This spring semester for me is filled with many training opportunities so that I am set to lead trips in various sports. Right now, I am in my apprentice semester for backpacking, caving, and high ropes course facilitation. Just in the past month I have had somewhere around 25 hours of high ropes course training plus a caving clinic, both teaching me hard and soft skills that are very valuable as I progress in this field. Caving I went on a caving clinic with Adventure Rec so that I could pass my assistant instructor assessment to lead caving trips. We went to Hennigh Cave which is only about 20 minutes from Penn State. Hennigh is located right in the middle of Amish country, and the entrance to the cave is on an Amish farm. Because of this, before we could enter the cave we had to hand in waivers to the Amish landowners. I had never interacted with Amish before, so this exchange was fun, and it was nice of them to let us use their land to get to the cave. Once inside the cave, the space was cramped in some areas but more open in others. There was only one way in and one way out, no possibility of getting lost in this cave. We did not need ropes to get into the cave, the mouth was at a nice slope so that we could simply slide in. It was muddy and wet all over this cave, which made it super fun to crawl around and squeeze deeper into the cave. We wore coveralls and helmets and headlamps so I was not worried about getting dirty or flopping around in the mud. Below are a few photos of this fun evening in the cave. Vertical Adventures (high ropes) Facilitating groups on Penn State's high ropes course is something that I will be doing a lot of over the next year. My training for this job took place over the course of two weekends where I spent multiple 9 hour days at Stone Valley, the location of the high ropes course. To learn to lead groups on the high ropes course, we had to go through the course ourselves which I of course had so much fun doing. We also learned how to lower someone to the ground in case a rescue is required, and we worked on belaying so that participants can use the climbing tower at Stone Valley as well. I passed my assessment after all of this training and am looking forward to leading two high ropes nights at Stone Valley in the next two weeks. Below are a few photos of this training. I am in the purple puff coat. In conclusion, the past few weeks have been super fun getting outside and being occupied with things other than school and rowing. As the school year ends, I am working to complete a few final assessments so that come next fall I am qualified and ready to lead trips. Along the same vein, this summer, I will be leading high schoolers on backpacking trips in the White Mountains in New Hampshire for the Appalachian Mountain Club. I actually went on these trips when I was in high school so I look forward to being on the leading side. Summer can't come soon enough!
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