University of Delaware Office of Public Relations The Messenger Vol. 5, No. 4/1996 Delaware Adventure Consultants Bringing the wilderness experience to city slickers George Watson, Delaware '84, regularly encourages people to jump off a 30-foot-high platform. And they do! They are, of course, secured by a rope and pulley to two people on the ground below who are "belaying," or helping them to make the descent safely. Jumping off "lunatic's leap," as Watson terms the platform, is the culmination of many activities that groups undertake as part of a challenge course program offered by Watson's company, Delaware Adventure Consultants. Participants in a challenge course usually begin on the "low ropes," where they work on team cooperation and trust building through such activities as the couple's walk, in which two people walk along opposing cables strung in a "v" formation among three trees, while leaning on each other for support. Once the low activities have been mastered, group members move on to the "high ropes," which might include a balance beam or a rope bridge. Challenge courses are used by schools, youth-at- risk programs, corporations and other groups as a way to build self-esteem and encourage group cooperation. "This type of program is the future of education," Watson asserts. "Challenge courses offer an opportunity to try new behaviors in a safe, supportive environment. It's a way of breaking down barriers and assumptions, your own and others. Most people get out on a challenge course and do far beyond what they felt capable of." In addition to offering challenge course programs, Delaware Adventure Consultants constructs and inspects courses. (Challenge courses were once called ropes courses, Watson explains, but the name was inaccurate since most of the course components are cable and wood, not rope.) Watson's company also trains course personnel and offers instruction in rock climbing and rappelling. The company, which Watson formed 18 months ago, is the only one of its type in Delaware and the surrounding region. Watson calls upon a pool of seven individuals who work regularly for his company. Among them are Diane Seaman, Delaware '85, and Mike Miller, a senior at the University majoring in recreation and park administration. Watson looks for employees who have wilderness experience, he says, "because someone with a wilderness background will be able to function in stressful situations in a changing environment. I can teach anyone to belay, but it's much harder to teach someone how to cope with stress." Watson brings to his young company a breadth of wilderness experience. He has led wilderness expeditions for various juvenile groups, including programs for juvenile felons, juvenile alcoholics and drug addicts. He has taught fellow members of the Army National Guard to ski, snowshoe, climb rocks and rappell out of helicopters. His assignments with youth groups, Outward Bound and other wilderness programs have taken him to remote areas of Florida, Minnesota, Oregon and Maine, as well as Ontario, Canada. He spent several weeks at the Canadian Outward Bound Wilderness School north of Thunder Bay, Ontario, the program's most remote site in North America and reachable only by traveling 70 kilometers of dirt road. Here, wintertime conditions are so extreme that pressure ridges similar to those found in the Arctic form on the large lakes. Most people would find such extreme weather conditions unbearable, but Watson says he is most in his element in the wilds. "I've been in areas where it's clear no one has been for 50 years. It's an incredible feeling," he says. Watson has a way of describing his adventures that make them appealing even to those who prefer sedentary, climate-controlled activities. The best day of his life, he says, was on an Outward Bound dogsledding trip in the Boundary Waters area of Minnesota. "It was 40 degrees below zero, but we were toasty warm in a large tent. We were leading a fantastic, high-powered group on this trip, and the food was good. We always have great food on winter trips- eggs, bacon-because the dog sleds pull the supplies. Someone stepped outside, and called the rest of us out. "There were the Northern Lights, dancing brightly in the sky. We were all standing around, steam coming off of our bodies, because we'd just emerged in our thin nylon suits from the 70 degree tent into the cold, black air. Off in the distance, a wolf pack started howling, another responded, and then, our own dog pack joined in. In the summer, the Boundary Waters is a magical place. In the winter, it's mystical." Watson clearly misses these types of experiences, which he is unlikely to duplicate in populated Delaware. So, why did he return? "I saw how adventure programs were integrated successfully into public school programs in other parts of the country, and I wanted to bring that same type of program to Delaware," he says. Watson, an ardent proponent of experiential education, hasn't found acceptance in the schools, but he has been reaching youths through church and camp groups, community centers, the Boy Scouts and youth-at-risk treatment programs. "You can explain to kids how to use a compass, and maybe they'll learn it and maybe they won't. But, if you bring them out into the wilderness, and, suddenly you're lost, so you pull out a compass. Then, you've got a group of kids surrounding you who are eager to learn how to use a compass, and they'll remember it," Watson explains. Such programs have proven especially beneficial to troubled youths, who often come to the challenge course with many emotional problems. "The course is a huge self-esteem builder," says Seaman. "I tell the kids, 'If you can jump off a platform high in a tree, you can get an A on a spelling test.'" Adults, too, benefit from participating in challenge courses, so Watson targets corporate groups interested in improving performance and creating a more hospitable workplace. "I see people coming home from work frustrated and stressed out," Watson says. "In order for people to be happy at work, where most of us spend a third of our lives, the workplace has to change. We all need support at home, at work and in the community." "George is a true believer in experiential education for kids and corporate groups," Seaman says. "I think it's admirable that he wanted to bring this type of experience to Delaware, to make it available to 'city slickers.' Challenge courses can get people out of the rut of the business setting so they can build relationships based on cooperation and respect, which makes them function more effectively in a business setting." Watson also builds courses. In the past year, Watson has built four complete courses and done additions and repairs to many other courses in the mid-Atlantic states, including the challenge course at the University of Delaware, where he added a 45-foot rappelling tower with a climbing wall. Watson says he's thinking about getting a partner, so he can focus on the aspects of the job he enjoys most-building challenge courses and running the programs. Building a new business while educating others about the benefits of adventure programs has been a challenge, he says, but it's clearly one that this wilderness enthusiast relishes. -Theresa Gawlas Medoff, Delaware '94M