From May 8 until June 1 I was involved in various trainings with the North Carolina Outward Bound School. With only 3 days off in this whole time period, I learned an unbelievable amount. First I went on a 2.5 week, expedition based, New Staff Training (NST). NST was with a group of 12 new staffers and 2 trainers. Next, I moved on to base camp specific training, at my new home of Table Rock base camp. Finally, everyone congregated at the other mountains base camp at Cedar Rock for an all staff training. This may be a wordy post, mainly because I have basically no photos from the NST portion of the month. Part of the experience was understanding the student experience, so I did not have my phone or a camera with me. Additionally, before I begin, I must clarify the different areas that NCOB operates in. We have two mountain bases, at Table Rock and Cedar Rock, as well as two Florida bases, in Scottsmoor and Everglades City. Florida is home to many of our at-risk courses. We also run sea kayaking in the Outer Banks, as well as alpine backpacking and service trips to the Patagonia Range in South America. I personally will be working only NC mountains courses, but it's important to understand the breadth of this organization. New Staff Training- Cedar Rock course area NST was quite the experience. It's honestly hard to communicate exactly what it was for me. I may think that I know now, but the truth is I will be processing NST for years. I'll be processing all of this for years. The best I can do right now to share is to simply explain what we did, and understand that there's a lot I can't explain which is totally alright. So, on its basic level NST is a time for new instructors to become familiar with the systems NCOB uses on its courses, as well as the educational frameworks that we follow in developing these courses. We were introduced to the tarp, kitchen, and bathroom systems, while at the same time learning about the Outward Bound curriculum. This training took place on one course. We started off with 4 days of backpacking in the Pisgah National Forest. It rained for the first 3 days non stop, it was pretty miserable in that sense. But everyone is super capable and positive and we still had a ton of fun, including a monstrous bushwhack on our 3rd day. Bushwhacking, or as we call it, bush pushing, is an integral part of the expedition. It's a great opportunity to practice orienteering and self reliance. Our mileage each day was pretty small, we were doing lessons all throughout the day which were the main focus of the training. Each person in the group taught a lesson and got feedback. Topics included navigation skills, clouds and weather, experiential education cycle, Leave No Trace. I taught my lesson on leadership styles, and ran the group through a No-Doz Leadership activity. Every night of expedition someone in the group shared their "10 minute bio" which would always be more than 10 minutes. It was so cool to hear everyone's life stories, and to get so deep so soon after just meeting. This NST group is my cohort, and for as long as I'm in this program these are my day 1 people. We had a ton of amazing shared experiences that make me excited for what else the future holds. After the backpacking portion we went on our river technical skills block. This consisted of 3 days of whitewater canoeing. We paddled the Tuckasegee River and had no rain all 3 days. I had previous flat water canoe experience but this was my first time on whitewater. It was a great new challenge and I look forward to building my comfort and skills with it this season. One great thing about working for NCOB is the professional development days. Pro dev days, as they're called, are technical clinics throughout the season run by our specialists. I anticipate going on as many pro dev days as I am able. Following river block was a few days of workshops in the woods, doing mostly workshops on behavior management as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion. After this was our rock climbing technical skills block. We followed a 3 day progression that build us up to a multi pitch climb on the 3rd day. Each pitch is one length of the rope, so a multi pitch climb is a really long climb that requires you to stop at anchor points and belay up the second climber. After that you begin the second pitch. If that didn't make sense, and you're at all curious, I highly recommend the Netflix documentary Dawn Wall which shares the story of an inhuman big wall multi pitch climb completed at Yosemite by Tommy Caldwell. Anyway, I climbed my first multi pitch at the end of this rocks block!! This was a huge goal of mine and something I've been wanting to do for like two years. I look forward to many more this season. The last few days of our training trip were super cool. First we did a personal challenge event, which is a 7 mile trail run where you compete against yourself. It speaks to our pillar of physical fitness. We also did the ropes course at Cedar Rock base camp, which is something we will work into courses. At the end we had a huge gear deissue and feedback session. NST was a great introduction to this amazing organization and its systems. As I go on my first trips, I will learn more in detail the planning process. For now I feel like I have a strong base of both technical and Outward Bound specific knowledge to begin my journey as an Assistant Instructor in this organization. Base Camp Specific Training - Table Rock Base Camp Table Rock base camp is the original base camp of the North Carolina Outward Bound School. The land was leased to us by the US Forest Service, it is prime location, sitting at the base of some of the best rock climbing in the southeast. Morning meeting for the first day of base camp training met at the summit of table rock. One of the options for getting there was to do a multi pitch climb, which I was stoked to take advantage of. The rest of base camp training was set up to help orient us to base. We had a long scavenger hunt that had us running all around the camp, we also had a tour and introduction to the high ropes course here (compared to the one at the Cedar Rock base camp). In just 2 days, I suddenly knew like 30 more people and knew my way around my new home. Base camp training was like a warm up though, for the all staff training that would come next. All Staff Training - Cedar Rock Base Camp All Staff training was 3 days long. The first two days had speakers in the morning and workshops in the afternoon. Speakers included presenters from each of the departments at our Town Office, the administration folk (carpetwalkers). It was cool to hear about the history of this organization, its status and goals, and current projects. There were many options for afternoon workshops, but I ended up choosing to get my epinephrine certification (I had to choose this one because it is my first year) on the first day, and a workshop on behavior management on the second day.
Finally after hearing so much about the greater NCOB community on NST and during base camp split training, I got to see everyone together and start to really understand the dynamic. There were 110ish people in the dinner circle on the first night, that's pretty much everyone except for some folks down in Florida who had programs soon. Everyone was so inclusive and unique and cool to talk to. Not that I expected any different, but being at all staff training after a long month of training made me feel like I was finally in, with everyone. The Summer Ahead My first trip begins prepping on June 6th, and it is a 22 day general enrollment trip. We will have both a river and rocks technical skills block. After that I have two 9 day trips then two 5 day trips. In between all of these courses there is down time with lots of hiking and climbing and reading to be done, with no particular sense of urgency on my part. I am super excited to get into actually being on course, after such a long time of training. It is for sure though, that I have found my place here at NCOB and look forward to serving its students and mission. Comments are closed.
|
Archives
February 2024
Categories |