High 5's Practioner Symposium: Diablos, Frayed Ropes, Chip's Polar Dip

Saturday, March 6, 2010
Carpooled with Anna and Katy to Brattleboro for the High 5 Practitioner Symposium.

The workshop schedule was, like most, a conflict of events I wanted to attend. I chose Troy Wunderle of Wunderle’s Big Top Adventures: An Adventure Circus for my first workshop. He mentioned laughter and joy and I thought it would be a good way to start the day. He said the two workshops he was running that day would go the way of the group. Ours started with shell game kinds of activities which hurt my brain. I took notes so that I might actually replicate them but we'll see. I also tried a couple of juggling tricks, the diablo and the scarves. I was surprised that I did decently with the diablo, nothing fancy but kept it spinning and was able to right it a few times when it started to tip. Troy left us with the following words by an unknown author:
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

The 2nd workshop I chose was Jim Grout and Chris Ortiz: Good Judgment: The Ultimate Facilitator Skill. Jim is the director of High 5 and Chris is a main cog. I met them briefly in Montreal at the AEE Conference because their booth was next to our OLP booth. I was the only student in the group but I felt confident in the discussion having just finished our week of challenge course training. They started by passing around 2 damaged ropes with obvious tears in the sheath and pieces of the core could be seen. We had to rate their continued reliability on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the worst. Most people said 1, there were a few 0s, and after much discussion about whether we should use 0, I said 1 or 0 not to be misconstrued as 10. Incredibly, we heard a couple of 2s. One of the ropes was brand new and had been used for a 1 day Pamper Pole event. The facilitator was shocked when they saw the rope at the end of the day and brought it to High 5 for assessment. High 5 ran the rope up again to check the cut points and could only assume that the rope had twisted early in the day and that no one did the ABC (Above, Belayer, Construction) site check throughout the day. The damage speaks to the strength of the rope but the risk was incredible.

The next topic was the pitfalls of 2nd generation in-house training. Rarely, they said, is the same amount of time allocated for the training when someone brings the information home, and with change in personnel, the information can become 3rd and 4th generation pretty quickly. The experience and knowledge is diluted thus the 2nd generation trainers and the training are likely inadequate.

Next up was "Do gri-gris make belaying safer?" Petzl recommends a minimum of 2.5 - 3 hours of practice before being left on one's own to belay. Also in question was the misunderstanding that when something is noted as "auto" there is a perception of ultimate safety which is not the case.

The final topic was a scenario where an elementary school wants to bring 35 kids to a high elements course from 9am-5pm. They have a limited budget and want to have some teachers belay to cut the cost. Rather than an all out NO, it was suggested to start a dialogue about their goals and how to achieve them. They would then demonstrate how teachers belaying won't save money because there will still need to be enough staff to watch the teachers. . .even if the teachers are experienced belayers. The ultimate responsibility is with the provider.

Instead of a 3rd round of workshops, because it's their 10th anniversary, we did a snow challenge course. The daytime activities culminated in the Chip Invitational Polar Dip, named after Chip who used to work at High 5 but was killed in a car accident a few years ago. Polar Dip or Polar Plunge is that crazy event where crazy people jump into a hole cut out of the ice in a pond or lake--no skinny dipping here. You have to have a few screws loose. My screws must have been bouncing around because I jumped! I hadn't planned on it but have been carrying enough extra clothing in my pack that I was able to immediately change from my wet clothes into dry. Someone lent me a pair of Tevas for my feet, someone else a towel.  Katy opted out but Anna and I were going for it. Anna had nothing on her feet so I picked her up for all of 10 seconds to keep her bare feet off the snow. It was our turn and we stood near the edge, held hands, and counted fast. I felt a slight hesitation but Anna was committing so in we jumped! That's the way to do it--commit! Her bare feet probably helped, too. The water was only chest deep and though I thought I folded up enough, my head didn't go under all the way. But damn, you stand up fast. I remember shaking my hands as I gasped like I was trying to shake the freeze off me. Someone held out a hand and helped me out. I changed into my thick fleece pants and lots of warm layers. Exhilarating. Something I never expected to do. I'm so grateful that I can grab these opportunities. Live life fully.  Hopefully we'll see some pictures soon.