|
Winter camping is good.    I went camping last night, but it wasn't wintery. I was in a tshirt all night in the Canadian mountains. It's really warm right now.   I also have a poo poo ton of stories because I spend as much time outdoors as I can. I'll start with my heli-rescue I guess. I fell off the side of a mountain while descending and fell 15 feet down a cliff band onto a little ledge on top of a 500 foot vertical cliff. I got massive scrapes and cuts all over my body and couldn't bend my leg. Nothing broken, but I couldn't keep climbing down. We called for a rescue and they picked me up via a cable under a helicopter and flew me to an ambulance and I got to go the hospital. 10 stitches in my head, 3 in my leg. Covered in blood. Couldn't walk for four days. I was back on a summit 5 weeks later because I loving live for this poo poo. |
#
¿
Oct 11, 2015 06:00
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 21, 2024 06:15 |
|
|
dogcrash truther posted:Wow that's a great sky picture. How did you get it? Whenever I try to photograph stars the photos come out terrible. ISO 2000, 30 second exposure, f/4.5. Then some post work. It was also 4 a.m. during a new moon which helps. I'll mention something else neat too. At university I'm in a program called ecotourism and outdoor leadership and I also have a minor in physical geography. So I get to go outside a LOT for school. And it's taken me to really cool places all over the world, because I've done field school and expeditions as part of my program. These were all taken during what were either classes, field school, or job shadowing. The outdoors are the best classroom ever!            So I'm basically in school to just do what I always do, which is dick around in nature and maybe make sure clients aren't dying if they're out with me. Ecotourism is really booming now and having people who actually know how to not gently caress things up out there is important enough universities are actually offering degrees in it now. It's awesome. |
|
#
¿
Oct 12, 2015 05:43
|
|
|
Caves are neat. |
|
#
¿
Oct 12, 2015 09:08
|
|
|
dogcrash truther posted:Oh wow, ok, I have a few questions about your school/program. I'll answer what I can with a really long post full of quotes! quote:where are you getting your degree I'm in Calgary at MRU. Mentioned it many times on the forums before, so might as well say it here too. quote:how rigorous is the coursework (and in what way) It's not as intensive as other programs but very time consuming. We make a lot of mock-projects like 50 page marketing plans and 30 page program plans, which are graded by people who do it for a living. Group projects are favoured more than any other program, because of the nature of work after graduation. Plus these will likely be your future co-workers so we all have to learn to work together now. There's a lot of practical work in facilitation, and we have classes where we team up with local schools to teach kids outdoor skills and stuff. quote:how well-funded is the program, Surprisingly well, we barely got hit when the school got hit with a massive budget cut from the provincial government a couple years ago. But in all honesty that's because students have to pay for most of the extracurricular costs anyway, such as travel expenses, wilderness first aid courses, etc. We don't get to take any buses to locations, we usually drive our own cars and carpool. Gas money was budgeted into part of our course fees for our expeditions. Whereas in my Earth Science classes, field trip costs for bus rental/gas were provided by the department. quote:is it multidisciplinary in any ways I would say so, some of my mandatory classes include ecology, physical geography, sports history, entrepreneurship, and marketing. quote:is a degree really required for this kind of thing/what advantages are there to getting a degree, Not really required but it really does help if you want to get in on any outdoor job in the Canadian Rockies or a lot of places in BC, which is my plan. Our grads are quickly becoming the majority of business owners, outfitters, and guides in the area. And the alumni are all really close and involved with mentoring us. Sometimes you get to borrow gear for free too if the owners know you're a current student or grad. quote:what kinds of jobs do people do, Short list: wilderness guides (everything you can possibly think of), mountain rescue, trail building, owning outdoor outfitters, training military in swift water paddling/rescue, aboriginal youth outreach programs, operating kids camps, rock-climbing/kayaking/mountaineering etc instructors, teaching what is essentially an abridged version of our program for kids as an optional course in junior high and high schools, park wardens, wildlife and habitat conservation workers, there's a guy who opened a surf shop in Bali. I'd love to get a job with the national parks in the summer then be a tour guide in like Mexico or somewhere in the winter, or doing conservation work overseas somewhere. quote:what kinds of field work/job shadowing did you do, My field school applied to my geography minor, but was very much "ecotourism" related because we did studies on coral reef threats, the issues with palm oil plantations on rainforests, how the big coastal resorts increased damage during the 2004 Andaman Sea tsunami (the coastlines that had mangroves intact were hardly damaged compared to those that cleared them all out to have pretty beaches), mass tourism harming local communities, stuff like that. We basically just traveled all over, went on tours, and wrote about our observations, and our finals were writing reflection essays on what we experienced and how we could apply our knowledge to future hypothetical scenarios. My job shadow was my own personal choice, I approached a place that interested me and asked if I could do it. They accepted, even though no one had ever asked them this before, and I ended up working with kids geoscience day camps and going on guided hikes so I could see what these guides actually did. I went to a trilobite fossil bed which is banned from public access and is normally $130 per person to go, but I got to go for free. And log in 8 hours of shadowing. It was awesome. quote:what's the job placement like for people in your program, how long has it been around, The program has been around for 13 years now. It was once an applied degree through a college but was upgraded to a full bachelor's in the faculty of health and physical education at my school 2 years ago. More than 90% of graduates get a job in the field of their choice but with such a huge range of options it's no surprise really. quote:do people often double major/minor in your dept and if so what kinds of things, like is it possible to do a film/outdoor leadership double major, do you have to learn a foreign language Most people seem perfectly happy to have just this degree, but a geography minor is really common. I was thinking of seeing if I could actually get a double major or minor myself in either communications, earth sciences, or ecology but I don't know if it's possible at my particular school. I need to talk to my advisors. It can help to have a second language because of the nature of tourism, we are urged to learn Spanish because one of the program heads works very heavily in facilitating good ecotourism practices and community outreach in Latin American countries and is trying to mold a few students into taking up his work. It helps to know French because it's an official language here because it's an official language in Canada and the Parks often have it as a requirement for employment. I'm currently learning Spanish because I go to Mexico every year, and I might try to learn French too. Being able to communicate with more people is just a good skill to have regardless, IMO anyway. quote:...sorry, that's a lot of questions. No problem, I love what I do and it's fun to talk about. |
|
#
¿
Oct 12, 2015 22:22
|
|
|
dogcrash truther posted:Thanks, that was really informative! For some reason I thought you were in the States, but I guess you've just done trips down? My expedition through school was 10 days in the Moab area. We did three days mountain biking at Slickrock and Dead Horse Point State Park, then canoed the entire section of the Green River that flows through Canyonlands National Park. I highly suggest people go to Moab, it's otherworldly out in the desert and completely awesome. Especially if you're into rock climbing, the sandstone cliffs are perfect. |
|
#
¿
Oct 14, 2015 04:56
|
|
|
Yeah post about surfing. |
|
#
¿
Oct 16, 2015 06:22
|
|
|
GoodbyeTurtles posted:How do you kiss a mountain, to show it your love Mountains don't need kisses to be appreciated, they like butt contact.      
|
|
#
¿
Oct 17, 2015 08:30
|
|
|
GoodbyeTurtles posted:To kiss the mountain with your butt, it's a beautiful thing I have a new motto, thank you. |
|
#
¿
Oct 17, 2015 11:17
|
|
|
Hey I went outside recently. How about you? Where are the surfing stories? What the heck? |
|
#
¿
Oct 30, 2015 09:43
|
|
|
Snakes are cool and it's good to sympathize with them. |
|
#
¿
Nov 11, 2015 04:40
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 21, 2024 06:15 |
|
|
Garter snakes are super cute but they might poo poo all over you if you catch them. We have rattlesnakes here too and I've seen a few. Never close enough to get bitten. Only ever saw one bull snake but it was huge. It was too fast for us to catch. Oh yeah, one time I was camping and someone's pet king snake escaped their RV and was found in a tree near my tent. That was the only time I had ever heard of someone taking their pet snake camping before. |
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2015 05:46
|
|