Footprints on the Mountainside

Yeah, I’ve been missing from here for a long time. Too much happening in real life. My work at resonate, then my work with Wide Aware, some training for trainers I’ve been in the process of organizing….

Now, Wide Aware is in the process of designing a three day training programme for activity instructors in the outdoors. The current scenario with instructors is that there is no specific training that they undergo. Some instructors do the mountaineering courses in an effort to get some skills, but they are not particularly relevant to taking groups into the outdoors.

As a result, there are a lot of hit or miss processes.

This programme we are planning is a three day initiative designed specially for instructors who use outdoor adventure activities to support experiential learning objectives. While the course is still being designed, some of the intended content includes:

• How to handle activities
• How to execute programmes
• Handling ropes
• Belay systems
• Sequencing activities for optimal design
• Ratio of instructors to participants for various kinds of programmes
• Attitudes toward participant management
• Strategies and skills for working with different age groups
• Participant observation, interaction and guidance
• Risk management

Other possibilities being considered are orienteering, first aid, and some other subjects.

This programme is not intended to develop facilitation or training related skills, but restricts its scope toward activities in the outdoors and the role of the instructor conducting them.

The programme is planned for November at the YMCA campsite at Mulshi.

This programme is well suited for anyone who would like to develop skills for working with groups and conducting activities in the outdoors. Feel free to comment here with your feedback or if you would like to be informed when the final dates are announced.

Children naturally enjoy the outdoors. Apart from exercise, and health, adventure education helps children develop natural resilience from experience. Learning through experience is a natural state of being for a child, and while imparting information and training is necessary, it is important that a child gets to explore the world on his or her own terms, learning to cope with consequences or celebrate them from personal experience.

A young girl on one of my camps was rapt with attention during the introductory rappelling session. She came up with this exact question “Do soldiers use these same tactical rappelling techniques?” Tactical rappelling techniques!!! I had never considered this term before.

Another child from the same session asked “Why do we call abseiling rappelling?”

The questions in themselves are not particularly significant. No particular knowledge is involved, and knowing those particular answers is not going to change anyone’s life.

What I found satisfying about them was that “my kids” had stopped simply swallowing information, and were now exploring it.

The whole Karjat, Neral area is so lush green and totally enchanting this time. I just spent a weekend there. I’d gone to Dr. Modi’s Health Resort to attend the ISABS Umang Party and generally get in touch with the community, and then Raka and I took off to a friend’s bungalow in Neral.

Driving around the place, I realized how far it has come from the time I had begun trekking in this region. New resorts in Karjat seem to have sprung up every where and this area and Neral and Matheran seem to have become the most popular picnic spot near Mumbai. Crowds of tourists that look like friends, families and even corporate groups can be seen in the waterfalls around Karjat, generally having a great time.

Its a loooong way from how we guys were considered odd because we wanted to head out to this region in the monsoons. Of course, our world was mostly roughing it out, hikes, staying in caves….. Photography in particular used to be considered an expensive hobby. None of us had really thought of photographs beyond memories of our trip.

As “Mumbai picnic spots” go, it is a whole new world. Nature resorts near Mumbai are a growing trend, both in availability as well as demand. Quick, clean service, lovely ambiance and a whole new attitude of “back to nature” is a far cry from the rural mentality of pride in simplicity and basic accommodation with few facilities. While I miss the good old days and the charm of life in the mountains, I see this as an evolution in the mindsets of the Mumbai crowd, where pleasure in the outdoors is becoming more and more accessible, inviting and desired for the less adventurous.

Once more, it was Raka, me and our trusted bike, out in the mountains wandering to our hearts content, remembering the good old days and welcoming the change.