The end of the quarter is near and spring fever is high. Students are busy cramming to get all of their final projects done in time and the stress levels are through the roof. This week we had two work days for students to work on the Fire Mitigation Resource Guide, catch up on missing assignments, practice friction fire, and to work on their final reflection papers for the CAP.

Wednesday, however, we had to get out and enjoy another beautiful Boulder day. We hiked over to Bear Creek Park where we learned how to make survival kits. I challenged students to make their own homemade survival kits for extra credit. We then met up with Alex Hearn from Rocky Mountain Rescue (RMR). Alex is a good friend and seasoned outdoor professional. He gave us a quick overview of RMR and then put the students to the test in a teambuilding game called Lava. Students pretend they are in a safe zone from the lava in a webbing circle and then had to rescue a Bottle Belt from the lava without touching the ground.

Nice grab Eric! It took some time, but students finally mastered their technique and scored some free gear. Thanks for donating some product Alex. Soon everyone at New Vista will be sporting one on their Nalgene water bottle.

Alex then put our skills to the test by presenting a rescue scenario. The group had to imagine that Galen had broken his ankle approximately 4 miles from a trailhead with about 2 hours of sunlight left. Students had to choose 10 items from a pile of gear to aid them in the rescue and they had to determine their action plan for getting Galen out. The students opted to carry him out, which proved to be harder than they thought.

In hindsight, students would have thought more about the items the chose and communicated better with the group. In any emergency or survival situation, it is important to STOP: Stop, Think, Observe, Plan. Great job this week everyone!