Where we left off, I was at Table Rock base camp about to begin pre-course planning for a 30 day phase of a 72 day semester course. That course has since come & gone, and now I'm prepared to offer a few reflections and photos during this week of rest before I hit the ground running again. So, I just worked a phase of a semester course. What does that mean? The North Carolina Outward Bound School offers a 72 day International Semester (CLICK HERE to see course page), which includes 3 phases. 30 days in the North Carolina Mountains, 20 days in the Florida Everglades, and 20 days in Patagonia, Argentina. Working this mountains phase was my second time doing so, and in less than 10 days, I will fly to Argentina to work the Patagonia phase for my first time. So, working 2 of the 3 phases means a burly fall of field work for me. Currently, I'm reporting from Miami after dropping my crew off in the Everglades, where I'm chillin with my sister for a few days before returning to NC to pack & leave. This semester phase that I just worked was very different than last year. There are 3 large reason why. First, it was significantly shorter. This year is the return of the international semester, whereas last year it was a domestic semester still because of covid. So last year it was 42 days, and this year it was 30. I much prefer the 30 day length, it's long enough but doesn't drag as much. Second, the crew was very different. This year, I had an all boys crew. I was slightly nervous about this, but it turned out to be a really cool affinity space for them, and the crew culture of "the boys" certainly ran strong and deep. Finally, this course was different than last year because my co instructor was Daniel, someone whom I am very close to. It was really fun to run a course with my best friend, and share such an intimate experience together. All in all, this course went extremely well and left me feeling very confident in my instructional abilities and once again, inspired by the process. So what did we do in the woods for 30 days? We started with a backpacking expedition, and taught the crew how to use all of the equipment that they would need for this phase. The students did a Wilderness First Aid class for 3 days, then we went on our river block. We paddled the Upper Green, French Broad section 10, and the Nantahala. The students then did a 28 hour solo, then we did our rocks block. Climbing block was cool because Daniel and I are both climbing specialists, so we got to lead our students up their multi-pitch on day 3. The course culminated with the students doing a 3 night, 2 day unaccompanied final backpacking expedition. One of the goals of Outward Bound is to teach students the skills that they will need to be self reliant. The unaccompanied final is as far as this progression can go, and really lets students use their skills to perform and flex that autonomy. For this crew in particular, this form of a final expedition was very powerful because as they transition to the Everglades phase of their course, they will have 2 new instructors. Their crew culture and independence will serve them well as their semester course continues on. There were a number of personal highlights on this course for me. One was multi-pitch day on our climbing block. This was because it was super cool to guide 2 waves of students (2 sets of 2) up Table Rock on their first multi-pitch climb. Currently, I'm pretty stoked to head down the guiding track career wise, and I love the NCOBS climbing program because it has given me the opportunity to do this in a multi-pitch setting via an educational variance to my single pitch AMGA certification. Another personal highlight for me was working with Daniel. In a lot of ways, I saw our co-instructor relationship as a gold standard, with very open and honest communication, and lots of fun. I grew a lot as a person through our feedback dialogue, and it was really spectacular to have deep life conversations on trail all month long. A final personal highlight for me was feeling such confidence with my course design. Selecting lessons/ curriculum on a daily level, as well as keeping in mind big picture course vision felt very natural. Last year, I did not feel like I had much vision, but this year I felt like I was in the right place for my skill set, and that I had a lot to offer. Of course it was challenging as well. My biggest challenge on this course was perhaps managing my own food stress. Not food stress because I was hungry, but food stress because my students were hungry. I did what is called "riding the student emotional rollercoaster" a few times, where they were so food stressed that I also became very stressed. Working through this was hard, but ultimately Daniel & I, with support from the program, were able to provide more food for this hungry crew. Another challenge I had on this course was regarding being present, and appreciating field time. I've definitely mentioned before that this season was in a lot of ways all that I've ever wanted, but sometimes when I'm in the grind of the field I forget that and wish I was elsewhere. It was a daily challenge for me to be thankful for the opportunity and not wish away these prime days of my instructing career. Well, that's a lot of words, but it felt good to synthesize down my past month. Here's a few photos, to help with the description. Sorry in advance, I didn't get many, but I'm determined to do better in Patagonia these next 2 months! Check back in a week, I might be able to edit this post with more photos... What's next? Well, on November 9th I leave the country and fly to, ultimately, Bariloche, Argentina where I will spend the next 3 weeks helping to run the 3rd phase of the NCOBS semester course. I'm extremely excited for this challenging opportunity to grow and develop my instructing. We will be doing alpine backpacking, as well as a few days of glacier travel. After the course ends, I will stay in Patagonia for another month to climb, with Max and Daniel who are working the spring semester phase in Patagonia. So we're going to overlap for a bit down there and hopefully get into some epic lifetime climbing. When my South America adventure comes to an end, I will come back to the US and drive to Bend, OR where I will spend winter with a few friends from NCOBS. All good things on the horizon... surely plenty of challenge and good views are lurking just ahead for me! There will be no blog in November, because my course won't end until December. So keep an eye out in December for the next installment.
Final plug, me and Julia's podcast just dropped another episode yesterday. For another angle at my life, give it a listen. We chat about this semester course (which she did as a student in 2020!) as well as where our careers/ lives might be taking us. Gotta be honest, this episode is a pretty genuine one and gives a great lens. |
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