across the wire

I had one of the best weekends in my life this last weekend. I think I am in love with ropes courses. The picture here is of the "multi-vine" element, similar to the one at Camp Assiniboia which I spent last weekend training on.

I took a certification course for the high ropes elements at Camp Assiniboia. The certification is done by a leader that is flown in from Toronto and teaches us how to run the ropes course.

First, physically this is a difficult thing. Lots of upper body strength is needed to haul equipment, climb, lift, hold, break, tie, hang, pull and drag. Despite the obvious physical aspect of the training, I found that just being nervous about being in the air made my body tense. I came home at the end of each day feeling extremely exhausted but satisfied with my accomplishments.

The panicle of the training came during the emergency rescues. We cut (yes, CUT) a rope to free a person without letting them plummet to certain death. I fortunately was the "victim" had the closest view of my only rope supporting me being cut away and was supported by my rescuer. Although I could see what was happening and knew that I would not fall, it was a scary experience. My body reacted as it should no matter what my mind told it.

Our instructor was more than just a ropes instructor. She was into experiential learning training sessions and knew a fair bit about Jungian personality assessments. She was good at it too. She could see right into all of us and had some great insight as to who we were, how we function and how to improve. It was amazing to swap stories and chat in the evenings about her career and experiences. The soft skills involved in creating and leading initiative tasks, intense ropes courses and debriefing are incredible and I have a lot to learn from her. It was experiencing personal growth through her teachings of using soft skills that my co-worker and I both had post ropes training blues as the experience was so meaningful that we were sad when it was over.