Dear friends, families, loved ones, and onlookers!
This intrepid group of explorers has now been in the field for exactly 2 weeks! As students send over their reflections on the program we’ll share those on this page.
I’ve been so fortunate to be able to be in regular communication with the leaders and the group, following their journey, and collaborating on creative solutions to challenges that arise on programs of this nature.
The group is now in beautiful Aspen, Colorado embarking on a learning journey with Two-Roots Farm, ACES, and Tolkat Center.
Gigantic thanks to the incredible team at Western Colorado University, our intrepid students, and Alex and Stacey, the group’s fearless leaders/proctors.
I’ll continue to be sharing updates on this page and the Global Routes instagram account as updates come in.
In gratitude,
Adam Aronovitz, Director of Global Routes and proud partner on the Mountain Resilience Gap Semester.
(See original blog post on the Center for Mountain Transitions site here).
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Without further adieu, enjoy a short and sweet update from the group below. Comments in { } added by Adam.
Week 2 Blog: 9/10/20 by Sam and Kabir
It’s been a quite a week out here for the ‘Resilience Brotherhood.’ {From my understanding, the Resilience Brotherhood is nickname for the group and is gender-inclusive.}
We trekked 20 miles through the wilderness over three days, travelling through Gunsight pass to the town of Pitkin. Eventually, we drove down to Gunnison, camped one night, and then stayed at the Wanderlust Hostel in town.
Our first backpacking trip was a crazy experience. The first day, we did 5 miles from Lottis Creek Campground and cooked our first backcountry meals. Even though we had low expectations, the food turned out to be fire. Some examples included a Lentil-Quinoa Concoction made by the vegan team and a multicultural Chicken Tikka Masala by the meat-eating team. In the next two days, we covered about 15 miles through the Fossil Ridge area before getting an amazing surprise from Dr. John: 5 free pizzas and 1 free yurt. {Dr. John= Dr. John Hausdoerffer, the Dean of the school of Environment and Sustainability, one of the key individuals who sparked the vision for this program.}
After a night relaxing in the yurt, we drove down to Gunnison and camped one night, before we got hit with an intense blizzard and had to take refuge in a bourgeois Crested Butte church. The next day, we made it down to Gunnison and stayed at the Wanderlust Hotel, relaxing and watching the environmentally educational movie ET. {According to Alex and Stacey, students really wanted to watch a VHS tape for the first time…and chose E.T. Also…it was Stacey’s (group proctor extraordinaire) first time ever seeing ET!}
We’ll be posted up here in Gunnison until September 11th before we head up to Crested Butte for a few days!
Photos below courtesy of Stacey, Alex, Finna, Roxy, Emmet, and Jackson!
