Outdoor Education General

The 2008 Wilderness Risk Management Conference - WRMC Jackson, WY

2008-10-03T03:12:00Z

For those of you who aren't able to be here, I'll try and give you a flavor of this year's Wilderness Risk Management Conference. OutdoorEd.com will be covering the conference and bringing you both highlights and key information from conference presenters.

Day 1

This is the first full day of the 15th Annual Wilderness Risk Management Conference (WRMC) sponsored by the National Outdoor Leadership School, Outward Bound, and the Student Conservation Association.The conference is being held in the Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park, a spectacular backdrop for the conference. It's the largest conference attendence ever with over 350 people from programs across North America and internationally.

As usual the conference was proceeded by several days of in-depth preconference sessions. Here's what was going on:

Wilderness Medicine Institute WFR Recertification
NOLS Risk Management Training
Outward Bound's Instructor Judgment Training
Risk Management for Service and Conservation Corps
Climbing Site Management
The Learning Brain
Managing Risk with Volunteer Leaders
Using Case Studies as a Teaching Methodology

That list gives you a really good sense of the topical focus of this conference. That's the reason why I find this conference one of the best professional development experiences for me each year. Unlike more general conferences, the core focus of the WRMC means that for three days I get to live and breathe the core issues of risk management from a broad range of perspectives. I have more than twenty-seven years in the field of outdoor education as a program director and I always gain new information and insights from the WRMC. It's also an opportunity for me to share my experience and bounce ideas off friends and colleagues.

The conference opened with a keynote address by Dr. Sarah Newman, who is the first Public Risk Management Specialist for the National Park Service. Dr. Newman is an epidemiologist by training and brings her expertise to the immense job of designing and implementing a Public Risk Management Program for the first time in the National Park Service's history. Her program will conduct risk assessments and analyze risk management to identify ways to prevent and reduce injuries to the millions of National Park visitors. Dr. Newman identified some of the complex issues of gathering and evaluating data from such a diverse set of parks across the country.

After the keynote the conference moved into workshop mode. There are four key conference workshop tracks:

General Program Management
Staff Training
Crisis Management & Emergency Response
Legal and Insurance

Within each of these four tracks there are numerous workshops by some of the top experts in the field. I started the first workshop session with a presentation by Kent Clement, professor at Colorado Mountain College. Kent, through his background in instructing in the outdoors for more than two decades and in statistics has identified a number of important components that make up the judgment and decision-making process.

In between workshops I've been at the OutdoorEd.com booth in the Exhibit Hall, talking to people about OutdoorEd.com and encouraging folks to continue contributing to the site. I'll be posting more about the conference over the next few days.

Building Sustainability into your Outdoor Program

2008-09-22T03:16:00Z

Creating a more sustainable outdoor program is a goal for many of us. At Princeton University we began to look at our carbon footprint and overall environmental impact a year ago. Sustainability in outdoor programming is much larger than how we practice Leave No Trace in the outdoors. It strives to look at all of our practices as an organization, from what type of equipment we purchase: where it was made, how was it made - with what materials, who made it, how far did it have to travel to get to us, etc. Take this and expand it to the food you buy, methods of transportation and more and it becomes a huge project.

I want to share with you our experiences in building a sustainability curriculum into our wilderness orientation program for incoming freshmen. Since Princeton's Outdoor Action Frosh Trip Program is the largest single wilderness orientation program in the country (688 freshmen and 183 leaders on 83 different 6-day wilderness trips this fall) it offered us the unique opportunity to teach more than half of the incoming class about sustainability before they started schoo.

We were extremely lucky to be awarded a special grant from an office at Princeton that supports sustainabiltiy initiatives. With that grant we were able to hire two student sustainability interns for the summer to research our current practices to establish a baseline and to develop plans for reducing our overall footprint. What Collen Driscoll '11 and Emily Sung '11 discovered was that this research often leads to more questions than answers. We were given a great start on thinking about our program by Paul Van Horn at Northland College and his great research paper with his students - ASAP: As Sustainable As Possible. With the beginning research in place we were extremely lucky to be able to hire Jessica Kellett, an environmental educator from California as a consultant to develop a Sustainability Curriculum for our leaders to teach on the trail this year. Along with the curriculum, Jessica planned our first Sustainability Day of training for our leaders before the trips went out.

We are still working on assessing the results of this year's program and I'll be writing more about it in the coming weeks. We clearly had an impact on the attitudes of some students. Our trip leaders and their groups did a fantastic job of recycling and not just the traditional bottles and cans. During the trip they separated out all of their fruit and vegetable waste (onions, apple cores, orange peels, green peppers) which went into two 50 gallon drums and down to the community garden on campus. All other excess food waste (everything from leftover peanut butter in jars to uneaten cheese) went into nine 50 gallon drums which were sent off to a pig farmer (how Dining Services at Princeton currently disposes of its excess food waste). Bottles, jars and cans went into a recycling dumpster. Plastic bags for food packing were separated into clean and dirty with clean ones going to a local plastics recycling plant. Watching students unload all of this at the end of the trip as compared to just tossing everything in a dumpster demonstrated what a powerful effect sustainability curricula can have.

You can read the cover story "Training on trail may bring greener outlooks to campus" from the Princeton Weekly Bulletin and view the Online Video showing how students on trip G17 in the Delaware Water Gap commenting on what they learned about sustainable practices on their trip.

You can also download a PDF of the Outdoor Action Sustainability Guide for use in your program.

What is the Future of Outdoor Education?

2008-02-12T05:14:00Z

A recent report published in the Proceedings of the National Academey of Sciences entitled Evidence for a fundamental and pervasive shift away from nature-based recreation by Oliver Pergams and Patricia Zaradic shows that after 50 years of steady increase, the per capita visits to U.S. National Parks have declined since 1987. The authors looked at a variety of measurements and conclude that "all major lines of evidence point to an ongoing and fundamental shift away from nature-based recreation." You can read a PDF of the full study on their excellent Web site Videophilia Web Site.

Oliver and Patricia's latest paper is a follow-up on an earlier article published in the Journal of Environmental Management entitled "Is love of nature in the US becoming love of electronic media?" In these works and Videophilia.org the authors site the increase in TV and computer use in children as one important factor in the decline in their involvement with the outdoors mirroring the work of Richard Louv (Last Child in the Woods) and others.

Their research is confirmed by various reports by the Outdoor Industry Foundation.

All of this research raises fundamental questions about the next generation of outdoor users. Where will they come from if the current trends aren't reversed? The other side of this tidal current is the push by a growing movement of "No Child Left Inside" programs to bring outdoor experiences and education back into the lives of children. The National Association of Environmental Educators and other organizations ares supporting changes to HR 3036 No Child Left Inside Act 2007. It's clear to me that outdoor involvement in the U.S. will continue to erode with concerted action on connecting children to the outdoors.

You can read more about Oliver and Patricia's work in the follow Web sites:

Nature Conservancy Interview of Oliver Pergams and Patricia Zaradic - http://www.nature.org/tncscience/misc/art23800.html?src=new
The Videophilia Web Site - http://www.videophilia.org (an excellent resource on Oliver and Patricia's work)
Is Anybody Out There? - article published in the Journal of Developmental Processes (PDF)

Let me know what you think about this at the General Forum here on Outdoor Ed.

Evidence for a fundamental and pervasive shift away from nature-based recreation

Oliver R. W. Pergams and Patricia A. Zaradic

Abstract

After 50 years of steady increase, per capita visits to U.S. National Parks have declined since 1987. To evaluate whether we are seeing a fundamental shift away from people's interest in nature, we tested for similar longitudinal declines in 16 time series representing four classes of nature participation variables: (i) visitation to various types of public lands in the U.S. and National Parks in Japan and Spain, (ii) number of various types of U.S. game licenses issued, (iii) indicators of time spent camping, and (iv) indicators of time spent backpacking or hiking. The four variables with the greatest per capita participation were visits to Japanese National Parks, U.S. State Parks, U.S. National Parks, and U.S. National Forests, with an average individual participating 0.74–2.75 times per year. All four time series are in downtrends, with linear regressions showing ongoing losses of –1.0% to –3.1% per year. The longest and most complete time series tested suggest that typical declines in per capita nature recreation began between 1981 and 1991, are proceeding at rates of –1.0% to –1.3% per year, and total to date –18% to –25%. Spearman correlation analyses were performed on untransformed time series and on transformed percentage year-to-year changes. Results showed very highly significant correlations between many of the highest per capita participation variables in both untransformed and in difference models, further corroborating the general downtrend in nature recreation. In conclusion, all major lines of evidence point to an ongoing and fundamental shift away from nature-based recreation.

Is love of nature in the US becoming love of electronic media? 16-year downtrend in national park visits explained by watching movies, playing video games, internet use, and oil prices

Oliver R.W. Pergams and Patricia A. Zaradic

Abstract

After 50 years of steady increase, per capita visits to US national parks have declined since 1988. This decline, coincident with the rise in electronic entertainment media, may represent a shift in recreation choices with broader implications for the value placed on biodiversity conservation and environmentally responsible behavior. We compared the decline in per capita visits with a set of indicators representing alternate recreation choices and constraints. The Spearman correlation analyses found this decline in NPV to be significantly negatively correlated with several electronic entertainment indicators: hours of television, (rs=-0.743, P<0.001), video games (rs=-0.773, P<0.001), home movies (rs=-0.788, P<0.001), theatre attendance (rs=-0.587, P<0.025) and internet use (rs=-0.783, P<0.001). There were also significant negative correlations with oil prices (rs=-0.547, P<0.025), foreign travel (rs=-0.452, P<0.05), and Appalachian Trail hikers (rs=-0.785, P<0.001). Income was significantly positively correlated with foreign travel (rs=0.621, P<0.005) but negatively correlated with national park visits (rs=-0.697, P<0.005). There was no significant correlation of mean number of vacation days, indicating available vacation time is probably not a factor. Federal funding actually increased during this period, and so was rejected as a probable factor. Park capacity was rejected as limiting since both total overnight stays and visits at the seven most popular parks rose well into the mid-1990s. Aging of baby boomers was also rejected as they are only now reaching retirement age, and thus during the period of visitation decline were still of prime family vacation age. Multiple linear regression of four of the entertainment media variables as well as oil prices explains 97.5% of this recent decline (r=0.975, multiple r2=0.950, adjusted multiple r2=0.925, SE=0.015, F=37.800, P<0.0001). We may be seeing evidence of a fundamental shift away from people's appreciation of nature (biophilia, Wilson 1984) to ‘videophilia,’ which we here define as “the new human tendency to focus on sedentary activities involving electronic media.” Such a shift would not bode well for the future of biodiversity conservation.

35th Annual Association for Experiential Education (AEE) Conference Blog

2007-11-11T17:29:00Z

The 35th AEE Conference has just finished up here in Little Rock, Arkansas. It's been such a busy three days that I've barely had time to keep up with the daily flood of emails while I'm gone from the office, much less do a daily conference Blog.

AEE is my favorite conference because it is the place where I get to see friends and colleagues from around the country and across the globe. Some of these people are folks that I only get to see in person once a year. For many of those people our history goes back decades.

My very first AEE Conference was in 1977 at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario when I was twenty-one. At that time I had no idea that Experiential Education was more than just the outdoor trips I was leading as a college student, it was a field with thousands of programs, academic degrees, scholarship, research, etc. While that first conference helped me in my undergraduate research in psychology studying the impacts of wilderness orientation programs, it's been the dozens of conferences, both International and Regional that I've gone to over the years that have really expanded both my vision of the field and my skills as an educator, facilitator, and outdoor practitioner. If you haven't ever been to an AEE Conference, then put it on your list of "must do's." The caliber of professionals in the field to network with and as presenters is the highest I've seen anywhere. Three days at an AEE Conference is like a week of personal coaching from the best in the business.

If you are planning for 2008, check these out:

International AEE Conference
November 6-8 - Vancouver, WA, USA (across the river from Portland, OR)

AEE Regional Conferences

West Region
February 29 - March 2, 2008 - Sly Park, California

Southeast Region
March 14 - 16, 2008 - Cedar Mountain, North Carolina

Northwest Region
March 27-30, 2008 - Randle, Washington

Heartland Region
March 28 - 30, 2008 - Williams Bay, Wisconsin

Rocky Mountain Region
April 4 - 6, 2008 - Gunnison, Colorado

Northeast Region
April 11-13, 2008 - Hancock, New Hampshire
(I'll be at the NE Region Conference, hope to see you there)

Mid-South Region
April 11-13, 2008 - Talequah, Oklahoma

Mid-Atlantic Region
April 11-13, 2008 - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

This Year's Conference

So let me give you a quick sketch of this year's conference. I'll start by looking at the various keynote speakers.

Jasper Hunt Opening Address

The conference began with a superb keynote address by Dr. Jasper Hunt, professor at Minnesota State University. If you aren't familiar with Jasper's work I strongly encourage you to read Ethical Issues in Experiential Education, one of the most thought-provoking books on how to integrate ethical frameworks into experiential education. Jasper took us through an exploration entitled "Unity through Diversity" exploring how we are united as experiential educators through a common sense of shared assumptions about how the educational process works and a common commitment to character development (moral education) of our students.

As Jasper does so well in much of his writing, he juxtaposes the philosophical ideas of one great thinker to another as a way of exploring the truths of both. In this case he looked at Descartes and John Dewey (often thought of as the 'father' of experiential education). He talked about Dewey's notions of Primary Experience - direct interaction, and Secondary Experience - reflection/study of the primary experience. He made the point that sometimes as experiential educators we embrace the primary experience that we may devalue the secondary experience. He gave the example of learning to load prepare your own ammunition for target shooting (build the cartridge with bullet and gunpowder) . If done incorrectly, the rifle shell can blow up in your face. We don't need to have a "direct experience" of this in order to learn (in fact we shouldn't). Rather, a secondary experience, like reading a textbook or manual on how to do this is much better than "experimenting" to see if you did it right. In his own way Jasper provided us with an excellent "Secondary Experience" of how we should think about experiential learning.

Minnijean Brown Trickey Keynote Address

Most people will not know the name of this amazing woman, I didn't before arriving in Little Rock. To understand the importance of what Minnejean had to say you have to know that 2007 is the 50th Anniversary of the "Little Rock Nine" when nine African-American school children (Minnijean among them) faced down an angry mob at Little Rock Central High School and, under the protection of federal troops sent by President Eisenhower, helped desegregate the school in ways that sent ripples throughout the Civil Rights Movement. This remarkable woman, and the other eight who entered the school with her were true pioneers. She gave us a picture of the history and struggle for equal rights that continues today. She was given several standing ovations in recognition of her courage and commitment to Civil Rights.

Kurt Hahn Address by Dr. Nina Roberts

The Kurt Hahn Address is presented annually at the conference to honor the exceptional people who make a substantial contribution to experiential education for a significant length of time. This year's recipient is a good friend and someone who I have incredible respect for, Dr. Nina Roberts a Assistant Professor at San Francisco State University. Her areas of emphasis include outdoor recreation, parks, urban programming, leadership, and youth development. She also is currently serving as the Project Director of the Pacific Leadership Institute, which connects urban youth with the outdoors. Nina formerly served as an Education and Outreach Specialist with the Natural Resource Program Center for the National Park Service. Prior to that, she was a Research Associate and Assistant Director of National Urban and Diversity Programs for the Student Conservation Association.

A thread that ran through Nina's address, and through all of her work, are the issues of social justice and multiculturalism. I can't think of anyone I know who "walks her talk" about these issues more passionately than Nina and she did so once again in her address. What is so wonderful about Nina is her ability to challenge people, and I mean really put you on the spot about whether you are addressing critical issues, and still do it with a smile on her face and real joy in her heart about working for change. Congratulations to Nina for being selected as this year's Kurt Hahn Address recipient and for all her great work.

Playnote - Karl Rohnke

What's a Playnote you ask? Well, since this is AEE, let's take a Keynote-level speaker, like Karl Rohnke, and give him a big room and a large group of people to play games with for an hour and a half and you get a Playnote. Karl has been an important "player" in the field of experiential/adventure education since people began to think of it as a field. He was a watch officer at Hurricane Island Outward Bound in 1967, and chief instructor at North Carolina Outward Bound until 1971. He left Outward Bound to become one of the founders of the Project Adventure program in Hamilton, MA, and worked there continuously until 1996. During his tenure at PA, he served as director and president of the company. Karl is also one of the founders of The High 5 Adventure Learning Center in Brattleboro, Vermont. Karl was the recipient of the 1990 Michael Stratton Practitioner Award, and in 2000, he presented the Kurt Hahn Address at the International AEE Conference. Karl has written over 15 books that relate to the field of adventure education, including The Bottomless Bag Revival, Silver Bullets, Quicksilver, and Funn 'n Games.

I can tell you that non one else can take a room of 150 people and let them play and learn with a few pieces of balled up paper and a couple other props in the unique way that Karl can. He has a special ability to open people back up to the play we experienced as children and at the same time, use it to reinforce lessons about experiential education. It was a a session of fun and challenge.

That's an overview of some of the large events at this year's AEE Conference. I'll be back blogging about some of the workshops I went to next.

Simulations as a Leader Training Tool

2007-11-02T04:14:00Z

CHAPTER THREE - PRINCETON UNIVERSITY OUTDOOR ACTION LEADER TRAINER MANUAL

Simulations as a Leader Training Tool

Abbreviations:
LTT - Leader Training Trip
LT - Leader Trainer (person who leads an LTT)
LOD - Leaders of the day
Frosh Trip - our wilderness orientation program

WHY DO SIMULATIONS?

Simulations provide leaders in training with opportunities to gain practical experience and receive feedback in a safe environment.

On the days that participants are Leaders of the Day, the Leader Trainers will perform a series of simulations. There are a wide variety of simulations that can be done, including first aid, interpersonal skills, group dynamics, and protocol issues. The Leaders of the Day are responsible for recognizing and responding to these simulations, which give trainees practice in handling some of the difficult situations that could come up on a trip. It is important that participants know the Leader Trainers will be doing simulations and that it's their responsibility to deal with them.

After each simulation the Leader Trainers should debrief the experience with the group to discuss how this type of situation should be dealt with. It is often best to give the Leaders of the Day the opportunity to first explain what happened, how they responded, and what they would do differently if it were to happen again. Leader Trainers should then tell them what they did well, what they should have done differently, and when necessary, discuss with the group different ways to deal with the same situation.

Although the Leader Trainers will be evaluating their participants as leaders throughout the trip, simulations are NOT meant to test the participants. Stress this to your participants. Simulations give participants opportunities to practice and improve skills. They are not intended as a test of an individual's skills. In simulations of emergency situations, the purpose of sims is to learn about the complex nature of emergency response. A low-pressure walk-through of the Emergency Procedures will imprint them on the participants far better than a confusing, high-pressure affair. Keep in mind that an accident scenario can be a highly emotional experience. We want to give people experience with emergency procedures; we don't want to emotionally traumatize them.

PROTOCOLS

Leaders-in-training must know in advance that simulations are going to occur and that it's their responsibility when Leaders of the Day to respond to them.
Leader Trainers must always be honest about whether or not they are doing a simulation; not telling a participant that a situation is pretend can be frightening and emotionally traumatizing.
Leader Trainers should be the only ones involved in simulations. Participants should not be expected to know when and how to do a simulation and when one should end.
Simulations must not risk the safety of anyone in the group, including Leader Trainers, Leaders of the Day, and the other trainees. This means don't get hypothermic, dehydrated, hungry, etc. You never know when a real problem could occur and you would need to take charge.
The Leader Trainers must teach Emergency Procedures and Lost Person Procedures before any simulations so that trainees have the requisite knowledge for executing any emergency plans. There is no point in asking the group to do an exercise if they don't have previous training in it.

ETHICS OF SIMULATIONS

Leader Trainers have a responsibility in simulations, as in all aspects of the trip, to:

DO NO HARM (physical OR emotional)

to themselves
or to others

DO NO HARM

to the environment
or to the teaching environment

Leader Trainers must keep in mind that simulations can sometimes be emotionally charged events for people. This may be due to their anxiety about their ability to deal with a real accident or recollections from other traumatic events. They also need to recognize when a true accident potential is developing and know when to call off the sim; darkness, cold, etc. are just some things which should end the exercise.

Leader Trainers are not to implement actions during the simulation which could place themselves or other members of the group at risk. This includes such things as the victim actually becoming hypothermic or dehydrated, getting sleeping bags wet as part of a hypothermia simulation, not eating during an eating disorder simulation, etc. OA does not want to present a false illusion of the 'invincible LT' to its trainees, or simulations could become true emergencies. The 'invincible LT' mindset not only puts the LT at risk, it also impairs his/her ability to looks out for the needs of participants and to create the best teaching environment possible.

ROLE OF PARTICIPANTS

The Leader Trainers should make sure that participants understand their role in a sim before doing any simulations on the trip. Participants who are not Leaders of the Day should all be considered 'competent frosh.' They should observe the sim carefully to learn from the Leaders of the Day and to be able to participate in the debrief. They should not alert the Leaders of the Day that a sim is going on or consciously get involved in the sim, unless the Leaders of the Day ask them to perform a task that a competent frosh would be able to do.

Getting caught up in a sim:

In some simulations, participants might not realize that a sim is happening. Participants might inadvertently make comments that become part of a simulation and find themselves caught up in the sim. Soft skills sims of an offensive camper or inappropriate discussions are particularly easy to get caught up in. Being caught in a sim can be a useful learning tool, but participants might also feel used or tricked by the Leader Trainers. It is important to explain in advance that the Leader Trainers are not trying to trick anyone and that it's ok to get caught up in a sim. By explaining this in advance, Leader Trainers can mitigate some of the negative reactions that could undermine the relationship between them and their trainees.

ROLE OF THE LEADER TRAINERS

Leader Trainers take on many different roles during an LTT, which makes the leader's role particularly challenging on this type of trip. Some of the roles you will have to juggle are:

Sample Frosh Trip Leader
Frosh Participant
Leader Trainer

It is often confusing to participants WHO you actually are at any point. You're both a problem freshman and a teacher, and it's easy for participants to forget that you're playing a frosh, when you're constantly stepping out of your role to answer questions or to take advantage of a teachable moment. Leader Trainers need to make it clear to participants what role they are in and when they are switching roles. It is best to say things at the start of the day like "I'm going to be a frosh now." And then when it's time to be a Leader Trainer and debrief the group to say, "I'm out of role now, let's debrief." Otherwise, participants don't know how to react to you. One way of reducing this ambiguity is for Leader Trainers to wear an armband when they are "in character" and take it off when they are being a leader trainer. On an LTT with 3 or more Leader Trainers, two LTs could stay in freshman mode the entire day, and the third could remain a resource for participants. The Leader Trainer who is not in character could answer the kinds of questions that would ordinarily draw LTs out of their roles as frosh.

There's no one way to juggle these different roles, but it is important to make a clear distinction between when you're in character and when you're not. If you're in frosh mode and the group isn't treating you like a freshman, it can be helpful to play up your role. You can starting asking questions, if a leader of day is talking in front of you about aspects of Princeton life that a freshman would not know (classes, majors, eating clubs, etc). This not only reminds the group that you're in freshman mode, it gives the LODs a chance to think about what impression of Princeton they want to give their frosh. It also can also create spontaneous and interesting opportunities for soft skills sims, if the leaders of the day get themselves caught up in Princeton stereotypes. One of the simplest ways of creating a character is to revert to your own freshman self, as if you only knew what you knew when you were on your own Frosh Trip. This is only one of the many ways to play the part. It may not be the most entertaining to watch, but it does save your participants a lot of confusion. This way, your participants won't have to wonder whether what you tell them about yourself applies to you or to a made-up character. If participants have to spend too much time figuring out whether or not you mean what you say, then the simulated role is detracting from the learning environment. Getting to know their leader trainers as real people is a lot of fun, but it can't be a focal point of the trip for the participants. This is a big transition between Frosh Trip and an LTT, and it's important to make sure participants understand that on an LTT, getting to know a bunch of cool people in the woods is only one aspect of the trip.

MODELING SIMS

On their "modeling leadership" day, the Leader Trainers should sim each other--generally a simple First Aid sim (like a cut) and a simple soft skills/group dynamics sim. Model sims should set the standards and give the trainees some idea of what they're in for. LTs should try to make their decision making process as transparent as possible to their trainees on the role modeling days, so that they can see all the factors that go through a leader's head in making a decision.

SIMULATIONS

There's a lot to think about when running simulations:

What to think about before each simulation:

What are the goals/teaching purpose?
Who is participating: Are you trying to target the sim towards a particular LOD?
What is the time frame? How long to let the sim run?
Potential Pitfalls?
How will you evaluate?

What to think about after the simulation:

When to debrief?
Quick Leader meeting: What did each LT see?
What are the teaching points to draw out?
How is each LOD feeling after the sim?

Each pair of Leaders of the Day should be presented with at least one "hard skill" simulation and one "soft skill" simulation. Those in the "other" category should be selected by the Leader Trainers based on the needs of the group. It's a good idea to establish a non-verbal code between Leader Trainers, so that each LT knows when a sim is about to begin.

Required:

Anaphylaxis (often useful to sim an anaphylactic reaction to something other than a bee sting)
Lost Camper
MOI Spine
Musculoskeletal Injury
Hypothermia
Hyperthermia

Other:

Fast/Slow Hiker
Lazy Camper (great if you got to bed really late!)
Offensive Campers (issues of race, gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, etc. This could be through jokes, games, comments, etc.)
Homesick Camper
Disregard for LNT
Know-It-All Camper
Group Morale
Campers in Love
Disregard for Safety/ Safety Protocols (lightning, swimming, road crossing, etc.)
Disregard for Group Activities (games, camp break down/set up, etc.)
Dehydration
Cuts/scrapes
Sprains/Strains
Trowel Problems
Eating Disorder
Substance Abuse
Burns
Concussion
Increasing ICP
Dislocations
ASR

SIMULATIONS OF EMERGENCY PROCEDURES

It is best to do big First Aid or hard skills simulations at the end of a day';s hike near your planned campsite, so the sim doesn't prevent the LODs from effectively timing the day. It's very convenient to do large-scale First Aid sims at camp in the morning. The trade-off is that the group will start hiking much later than the LODs had planned, since they can't factor sim-time into their plans for the day. The sim should be called when the party going for help starts down the trail. At that point, the Leader Trainers inspect the gear and route taken by the group hiking out, the first aid measures performed, and the camp setup arrangements, and the group cleans up.

Simming an Evac

It's important to talk about how to plan an evac before doing simulations on an LTT, so that trainees will understand what's expected of them. Otherwise, the Leaders of the Day will be tempted to try to end the sim by saying that they'll call Command and evac, instead of going through all the preparations for the evac. It is important that the Leaders of the Day practice evacuation procedures with and without cell phone reception. If there is actually cell phone reception, the Leader Trainer who is not the victim can role play the Command Center to give the LODs some insight into how Command Center really works. Leader Trainers can also require that the Leaders of the Day fill out proper paperwork (SOAP notes and incident reports) before the sim is called, so that they get into the habit and are familiar with the contents of the trip packet.

Lost Camper

It's best to pull the lost camper sim as early in the trip as the skill level of the participants allows, since they're all expecting this sim. If you wait until the end of the trip, the Leaders of the Day will be trying "catch" the sim. The order in which you do sims can help you prevent your trainees from getting too wrapped up in trying to predict which sims are going to happen when.

LOGISTICS OF SIMULATIONS

PROGRESSION

Sims should be tailored to the skill level of participants at any given point in the LTT. For instance, you do not want to open with an MOI Spine or Lost camper. Good sims to do for the first Leaders of the Day include musculoskeletal injury, hypo/hyper-thermia, anaphylaxis, homesick camper, fast/slow hiker, camper conflict. The progressive difficulty of sims often means that the early Leaders of the Day have lots of little sims to deal with, and the last Leaders of the Day have just a few large-scale sims. The last Leaders of the Day will probably have an easier time with their sims, even though the hardest sims should happen late in the trip. Even by putting the most experienced/competent trainees first to set a high standard, the later LODs are likely to have an easier time handling sims, by virtue of having watched and learned from everyone else. It's important to be aware of how the group is handling the progression of sims.

HOW MANY SIMS?

LTs need to consider how many sims they want to do each day of the trip. The length of a simulation affects the realism of the sim. For instance, it's more realistic for a fast/slow hiker sim to last all day. One of the major flaws inherent to LTT simulations is that they suggest that these situations are resolvable once and for all, as if a fast/slow hiker situation could be "fixed" for the rest of the trip. LTs should stress to trainees that these situations are constants, insofar as on Frosh Trip, the leaders will have to keep a fast/slow hiker situation in mind for the remainder of the trip and it will be a factor in every decision the leaders make, whereas on an LTT, it's over in a couple hours and doesn't determine the rest of the day. But if you keep up a fast/slow hiker sim for the whole day, you'll run into other problems: Trainees can only process one sim at a time. Otherwise, the slow hiker seems to be going slowly because they're homesick, and you won't be able to isolate these situations in a debrief. It's sometimes necessary to sacrifice realism in order to cover a number of topics in simulations. How long a sim you'll be able to do is determined by the number of leader trainers on the trip and how many sims you want to accomplish on any given day.

REALISM

Over-The-Top Sims: Missing the Education Value

It's important to try to recreate situations that actually come up on Frosh Trip. With over the top sims, there's a danger that an LTs antics will overshadow the educational value of the sim, because it's so much fun to watch. Simulated situations, however can still be valuable when taken to the extreme, even if the chance of having to deal with anything that extreme on a frosh trip is minimal. If trainees are effectively handling the extremes, then milder versions of these situations will seem easy on frosh trip.

The fun factor of the sim can work with or against its educational value. It's important to be aware of how these factors work together in the context of your particular group. Silly sims, like campers in love, can certainly boost group morale without stepping in on the Leaders of the Day, if low morale is impairing the learning environment. The group's maturity level will largely determine the point at which the "fun factor" detracts from the sim's educational value.

At some point, over the top sims impair a Leader Trainer's ability to accurately evaluate a participant's leadership style. If an LOD has to deal with a day of crazy simulations, they will adapt their own leadership over the course of the day to deal successfully with crazy sims. There is a danger that they will adopt a contrived leadership style in order to handle these sorts of sims, and you won't be able to get an accurate reading of how they would normally act in a leadership position. In 24 hours, you're not going to be able bring about a huge change in someone's leadership style. At best, you'll get them thinking critically about what they do well, what they need to work on, and they can improve. In order to give them helpful feedback, you need to get a good reading on how they lead.

CATCHING THE SIM

Leader Trainers need to think about how to prevent the "catching the sim game" before it starts. Participants often think of the leader trainers as being "tricky" and "sneaky," which may not be far from the truth. When participants jump on a sim before it can develop (or to where it would likely develop on a Frosh Trip), leader trainers are forced to exercise some "psychological judo" to avoid the premature discovery of the sim. This only encourages participants to be more wary, timing bathroom trips and asking trainers where they're going and what they're doing at every moment. This is the "sim game," and it isn't helpful for anyone involved. In the sim game, the Leaders of the Day pay too much attention to their "problem frosh" and not enough to the rest of the group. It certainly isn't the way a participant would act as a leader on a real trip, and the Leader Trainers need to observe how participants would normally lead, if they're going to be able to offer constructive feedback.

LEADER RADAR & CATCHING THE SIM The catching the sim game is where good test taking techniques meet leader radar. Participants are going to try and should try to guess what sims the LT's will do, so that they can mentally prepare themselves to handle them. A finely tuned leader radar should be able to pick up on subtle signals so that the leader can head off major problems before they happen by fine tuning the dynamics of the trip. The LTT cannot perfectly recreate the function that leader radar plays on Frosh Trip: Even when their real-life counterparts are preventable, sims are not. It is important that participants understand the unpreventable nature of sims and the relationship between sims and leader radar.

So what is the challenge of a simulation? Is it to recognize the sim, or is it to deal with it once it has been recognized? Clearly, the ability to see a situation before it becomes truly problematic is advantageous, and is something that we encourage, calling it "leader radar." However, we're also trying to teach and evaluate participants on their ability to deal with problems once they've occurred. The ability to do both is essential.

One way to help this is by explaining the purpose of sims, in language similar to that which is used above. It also helps to set the tone on the role modeling day. If the Leader Trainers demonstrate the boundaries for how obsessed leaders should be with things like layers, water, and walking ahead of the group, leaders of the day will have a much better idea of how they should act. Another possibility is to do more sims that are "unpreventable," like anaphylaxis. It's a problem that arises, and it's just something that needs to be dealt with. Unfortunately, most frosh trip problems aren't really of this nature: they build over a period of time, and are thus catchable at many different stages. In general, soft-skills sims don't seem to fit this model, though there are obviously soft-skills elements in any medical emergency. Perhaps the best response to the Catch the Sim Game is to ask the Leaders of the Day this question: "Is this behavior/activity something you would allow to continue on your Frosh Trip?"

TONE ON AN LTT

Sims, as well as everything else, should be dealt with because they present a problem that needs to be resolved, not because the leaders of the day are trying to pre-empt or catch a sim. Leaders of the Day should understand that they're responsible for setting the tone on their day. They should create an atmosphere in which they confront any behavior or activity from any person that they would not want on a frosh trip.

The tone of an LTT is tricky because it's not exactly Frosh Trip, but at the same time, it is a model of a Frosh Trip. Some topics of conversation that would be obviously inappropriate for the participants on a Frosh Trip are no longer inappropriate for the participants on an LTT. The question remains, even if these kinds of conversation are not inappropriate for the participants to be having, are they still inappropriate to be having on an LTT? It's helpful to lay out your expectations even before hitting the trail, so that participants understand what's expected of them in terms of behavior. If you lay out your expectations about what is and is not appropriate early on, and as part of the FVC, then it's up to the Leaders of the Day to maintain that tone throughout the trip. The Leaders of the Day need to have practice setting the tone for their own trips. On the LTT, they are responsible for taking care of two "frosh" and should set a tone that would welcome any freshman, since they have no idea where these freshman are coming from and can't make any assumptions about their comfort level. It is thus their responsibility to steer conversation appropriately, and the responsibility of participants who are not leaders of the day to try not to make it any more difficult for their friends.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LT'S ON THE TRAIL

Another reason that sims seem to get out of hand is because of the relationship most leader trainers have with each other; LT's will go into trips both knowing and not knowing their co-leaders, but because we spend so much time together (and because we're all so cool), we become good friends quickly. Leaders of the day don't know our personalities, and so it's always ambiguous when the leader trainers are interacting with each other if they're just having fun or if they're somehow doing a sim. It's important to watch out that ordinary conversations between Leader Trainers, conversations that might be easy to push over the line into good sims, do not fuel the catching the sim game.

2007 Wilderness Risk Management Conference Blog - Final Day

2007-10-27T04:33:00Z

Today was the last day of the WRMC. In the morning I went to a great workshop with Tod Schimelpfenig of NOLS and Chris Barnes of the High Mountain Institute entitled "Using Risk Management Concepts in Outdoor Programming." This was a great synopsis of some of the major Risk Management principles including:

Consequence = Frequency * Severity
Risk Homeostasis Theory - the idea that people have a target risk level and will modify their behavior to stay at the target risk level
Decision Making Aids - like the Avalanche Triangle (Snowpack, Weather, Terrain, People)
Rules of Thumb or Heuristics

Within each of these we spent time in small groups talking about how they could be part of our program's risk management plan.

Then I went to a workshop by Colin Powell from the University of Wales entitled "Utilizing the Perception of Risk to Enhance Incident Prevention strategies." Colin covered a lot of research, primarily from the UK, showing how different people's interpretation of risk affects accident potential.

The last workshop session of the day was with Rob Chatfield and Michael Lindsey of Outward Bound and called "Scenario Planning and Emergency Response." The goal of the workshop was to have the group experience and respond to an emergency. We split into two groups, one representing a fictitious outdoor program called K.LO.D. with individual roles of Executive Director, Communications Director, Program Director, Director of Admissions, Legal Counsel and President of the Board of Trustees. The other group role played people outside of the program including TV and newspaper reporters, parents of participants in the K.L.O.D. program. The scenario was an outdoor program with at risk youth that had a death. The press and parents started calling the organization and we had to respond (I got to play the Executive Director). It was definitely a 'hot seat" simulation for all of us.

The last part of the program was a tremendous keynote speaker by Dave Uberauga, the Park Superintendent at Mount Ranier National Park. Dave has been attending the WRMC conferences and is on the Wilderness Risk Management Committee. He is a passionate conservationist who understands the value of wilderness exploration and the value of the work we do. He has also gained a lot of information from the WRMC conferences which has made its way into the larger National Park System. The group gave Dave a standing ovation for his inspiring words and his sincere dedication to public service for our public lands.

That's my quick takes on this year's WIlderness Risk Management Conference. Next year's conference will be October 1-3 in Jackson, Wyoming. Make sure you're there!

2007 Wilderness Risk Management Conference Blog - Day 2

2007-10-26T13:16:00Z

There are about 350 people at this conference--risk managers, program directors, field instructors, teachers and faculty members, risk management consultants and others. And there are people from across the globe including Canada, the UK, Australia, and the US. What that means it that the networking opportunities are amazing. I've had great conversations with friends and colleagues in the last two days.

Today I went to two different workshops and gave my workshop on the Risk Assessment and Safety Management System (RASM). The first wokshop was with Dave Baines whose topic was "Pushing Upwards and Outwards: Strategies for Risk Managers for Programs Operating within Large Institutions." A lot of outdoor programs like those operating in schools and Universities are not separate entities but much small entities with a large organization. Making your risk management issues a priority within the large organization is often a real challenge. Dave outlined a number of strategies that he has used while operating a risk management program for outdoor activities within a large multinational corporation.

In the afternoon I went to a presentation by Clare Dallat of the Outdoor Education Group (OEG) in Victoria, Australia. OEG runs programs for thousands of school children in Victoria. Clare presented on "Communicating Risk to Parents." If your program works with minors a critical piece of your risk management plan has to be ensuring that parents are properly informed of both the potential risks and the potential benefits of your program in order to make informed consent. Clare went through a detailed plan of how to accomplish this in your program and also covered a lot of the pitfalls that can come up along the way.

2007 Wilderness Risk Management Conference Blog - Day 1

2007-10-25T05:04:00Z

For those of you who aren't able to be at this great conference, I'm going to give you some highlights over the next few days. The Wilderness Risk Management Conference (WRMC) is one of the best conferences for outdoor education professionals. The reason is that it is totally focused on one topic, risk management.

I get a lot out of other conferences like the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) Conference and the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education (AORE) the workshops and speakers are covering a huge range so I find these stimulate diversity, the drawback is that I go from one very different topic to another and it's harder to synthesize what I'm learning.

The WRMC lets me spend 3 days with workshops, speakers, and networking with colleagues all around one topic. I find that I make a lot more "programmatic progress" this way.

To start off, this year's conference is in the beautiful Banff Mountain Centre in Alberta, Canada. Nestled in a beautiful valley surounded by the Canadian Rockies the Centre is a spectacular location. The Banff Centre is a leader on the local, national and international stages in the development and promotion of creative work in the arts, sciences, business, and the environment. Many people know of the Banff Film Festival which happens next week here at the Centre and whose award winning films tour around the world each year.

The conference opened with keynote speaker Ross Cloutier. To quote from part of his bio

"Ross Cloutier is an internationally acclaimed risk management consultant in the adventure tourism and outdoor recreation industry. Ross works as a consultant to government, school districts, businesses, and law firms in the areas of legal liability, risk management, curriculum development, product development, and international adventure tourism development. He is a presenter at numerous symposiums and conferences around the world each year.

As a consultant, Ross has managed accident investigations, conducted program reviews for school boards, written strategic plans and operating standards for governments, and conducted post-accident investigations for government and law firms.

Ross has been involved in organizing climbing expeditions and adventures to 35 countries. He has first ascents in many of these countries. He was the climbing leader for the 1991 Canadian Everest Expedition on the North Ridge of Mount Everest in Tibet.

Ross has worked as a climbing and ski guide since 1978 and operated his own lodge-based helicopter ski tour business in the Monashee Mountains of British Columbia for many years. He was the Provincial Search and Rescue Training Coordinator for the Justice Institute of British Columbia between 1989 and 1992. He founded the Adventure Programs Department at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia and was the Chair of that department from 1992 to 2004.

Ross has studied Recreation Administration and Outdoor Pursuits, and has an MBA in International Business.

Ross is the author of dozens of publications, including the books The Business of Adventure: Developing an Adventure Tourism Business and Legal Liability and Risk Management in Adventure Tourism"

Ross opened the by talking about his work with Parks Canada in developing a risk management plan for the latest Canadian National Park, Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve. This park has a unique risk, polar bears, hundreds of them, who will hunt and kill anything, inlcuding people. Ross explored for us the challenges of managing this kind of overwhelming risk.

This afternoon I went to a legal workshop by Frances Mock, a recreation attorney from North Carolina. Frances' talk was entitled "Legal Issues after an Incident." She did an extremely thorough job of outlining the critical issues that should be considered after an incident occurs including:

Managing Communication
Investigating the Incident
Dealing with Criminal Investigations
Dealing with Land Managers
Internal Communications about the Incident
Communicating with Family

This was a really helpful workshop for all program managers.

The rest of the day was networking with colleagues and friends. This and other conference settings are one place where I get to see some friends only once a year. Besides learning new things, that's the best part of any conference. Okay, more to come.

Running 'Mega' Programs - Part 2

2007-10-17T04:21:00Z

I just got finished with running the fall wilderness orientation program at Princeton University. This was our largest program in our thirty-four year history with 644 freshmen, 165 leaders, 46 Support Team members and 12 Command Center staff. We ran 74 different trip groups of 10-12 per group in areas from the Shenandoah Mountains in Virginia to the Green Mountains in Vermont. This is one of the largest single wilderness orientation programs in North America. Now that I've decompressed some from the busy week and all the gear has been put away, I thought I'd share some of the techniques I've developed for running 'mega' programs like this one. Being a tech geek I've found that technology has been an essential tool for me to handle the vast amounts of data that one has to process when dealing with this many people, spread out over this large an area.

Okay, this is Part 2 of the 'Mega' Programs series. Once again it's all about data. I'll tell you a story that illustrates how a little piece of missing data can ripple out into a mess.

Tonight we did debriefing our some of our Support Teams in the field and finding out how one huge snafu happened on the first day of the Trip. We have one bus that drops off 5 canoeing groups along the Delaware River. The problem is that the luggage carriers under the bus aren't big enough to carry all the river bags, paddles, and PFD's for the 5 groups so we planned to have our Support Teams in mini-vans (which go with the bus to make sure the bus driver doesn't get lost) carry the paddling gear up. All the groups were told this in their briefing, but it turned out that the last group to get dropped off (we'll call them Group X) had put their paddling gear underneath the bus (and didn't clear this with me or the Support Team so we didn't know about it). The Support Van had a bunch of other group's paddling gear and assumed they had Group X's gear as well (they didn't count all the gear).

The Support Van dropped paddling gear for another group at the put-in and realized they didn't have any more gear for Group X and called the Command Center. We then tried to call Group X but couldn't get them on their cell phone. So we got another Support Van to drive to base camp, get more paddling gear and start to drive up to meet Group X at their put-in. About half-way through the drive we found out that Group X did indeed have all their paddling gear and had headed off down the river so the second Support Team turned around and drive back to base camp. Not a huge emergency but a big, and avoidable hassle.

Of course these kinds of things happen on trips. The problem is that with Mega Programs you don't just have one of these things happen you have lots of them happening all at the same time, especially on high logistical transport days like the first day and last day of a trip. Having 6 of these happen at once can suddenly cause you program, or parts of it, to grind to a complete halt. So how do you handle the incredible level of detail that's needed to make sure all your bases have been covered? Being a techno-geek I'll go back to a software program that I've found really helpful. It's called Mind Manager from a company called MindJet and it's available for Mac and PC.

I first learned about Mind Manager from my buddy Preston Cline of Adventure Management who uses it a lot in doing risk management assessments. Since I'm a visual learner and thinker I find it very intuitive and really help (though for people who aren't visually oriented it may not be your cup of tea).

Here's how it works. Mind Manager basically takes a bulleted or outlined list like you would do in Microsoft Word and turns it into a visual hierarchical map (which they call a Mind Map). Let's look at a few screenshots of my Frosh Trip Mind Map.

Here's a basic list of the top level things to do for Frosh Trip shown in Mind Manager Outline View. It looks just like any bulletted list in Word.

Now here's the typical Map View in Mind Manager

Okay you can see the visual clues here. There is a plus sign next to each of the major headings (just like there is a plus sign in the first picture). Let's click one of the plus signs next to FROSH and see what happens.

Now we see the next levels down in the FROSH category. These are all the things that we need to do in working with our program participants. We can keep going deeper and deeper by clicking on the SCREENING category. You can nest things as deeply as you want and then expand or contract nodes to see only the level of detail that you need. Trying to look at a deeply nested list in Microsoft Word makes me dizzy because I get lost as to where I am in the overall scheme of things. Not so with Mind Manager.

Now let's look at some of the detailed features as outlined in the list below and numbered on the screenshot.

You can attach notes to items
You can indicate Task Completion level (75%)
Task Completed
You can create arrows, borders, and other graphic elements to link topic areas
You can add you own icons ('thumbs up') to identify topics (priority level, etc.)
You can set starting and ending dates
You can link to a Web page (www.noaa.gov)
You can attach files to a topic
You can link to a file from another program

And this is just a small sample of what Mind Manager can do. I use the software to keep track of all sorts of program tasks, staffing requirements, protocols, etc. Besides being able to expand and collapse nodes I could take an entire node like the PLANNING node and drag it over to some other place on my Map. If I have something "repetitive" that occurs I can create it once and then cut and paste it in other sections. For example, here's a list of things that we have to do when we run a first aid course. We have to do the same things when running a CPR course, a Leader Training Class etc. So I just copy and paste these nodes under CPR, FIRST AID, and the LEADER TRAINING nodes.

So, I've given you just a small taste of how a program like Mind Manager can help you handle the huge amounts of data you have to keep track of. When we expanded all of the nodes of FROSH TRIP and printed it out on large format paper and taped it together it was 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide! I can tell you that I definitely need a 'mind manager' to help me out with Frosh Trip and other aspects of the OA Program and this piece of software really does the trick. If you think it might help you, download a trial copy from MindJet.com and test it out. For people in K-12 schools or Higher Education you can find educational discounts for Mind Manager at places like AcademicSuperstore.com.

All of these things are just tools in your tool chest. The key thing in running 'mega' programs is that there is an incredible amount of data collection and transmission that has to take place. These are some of the tools that I've found indespensible in tracking trips, people, and information effectively. Hope it helps you in your next 'Mega' Program.

Rick

Dr. Paul Auerbach joins Outdoor Ed as a contributer

2007-10-01T15:01:00Z

Outdoor Ed is excited to welcome Dr. Paul Auerbach, world-renowned wilderness medicine expert, to the slate of contributers to Outdoor Ed. We will be periodically publishing articles from his Wilderness Medicine Blog on Healthline.

Paul is the author or numerous books and articles on Wilderness Medicine including:

Wilderness Medicine, 5th Edition by Paul S. Auerbach (Hardcover - Jan 19, 2007)

Field Guide To Wilderness Medicine (Field Guide to Wilderness Medicine) by Paul S. Auerbach, Howard Donner, and Eric Weiss (Paperback - Feb 28, 2003)

Medicine for the Outdoors: The Essential Guide to Emergency Medical Procedures and First Aid; Revised and Expanded Edition by Paul S. Auerbach (Paperback - April 1, 2003)

Here is his first installment.

Outdoor recreation is the fastest growing category of recreation in the U.S., and perhaps worldwide. In addition to hiking, trekking, backbacking, camping, fishing, hunting, skiing, swimming, boating, scuba diving, and all of the other outdoor recreational activities with which we are familiar can be added sports activities, some of which include competitions. So, when you consider surfing, windsurfing,mountain biking, rock climbing, adventure races, triathlons, marathons, and all of the assorted activities that are perpetrated outdoors, outdoor sports is a huge category.

Each activity has a set of rules for injury prevention. For instance, if you are a scuba diver, there are unique concerns for which you must be aware, such as how long you spend underwater and at what depth, rapidly you ascend from the depth, which marine animals to avoid, and so forth. There isn't enough space in this individual post to consider every activity, but there is certainly room for a list of generalities, which are the foundation upon which are built the specific considerations of injury prevention.

Here is a list of injury prevention recommendations for outdoor sports, whether they be recreational or competitive: Read more...

Running 'Mega' Programs - Part 1

2007-09-17T03:58:00Z

Transportation & Support

Just to give you a sense of our program, we drop groups off along the trail by 55-passenger bus. For every bus there is also a Support Team, two students in a mini-van who stay in a local motel and are on call to provide non-emergency transportation for our groups. The Support Team concept came about years ago when we had some bad drought summers. In some of the trip locations there simply wasn't water on some days so we had to bring water in to the groups. To accomplish this we examined each day of our routes and identified locations where the group intersected a road where we could do a water drop. Other years we haven't needed to do the drops, but we keep them in nonetheless. We keep all of our Route Plans in a Microsoft Access Database. For each day there is a listing of any road crossings that looks like this.

Rendezvous

1. 9:00 AM - AT jct. Skyline Drive at Jenkins Gap mile 12.5
2. 2:30 PM - AT jct. Skyline Drive at Hogback Overlook mile 16

The rendezvous marked in red and italics is a "required" water drop. That is our Support Team in the area will come at that time and wait for 45 minutes for the group to drop off water. It's also a chance to resupply the group with needed items, bring the group snacks, or pick up someone that is having trouble. This informal interaction adds another fun part to the trip when the group shows up and the Support Team has goodies for them. It also means that the Support Teams have a good time which makes it much easier to recruit students to come back two weeks before schools starts to help out. Each Support Team travels with an Iridium Satellite phone (Globalstar is having some satellite problems and their signals are not as reliable as they used to be).

Command Center & Telecommunications

During the trip we have a Command Center set up in our Equipment Room. The University Telephone Office sets us up with a bank of telephones (6 multi-line sets) with a "hunting number." That's the central number that people call (@@@-@@45). If that number is busy it automatically rolls over to the next line (@@@-@@46) and so on. The Command Center is staffed by 8 people, six students and two administrators from 8:30 AM until 8:30 PM (or until we are done). At night I talk call from home. The Command Center is also equipped with wireless Internet and we have about 6 laptops on.

Groups in the field carry either standard cell phones or satellite phones depending on their location and the availability of basic cellular phone service. Groups keep their phones on from 12:00 - 1:00 PM and from 6:00 - 8:00 PM each day so that we can call in to them if there is any situation that develops. If groups need assistance they call in to the Command Center (unless it is a serious emergency in which case they call 911/local EMS first). We use a code system to identify the severity level of the problem.

Code Red = life-threatening medical emergency
Code Orange = medical emergency (non-life-threatening)
Code Yellow = minor medical problem
Code Green = minor logistical problem

As soon as a group calls in to the Command Center they say, "This is Trip BF27 we have a Code Yellow." At that point, if communication were lost, we would know the group, something about the severity of the problem, and their approximate location based on their daily trip route. More than once this communication shorthand has come in handy when the cell or satellite connection was lost.

Mapping

Like everyone maps are critical to keeping track of people. In the Command Center we have the maps of each area assembled on a map board on a 4 by 8 sheet of thin plywood. This makes it much quicker to locate a group and see the big pciture of the area rather than flipping through individual maps. We use Tyvek maps for the most part or laminate them so we can make notes on the maps with a wax pencil.

The other main mapping tool we use is various mapping software programs. For the big overview of the area we use Microsoft Streets and Trips (Streets). Various other mapping and auto route planning software works the same. In Streets we mark the bus drop offs (shown below as a red stop sign) and all the scheduled water drops (shown as blue dots). This is accomplished by dragging 'pushpins' onto the sport on the map. You can then add a descriptive label and text to the pushpin and use it as a point in point-to-point directions. We also mark the motel where are Support Team is staying, area hospitals, and Evacuation Locations (red flag). In each area we contact a state park, summer camp or other facility to be 'on standby' in the event that we had some major event that required us to evacuate one or more entire groups. I learned this lesson the hard way back in 1998 when we had the remnants of a hurricane hit Shenandoah National Park and the rangers decided to close the whole park and required us to evacuate all of our groups.

Using Streets we are able to provide point to point directions to our charter bus drivers and to our Support Teams. In the event of an evacuation or minor medical transport we can help guide the Support Teams into the group's location. In addition to Streets we also use Satellite Photos extensively through Google Maps on the Web, Google Earth installed on laptops, and Microsoft LiveEarth on the Web. One of my favorite Web sites is FlashEarth (www.flashearth.com). This extemely talented programmer has provided a way of swithcing back and forth between various satellite photo sources (Google, Microsoft, and others). What's great is that for different locations different satellite photo providers have better resolution photos. Just click the radio button on FlashEarth to change your source photo.

I've used the satellite photos to help find locations for the buses to drop groups off, see if a road really exists, guide Support Teams to groups and groups to Support Teams.

Check out various Map samples below.

Microsoft Streets Overview Map for the Black Forest in Pennsylvania

Red Flag = Evacuation site
Red Stop Sign = Bus Drop Off/Pick up
Blue Dot = Water Drop
Red Cross = Hospital

Microsoft Streets Zoomed in to show various water drop locations. You can see how you can add information to each pushpin.

Microsoft Streets zoom-in on The Black Forest at the Ruth Will Trail (the same area shown below in the satellite photos)

Google Earth Satellite Image - Ruth Will Trail in the Black Forest Trail in Pennsylvania. Compare the map directly above to the satellite photo below. The Streets map shows the Ruth Will Trail as a road that connects to Rt. 44 both north and south rather than as the connector coming west out of Rt. 44. The Google Earth map below marks the trail correctly but doesn't show the road going all the way through.

Google Maps Satellite Image (taken with www.flashearth.com) - Ruth Will Trail in the Black Forest Trail in Pennsylvania (same area as above). This photo doesn't give enough detail.

Microsoft VirtualEarth Satellite Image (taken with www.flashearth.com) - Ruth Will Trail in the Black Forest Trail in Pennsylvania (same as above). While the Microsoft map is in black and white it shows the roads correctly labeled and does show an undeveloped road that connects to Rt. 44 both north and south.

Rick Curtis
Director, Outdoor Action Princeton University
Founder, OutdoorEd.com