COURSE OVERVIEW

CCPA-362: Pathfinder Colorado Rockies Alpine Backpacking

Course Code: CCPA-362

Start Date: 9/2/23

End Date: 10/1/23

Discover your strengths and learn skills that will shape your future on this 30-day alpine backpacking expedition! Learn about backcountry expedition techniques including teamwork, navigation and backcountry living skills. Work with your new team to attempt a peak ascent, rock climb and learn about each other and yourself. Depending on conditions and terrain, you may learn to use more advanced and specialized gear and techniques to assist in your travel. On your service expedition, you’ll explore the relationship between self and community and gain firsthand knowledge of the people and areas. The course culminates with a Wilderness First Aid certification class. 

Pathfinder courses focus on leadership skills such as communication, collaboration, decision-making and conflict resolution; skills you can fall back on in many situations throughout life.

 

Course Areas and Land Acknowledgement

Sawatch Range, Colorado

The Sawatch sub-range of the Colorado Rockies is home to Colorado’s two highest peaks: Mt Elbert (14,439’) and Mount Massive (14,429’). The range is known for expansive, rolling alpine terrain and multiple high peaks, and encompasses the headwaters of the Arkansas River. The source of the name is somewhat disputed but some source it to Ute words meaning “green place” or “blue water.” These regions are within the ancestral lands of the Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) nation.

Photo: Terence Copeland |📍Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) lands

 

Leadville Mountain Center, Colorado

Colorado Outward Bound’s 600-acre property at the base of Mount Massive. Our base camp encompasses mountain streams, wild plants, fields and forests. Lake Fork Creek (that runs into the headwaters of the Arkansas River) runs near the east of our property and the Colorado Trail borders us to the west. If the timing is right, colorful wildflowers will brighten the trails through the LMC. You might share camp with elk, deer, chipmunks and myriad other wildlife. This region is within the ancestral lands of the Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) nation.

 📍Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) lands

What is a land acknowledgment?

At the Colorado Outward Bound School, we include land acknowledgments in our work as a formal way to recognize and respect the traditional territories and Indigenous Peoples as stewards of the land. It is important to understand and acknowledge the comprehensive past, present, and future of the places we travel and to seek to understand our role therein. To recognize the land is an expression of gratitude and appreciation we give to the Indigenous Peoples who have been living and working on the land from time immemorial. Read more about land acknowledgments at Outward Bound here

Activities

Alpine Backpacking

Alpine Backpacking will develop a foundational outdoor skillset for students allowing comfortable living during course. Traveling mostly above treeline, students will carry everything they need - food, shelter, clothing and gear – allowing them to go deep into the wilderness where few people go. Backpacking provides a sense of freedom, allowing students to eat when hungry, set up camp when tired, and exercise complete control over what is accomplished each day. The simplicity of backpacking gives students the opportunity to focus both internally on their own thoughts, as well as externally to connect deeply with others as they talk, sing, play games and spend time together without distraction. With the Colorado Rockies as a backdrop, students are introduced to backpacking with lessons in basic travel and camping techniques. As this section progresses, students learn Leave No Trace techniques, map and compass navigation, camp craft, and obtain an understanding of the area’s human and natural history.

A group of students are hiking up a field of large, loose rock above treeline. They are wearing helmets and using trekking poles while carrying backpacks.

Photo: Dave Erbe |📍Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) lands

Guided Reflection and Transference

At Outward Bound we believe there is no learning without reflection. Throughout course, you will be prompted to reflect on what you’re experiencing on course, and what it means in the greater context of your life. Sometimes this is a journaling exercise, sometimes a group sharing experience, and sometimes a moment of solitude to sit and think. You spend focused time toward course progression end exploring how your new knowledge, skills and attributes can apply to your life after course.

Solo

Depending on your course length and environmental factors, your solo may range from a few hours to an overnight experience. Solo provides an important break from the rigors of both the expedition and the distractions from everyday life. This is a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. With sufficient food and equipment, you’ll have time to journal, rest, reflect, and look ahead to future goals. Your solo site will be close enough to the Instructors in case of emergency, but far enough removed to assure your solitude. You will not travel during this time and your Instructors will check on you occasionally. Many students are initially nervous about solo, but later recall solo as one of the highlights of their entire course.

Peak Attempt

Peak Attempts present an opportunity for challenge, teamwork, and the need to pull together all of your learned skills for success. Your expedition will include at least one peak attempt. Peak attempts are major enterprises and typically require early morning starts and can take all day to complete. Weather, or other factors including group dynamics and physical readiness, may preclude even an attempt to ascend a peak.

Photo: Naomi Winard |📍Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) lands

Wilderness First Aid

Despite the best risk management, sometimes accidents happen, and knowing how to respond to injuries in a backcountry setting is a key skill for aspiring outdoor leaders. During this section, you will spend two days in a classroom at our basecamp, learning about wilderness medicine. You will have the opportunity to earn a Wilderness First Aid (WFA) certification during this course, which is considered a standard for many entry level jobs in the Outdoor Industry.

📍Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) lands

Challenge Event

A Challenge Event may occur at the end of a student's course experience. These are opportunities to test the perseverance, endurance, and grit that you've developed on course. A challenge event might be individual, like long run or peak attempt. Your event might be a group focused challenge, including long final travel days or group challenges that require all of the skills and teamwork your groups has learned. The purpose of a challenge event is to help students realize the extent of their growth, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and to take home these learnings in an unforgettable way.

Service

Service to others and the environment is a core value of Outward Bound and is integrated into each course. Students follow Leave No Trace ethics as service to the environment and do acts of service while leading and supporting each other. Understanding leadership through service is an outcome of activities that require working together to meet and navigate challenges throughout course. 

Low Ropes & Initiatives

During the first few days of your course at the Leadville Mountain Center, you may have the opportunity to engage as a team with Low Ropes elements and facilitated Initiatives. During this day, your Instructors will progress you and your group through a series of challenges, designed to develop problem-solving skills, communication, and overall teamwork. Elements may require complete team cooperation or individual contributions and will help your group build a foundation for increasing challenges to come. Initiatives, including our Orienteering Course, will help the group learn and practice key lessons to be successful moving forward on your course.

A group of people are standing on logs and other wooden platforms in the forest as part of a low-ropes initiative. Most of the group looks on while a pair of people move two boards in an effort to create a bridge for the others to pass. They are all wearing pants and jackets.

Photo: Leslie Spinelli |📍Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) lands

Sample Itinerary

Sample Itinerary


The following is an example of what your itinerary may look like. Your actual course plan will vary according to weather, your group’s skills and abilities, and Instructor preferences.

Days 1-2: Course start; set up front country camp, gear check, preparation, low rope elements and initiatives, orienteering.

Days 3-4: Wilderness First Aid Course

Days 5-12: Training Expedition/Backpacking; Curriculum includes: self-awareness, awareness of others, basic navigation, basic first aid, backcountry living, basic leadership, basic team decision making, Outward Bound history and philosophy

Days 13-20: Main Expedition – Peak Climb and Solo; Curriculum includes: advanced navigation, advanced decision making, summit strategies, time management, peer leadership, conflict resolution, introspection and reflection

Days 20-27: Final Expedition; Curriculum includes: advanced peer leadership, independent time management and route planning.

Days 28-29: Challenge Event, Service projects, course end celebration

Day 30: Departure home

What You’ll Learn

In addition to the expedition itself and all of the skills and learning associated with it, Outward Bound’s time-tested curriculum includes education on the many aspects of personal growth and learning that can be found in each activity you undertake. You will learn four important Outward Bound Core Values:

  • Compassion
  • Integrity
  • Excellence
  • Inclusion and Diversity

You may find that the most important lessons you take home are learning about yourself and your community while acquiring backcountry skills and having an adventure. You’ll learn to protect and appreciate the unique, unspoiled environments through which you travel.

Successful completion of your course demands mastery of skills, trust, fitness, confidence, tenacity, leadership, initiative and compassion. The promotion of these qualities and the discovery of what’s in you is the purpose of Outward Bound.

Tuition and Payment

For your convenience, you may pay the balance of your tuition online through a link in your admissions emails, or make a payment by phone. 

Please have the student's name, course number, course start date and balance due when using this payment option.

In most cases, a $500 deposit has been paid when you applied. Please refer to your Enrollment Email to confirm your balance. If you are unsure of your balance due, please call 720-381-6589 or email [email protected].

If your payment is not received by the due date listed in your Enrollment Email, you will risk losing your position on the course and your $500 deposit. Please review the Admissions and Cancellation Policies.

COVID and Your Course

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