Outdoor Leadership Training Institute
The Leadership Training Institute offers programs designed for those wishing to develop and enhance their leadership skills, acquire extensive experience in outdoor activities, and explore their own growth and potential. The core of our leadership training programs is the OUTDOOR GROWTH AND LEADERSHIP SEMINAR, which consists of three 8 to 10 week sessions in the fall, winter, and spring. These sessions may be taken separately or combined into our Five Month or Eight Month Seminars beginning in January or September respectively. During the spring, summer, and fall, we offer five to eight week OUTDOOR LEADERSHIP INTENSIVES, offering varied and condensed versions of our longer training in environments and with activities that vary according to the season. Shorter leadership workshops are offered periodically, including training for whitewater guides, which are an opportunity to be exposed to our unique program content and approaches to outdoor learning.
This course is designed for those individuals who are seeking exposure to a wide-variety of wilderness leadership skills and training in how to apply them. The remote wilderness of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of southern Colorado will serve as the container for our learning expedition. It is wonderful place to connect with nature, practice awareness and contemplative skills, be challenged, and discover your own unique leadership style.
This five week program is offered every summer and occasionally during the fall and spring. You will be exposed to the full range of skills, activities, ideas and approaches that lie at the core of our outdoor leadership training process. The course will provide multi-day intensive training in minimum impact wilderness travel and camping skills, technical rockclimbing, alpine mountaineering with peak ascents, and where possible whitewater rafting. Activities depend on the season and access to those resources suitable for each activity. You will also be introduced to our approach to building community in nature, tuning in to the energy and rhythms of the earth, nature rituals and celebration, deep ecology, and the vision quest process.
Since 1974, the 5 or 8 month Seminar has been our primary vehicle for training "transformational" outdoor leaders committed to building community in nature, using a variety of natural environments and adventure activities for personal transformation, and re-establishing our bond with the "more than Human" world in which we participate. From late September through late May--in fall, winter and spring sessions-- trainees meet in weekly classes and group sessions to explore leadership issues, group dynamics, learning models, and skills for effective communications and conflict resolution. Balanced movement and centering will be explored through classes in yoga, Tai Chi, visualization and meditation as well as applied to outdoor pursuits. Topics covered during the course include equipment, program design, logistics, trip planning and wilderness travel in environments that range from the canyonlands of Utah, desert mountains of Arizona, and wild rivers of the Rockies to high mountains, rockclimbing sites, and backcountry ski terrain of Colorado. Weekend training sessions will be complemented by longer expeditions to put skills learned into practice and where leadership responsibilities are shared in settings where learning is frequently unexpected and largely experiential.
During this program, participants are encouraged to explore personal issues and, with group support, practice using communications, counseling, and group facilitation skills that are taught as part of the program. Participants are encouraged to explore personal values, purpose and visions for the future and explore self-imposed limitations--mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual--and reach beyond them. Setting goals for the training and developing a "personal growth" contract for the course to be shared with others is strongly encouraged. The cost for this program covers only tuition and use of group equipment. Trainees need to find housing in the Boulder-Denver area and provide their own personal backpacking and winter camping/backcountry ski equipment. Food and transportation costs on trips is shared among participants. It is possible to work part- time in flexible situations and there is a lengthy break over the Christmas holidays.