Our 21st Leadership Training expedition has begun and some of the finest young leaders in the land have converged in Colorado to tackle big mountains, raging rivers and gigantic rock walls. The expedition got a little late start with Daniel and Eli arriving a little bit later than the rest of the group, but they made it safely out to Little Cambo on the Arkansas River. The 12 students hail from Italy, France, British Columbia and across the United States. Two of Longacre's top-notched leaders, Jodi and Chad, returned to lead LELT. Jodi has successfully led this program the past three years and Chad has returned for his 2nd year in a row. With their experience and training they could work for anyone, anywhere in the world, and we are flattered that they continue to return to Longacre each summer.
Day 2 began with the Wilderness First Aid certification. A longtime veteran of the wilderness medical world, our WMI Instructor, Greg,has been teaching in the field for over 20 years. The training focused on best practice wilderness protocols- how to assess an emergency in the backcountry, how to check vitals, how to splint a broken limb, etc. Hopefully, they won't have to put any of their new-found skills to the test this month. The next day, the crew took to the Arkansas River for their first taste of whitewater. Instructor Greg headed down in advance with a crew of rookie rafting guides and they staged an emergency response scene complete with hypothermic victims, impaled objects, and broken limbs. Again, this was just for pretend, allowing our group some hands-on practice. Greg reported that the group did a terrific job and was impressed with this class. Everyone earned their Wilderness First Aid certification and were ready to move on to the next phase of this adventure: mountaineering and backpacking.
Yesterday afternoon, the expedition hiked up towards Mt. Augusta to go find some snow to play on. We won’t hear from LELT for the next 5 days, so stay tuned. The backcountry nature of this program lends itself to few Journal entries, but we will try to post whenever we hear from them.
Sorry for the delayed report as this news came yesterday! LELT 2010 began their mountaineering section with some unColorado-like weather. In fact, Ariel was quoted as saying, “I thought Colorado was supposed sunny?”
The group hiked up into the Collegiate Peaks in search of snow near Mt.Augusta. While the snow was not as abundant as in previous years, they were able to set up Snow School. Here Chad & Jodi taught them the art of mountaineering: picking and kicking, glissading, self-arrests, and lightning position. Lightning position you ask? A backcountry “best practice” that unfortunately our students had to use quite a bit on those first 3 days in the backcountry. On their summit attempt day, the expeditions awoke at 3 AM, got on their headlamps and headed out for the summit of Mt. Augusta. What they found was a nasty thunder storm. The mission had to be delayed, and the group eventually made the wise choice to turn back around and head down the mountain towards Oh Be Joyful Campground. These are the kind of difficult decisions that need to be made in the backcountry and these young leaders showed they were more conscious of the safety of the group than bagging a 14,000 ft peak. Impressive decision-making!
The group retired their mountaineering equipment and headed out on the leader-led backpacking section. They headed up into the Oh Be Joyful (appropriately named) pass and set up camp at Blue Lake. This crystal clear snowmelt lake is an LELT tradition. As is the polar bear/cold water club. Guli was the first one to brave the cold and logged a hard to beat 1 min and 15 seconds. A few of the other fellows made it to about 1 minute and 30 seconds. Finally, the ladies showed the fellows how the coldwater club should be done. Lisa, Maddie and Savannah entered Blue Lake and stayed immersed for over 5 minutes.
Our leaders have said that the group is beginning to bond quite nicely and they are happy with the progress of their young leaders. There have been lots of voluntary backcountry push-ups, led by Daniel and Chad. Chelsea has earned herself the nickname of “Baby Feet” in reference to her blister-prone feet. She is on the mend and looking forward to hanging up the hiking boots for 4 days on the Arkansas River.
When they came down from the mountains, the leaders surprised the kids with a trip to some epic hot springs, and a reported meal out on the town! Spirits are high and confidence is building.
The next stage of Leadership Training was the epic four days spent rafting down the legendary Arkansas River. Returning to the scene of the first Wilderness Medical Field exercise, the group shot down into Brown’s Canyon. Each student had a turn at guiding the raft down the river. Justin most impressively took the group through a Class II rapid. Maddie and Daniel apparently did really well when they were the “head stick master”.
The next day they ran the rapids know as PM. The group got to swim into class 2 rapids and do some awesome body surfing in the rapids. The second night on the river they played horseshoes and got to hike into a canyon with really cool flora and flauna abundant.
While we won’t go in too much detail here, parents be sure to ask your children upon their return home all about “The Groover “ and using it right next to the river.
The final day of rafting was the Royal Gorge, perhaps the most thrilling stretch of river in all of North America. Class IV and V Rapids were no match for these season adventurers.
Somehow amidst all the action the group got to see the World Cup final. Guli bet on Spain and Longacre Leader Chad bet on the Netherlands. Since Spain won, and Chad lost, Chad will now be giving hugs to everyone in the group. High stakes betting for sure! That evening the group got a visit from Longacre Leader extraordinaire, Becky. She led many of the LELTers through Alaska last year and in true Becky fashion arrived with home baked cookies. She is hoping to visit the group again in a couple of days.
The group began rock climbing at Taylor Canyon yesterday. We look forward to hearing all about their days on the rock.
We checked in with Jodie yesterday and she had nothing but good news to report. Plenty of great weather, lots of great climbing and a bunch of young leaders challenging themselves. Our climbing specialist, Mike, joined the expeditions for 4 days of scaling large rock faces, attacking long “verts”, and tackling complex boulder problems. When asked to describe the group he referred to them as a bunch of “rock hounds”, a top compliment to receive in the climbing world. With Mike setting the climbs and Chad and Jodi, accomplished climbers themselves, the kiddos are getting great instruction and plenty of time to climb. They are all belaying each other, a sign of the trust they have developed for one another. They have been climbing 5.6 -5.11 routes. Savannah as leader of the day chose to lead by example charging up some of the more difficult climbs. Maddie nearly completed a 5.10. Chelsea and Lisa have been challenging themselves each day and their blister are close to healed. Chelsea is always the first one to offer her belay-skills. Guli and Eli have apparently vowed to return to the Alps and launch epic rock-climbing careers. Daniel & Justin try several new climbs each day and were looking forward to the bouldering day. Ivan and Ranier have been climbing as well but have also taken advantage of a little down time and have been finally getting a little reading in. The most recent dinners have been veggie burritos, pesto pasta and “Brinner” a backcountry version on dinner/breakfast combined together, usually wrapped up in a burrito and devoured in minutes. Breakfast has begun to been followed by the “student presentations”. Ranier was the first to go and presented on the wonderful world of “Fractals”. Ivan was scheduled to present next. The group has also begun planning for the student-led backpacking trip. They have established the following goals:1) Summit more than one 14,000 ft peak 2)keep the mileage to about 8 miles a day 3) Work together as a team and run like a well oiled machine. They will be calling in their backpacking route to me tomorrow evening and I will be sure to post it as soon as I have it. We are expecting great accomplishments from this ambitious group.
Longacre leader Chad, called in the student led backpacking itinerary late last night. It’s an ambitious route they have planned for their final challenge. Apparently the group is into “baggin” 14,000 ft peaks.
The following is details of the trip the students have designed.
Day 1- Hike from Missouri Gulch to base camp. 9,700 ft to 12750. Establish camp.
Day 2: Summit Mt.Bedford (14,971 ft) and Summit Mt.Oxford (14,153 ft)
Day 3: Alternate Summit Day in case they couldn't do Oxford on Day 2. Might be used as rest day for anyone who needs it. Group hopes to hike over Elkhead pass to Twin lakes
Day 4: Summit Mt. Missouri and return to base camp
