Tomorrow morning, I will hop on the bus with my coursemates and make the day and a half drive down to southern Utah to begin our 30-day Canyon Section. We'll return on April 18th.

We spent all of yesterday in classes and meetings with many of NOLS' key departments and their leaders, including meeting with the Executive Director, Human Resources, Environmental Policy, Risk Management, NOLS Pro (professional development services), and a luncheon with many employees from both NOLS Rocky Mountain and the NOLS International Branch. As a result of all that, I met one of the interns working in the video department, and after sharing my love and passion for video and my desire to have a camera in the field, he arranged for NOLS to loan me one of their cameras for this section. Since it's a small digital media video camera, it can replace my still camera in my pack and won't even add much extra weight, but will allow me to get footage that NOLS and I can share. It also means the content from my canyon section here will be even richer than the photos I've already been able to get.

Today we packed up everything we need for the section in packs, including rations (and my extra food, thank goodness!). My pack, even with extra food and a few little extras I'll probably be able to eliminate, weighs in at 45 lbs, a respectably low weight for the section. Every day, it should get at least 2 lbs lighter, as well! Woohoo!

Our canyon section will bring us to southern Utah Canyonland, exploring natural and human history in areas such as the Mancos Mesa, Gravel & Long Canyons, and the Dark Canyon area. I've included here some Google Maps snapshots to give you a peek at what the terrain in those areas is like, and so you can see the general progression of the course.

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View Larger Map

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When I return on April 18th, after some time catching up on things, I'll be sure to get another section recap blog up before I head out to our climbing section at Split Rock and Sinks Canyon.

Your Adventurer,
Nick

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Labels: adventure, canyonland, canyons, connections, creative process, equipment, film, filmmaking, NOLS, outdoor educator, outdoors, utah, wyoming, youtube

First thing I've got for you this time is another wonderful video--the last got such good reviews, I knew I had to post this one of two of my coursemates, Dan and Bear (aka Doug), giving a rousing interpretive dance to solidify their Common & Simple session on fungal infections:


Also available on YouTube.

We had a much needed day off in the nearby town of Pinedale, WY, and in addition to doing some laundry and having far too much fun on the water slide at the Pinedale Aquatic Center, we managed to get some really good eats downtown. I wish I could remember the name of this place, they were really great there, and the food was tasty.

Since the testing day is coming up soon (it's tomorrow now), we asked our instructors to demonstrate a perfect rescue, so we could see how the pros do it. They did it using the toughest scenario we've encountered so far: an open tension pneumohemothorax from a gunshot wound. Yeah, go ahead and look that one up. Anyways, it was great to see the details they paid the most attention to; as we've been trained, they took the "ABC Life Threats" as an absolute priority and got their patient's airway clear, breathing intact, and ensured circulation before doing anything else.

Sunsets at the Three Peaks Ranch are always, always breathtaking. I've never been surrounded by such intense natural beauty for so many days in a row before.

Last night might have been the most intense night of the WFR section so far. Our instructors took us out for a "night game", on a hike away from the ranch, to test both our technical skills and our ability to stay and keep calm in a dire situation. Basically, our scenario involved being lost, away from instructors, with two sudden patients - one with a through-skin tibula/fibula fracture, and one with a first-time seizure who developed mild to moderate hypothermia. I was definitely glad to have a lot of the stuff I did with me, but our instructions were strict: bring only what you would have brought on a long day hike before you got any WFR training. I think I learned the most about myself as a rescuer and a member of a rescue team during this extended nighttime scenario. For any NOLS or WMI staffers or instructors reading along, always keep this part. It's brilliant.

I'll do one more brief blog before we depart for the winter section later this week, but thanks for tuning in, folks.

Your Adventurer,
Nick

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Labels: adventure, classroom musicals, comedy, equipment, groups, health, NOLS, outdoor educator, outdoors, packing, photos, Three Peaks Ranch, youtube

The next four months of this blog will be absolutely dedicated to my adventures on NOLS Rocky Mountain's Outdoor Educator Semester.

I'm currently putting together all of my gear in one place, just to see what I have and what I'll need to buy either on my last, frenzied shopping trip tonight or when I arrive in Lander, WY, a place I'll call "Base Camp" for the semester. It's actually already a pretty impressive array, but it doesn't include my second water bottle, my brand-new Asolo boots, and a few other miscellaneous things I have around the house.

I leave my home town in the wee hours of the morning on February 8th, meaning I'll be a civilized man for less than four days, before I get on a 6AM flight and get on my way.

My first leg currently looks like it will be an 80-hour Wilderness First Responder course with the Wilderness Medicine Institute. I think this is a great place to start, not only because it eases the transition from home life to camp life (I get to sleep in the dorms for this, I think), but especially because it equips me and my group with medical training before we hit the trail. That way, we can all feel a bit more comfortable knowing that if something does go wrong, we will have the skills to respond.

I'd love to hear from my friends and family while I'm gone (and always love to get freelance inquiries), so feel free to email me, write to me, send me (non-perishable) care packages, whatever you like. I'll be able to check email every 2-5 weeks and will be sure to respond as soon as I can.

For now, wish me luck, and off I'll go into the wild country...

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Labels: adventure, equipment, NOLS, outdoors, packing, Rocky Mountains