of the
ridge." Ward said.
Sometimes the group had, rough
experiences, and sometimes' people ! '
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Outward
were injured, he said.
"Everybody (in the group) has
their own version of hell," he said.
"To me, it's 'twist pass,' which is four
miles up a mountain. Halfway up,
this swarm of mosquitoes attacked
us. We just ran up the mountain for
about a mile. We were putting on
jungle juice like crazy."
Ward said the group had to live
without a lot of things people take
for granted.
"Toilet paper ... the best stuff is
snow. Rocks, oh pain I've even
heard of people using pine needles.
Of course, leaves are the most
common," he said. "If you get hurt,
you just have to take care of it
yourself. Gorp is what you eat. It's
high energy trail mix. It's what you
live off of. The first thing I did when
I got home was make pudding."
Sparre said the danger associated
with courses in the Outward Bound
program is more perceived than real.
"Outward Bound has an excellent
safety record," she said.
Bee stings are a big concern, said
Mike Fischesser, director of the
National Training Institute of Out
ward Bound, which trains instructors
for the programs.
"You might get a couple of broken
bones (during each program)," he
said. "It's safer than driving a car or
playing football."
In 1986. two Outward Bound
students died. Fischesser said. In
Colorado a student had a ,. heart
attack on a ropes 'course, and a
Bound offers participants a chance
participant in the Hurricane Island
Outward Bound was found drowned
in a lake. The actual cause of the
drowning remains a mystery, he said.
Aside from the deaths in 1986,
there have been no fatalities since
1978, when three students on their
final expedition in the Sea of Cortez
drowned during a violent windstorm
which capsized their boat, he said.
Instructors receive advanced wil
derness emergency medical training,
and two instructors go with each
group, Fischesser said.
A different type of wilderness
experience is offered by the National
Outdoor Leadership School in
Wyoming. In 1965, a Colorado
Outward Bound instructor and
mountaineer founded the school with
the goal of teaching outdoor lead
ership skills and low-impact camp
ing, said Paul Calver, marketing and
admission director for the program.
"Outward Bound teaches personal
development. At NOLS we teach
students to be competent outdoors
and to conserve the wilderness."
Calver said.
NOLS programs usually run for
about 30 days, but two week and
semester programs are also offered,
he said. Courses in sailing, sea
kayaking, wilderness camping, back
packing, rock climbing and natural
history are available. About 1.800
people participate in the program
every year.
There are about 17 people in a
group, with three instructors certified
to climb mountains
by NOLS and skilled in first aid,
Calver said. The minimum age is 14
. and there is no maximum age.
"We make the assumption that
people are beginners." he said. "We
also review their medical records."
The philosophy of NOLS stresses
wilderness conservation, said Alex
Hodges, a freshman from Boston
who spent last summer in the Wind
River Mountain Range in Wvomine
with NOLS.
"The instructors grill it into you
you don't want to be damaging
the wilderness." he said. "They teach
minimum impact camping where you
leave a place the same as you found
Hodges said his group was divided
into tent groups which were given
food rations for eight days. During
the day, the groups would hike to
a specific place by following a
topographical map, he said. The
entire group would meet at night, he
said.
"We cooked our own food. I really
liked the cooking." he said. "Hiking
in a 20-person group would be
cumbersome. We'd split and have to
get to a certain place. After we met.
we'd all split up again and camp. You
don't want 20 people in one con
gested area."
Hodges said his group once had
trouble locating a trail they were
supposed to take to reach their
camping area.
"We had to back-track for about
three hours," he said.
; Students had classes on weather
. patterns, fly-fishing and first aid, he
said.
During the final days of his
program, the group had to partic
ipate in a "walkout" the students
had to find their way to the road ,
where they would be picked up and
taken home. Hodges said his tent
group decided to fast for the four
days of the walkout.
' "Physically, the program was a
challenge," he said, "Even a greater
challenge was mental. You have no
contact with the outside world. You
can't even write home. You have to
tolerate one another."
Though injuries weren't prevalent.
Hodges said the group did experience
a few problems.
"One guy got slightly hypothermic.
It took a while to warm him up,"
he said. "One girl was so homesick,
homesick for the whole time. She
kept on crying during hikes. One day
I was hiking with her and it was just
miserable, we were going so slowly.
I kept thinking that this day was
never going to end. Those are the
sort of mental challenges we had to
overcome."
Hodges said the group developed
strong friendships.
"We had camaraderie. There were
a lot of energetic people," he said.
"Looking back, I realize how valu-.
able it was. I've learned a lot of basic
skills, but 1 just think the most
valuable thing is the friendship. You
have to depend on each other." ' '
take
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Summer Opportunities Monday, March 30, 19877
extensive hikes through the wilderness
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and experience white-water rafting in the summer
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