PROPER LEADER TRAINING FOR HIGH ADVENTURE TREKS

[ASM915]

What required training does your Troop or Council mandate for leaders, before they are considered worthy of leading youth into the backcountry on treks and adventures? How many require WFA, WFR or higher? How many Councils sponsor WFA or WFR classes?

If so, does your Council mandate specific equipment for the trek?

 

How about Swift Water Operations and Rescue training for river trips?

 

Is Leave No Trace training required?

 

I just read in another forum that National might be requiring at least one contingency leader be trained in WFA for Philmont starting in 2008. Will this also apply to Northern Tier?

[Beavah]

I just read in another forum that National might be requiring at least one contingency leader be trained in WFA for Philmont starting in 2008. Will this also apply to Northern Tier?

 

Yah, you're right about Philmont requiring Wilderness First Aid beginnin' in the 2008 season. Don't know about da other high adventure bases, but it seems like a reasonable thing, eh?

 

As for your other questions, I'm aware of a few councils that have somethin' like a High Adventure Committee that requires or "strongly encourages" additional training, but they're pretty rare, and probably happen because of a very conscientious volunteer who really pushed (or a few bad accidents). It's more common that an individual state has requirements, and councils in those states try to keep their people up to date on the state regulations.

 

Otherwise, councils don't do much of anything, eh?

 

O'course, it's a different question about whether or not we should, eh?

 

Beavah

 

[scoutldr]

In the council in which I am registered, they require nothing, other than a tour permit and normal due diligence as for any outing. G2SS, Safety Afloat, Safe Swim Defense, Climb on Safely. THat's about it.

[eisely]

The committed volunteers of our council offer a variety of training opportunities under the rubric of "High Adventure Team" training. None of this training is required for anything, but the adult volunteers coming up as new scouters participate heavily in this training and really appreciate it. Check out this link.

 

http://www.bsa-mdsc.org/hat.php

 

 

[GernBlansten]

Yeah, the threat of wilderness first aid requirement for Philmont was the incentive for us get it last year. Then they postponed it until 2008.

 

I think wilderness first aid is more valuable at Northern Tiers than Philmont. Seems like you are always within a few hours of help at Philmont, but it could be much longer at NT, especially in Quetico or Bisset.

[le Voyageur]

About the only place that I know where the majority of guides, and base staff are trained in WFA, and CPR is Maine High Adventure Base. Additionally, after a month of training, and testing they are certified by the State of Maine as Trek Leaders. They've been doing this for nearly 30 years, and run a solid program.

The differance between the training for MHA, and National's week long Trek Leader module is night and day. National should consider the same standards of training for BSA Trek Leaders. The reason being, the Trek Leader has to operate outside and be independant of any support from Base Camp.

 

On a different subject, two major weakness which I see for programs afloat is that the BSA Lifeguard cert is weak. Great for waterfronts, and protected areas, but worthless for swift water, surf zones, and open ocean. The other problem with the BSA Lifeguard is the lack of zone training, the all important primary zone of visual coverage. Without this training, it makes for a lot of sloppy lifeguarding.

[ASM915]

Speaking of proper Lifeguard training and skills, A couple of years ago, one of the Cleveland TV news crews did ran a story on the safest and not so safe beaches on Lake Erie. Cedar Point Amusement Park Lifeguard staff had a unique response to missing swimmers. They had a net system set up that when they had a report of a missing swimmer, two or three guards responded to each end of the beach swimming area. At each end was a net that would reach from a few feet off the beach out to a 100 to 200 feet off shore. The nets were weighted on the bottom so they drug along the bottem of the lake. The guards would then swim the nets out into the lake, and then drag the nets toward eachother from opposite ends of the beach, meeting in the middle. As soon as there was a drag on one of the nets, the rest of the guards on duty would start snorkeling the net as the guards the farthest out in the lake, would drag the end of the net around and in toward the

shore.

 

The news crew had a 150 LB mannequin hidden out in the lake. total time from reported missing to on the beach with CPR, less then 3 minutes. The Park standard was set for less then 4 minutes, or you didn't guard.

 

As for Edgewater Park in Cleveland, It took them 3 days to find the dummie.

 

The moral of the stoty: If a BSA facility has a large waterfront, maybe the net system and training is the way to go.

[Gunny2862]

Is that the Basic Wilderness First Aid or the Wilderness First Aid from ASHI for Philmont? Can you cite the Philmont reference requirement please?

Thanks!

[Gunny2862]

Found it... ARC WFA or equivalent.

[le Voyageur]

 

 

The ARC WFA is a fair course, and overall not too bad. However, the gold standard for us guides is either SOLO or NOLS....for myself I plan to recert the WFR with SOLO, and do a refresher Wilderness Educator course with NOLS to stay current with the changes....

 

http://www.soloschools.com/home.html

http://www.nols.edu/

 

Reminds me, gotta call the Y and get in some swim time, gotta recert my lifeguarding....again