The Upward-Bound program is renowned for helping college-bound students thrive in high school and to go on to college. In January, program participants learned survival on a more basic level. In a course called "Winter Fast." 13 Upward-Bound students, including five from FHS, traveled to Polebridge to learn the basics of winter survival.
"We were trying to provide experience for the students to actually go out into the wilderness and teach them some skills that they might need," said program organizer and instructor Mike McLean. "We're trying to provide opportunities to show them that it's a real livable place to be if you're prepared properly. Some people kind of hide away and go inside in the winter time and we want them to get outside and enjoy the winter experience in the Flathead Valley."
First, on Jan. 11, students who wished to participate in the course went to Flathead Valley Community College to learn the basics of winter survival with winter survival expert Kent Hoffmeyer.
"We learned about proper clothing," said sophomore Brendan Garvey. "We had a lesson on cross-country skiing so we wouldn't be completely lost when we got up there."
After the survival training and the ski lesson, the students regressed to the safety and warmth of their homes before the next stage of the course one week later.
On Jan. 17 and 18, the participants met in Polebridge and rented two cabins at the Square Peg Ranch before trekking into Glacier Park for their ski touring, shelter building and snow kitchen construction.
"While we were up there we actually went out and skied and then set a camp," said McLean. "We didn't actually camp out but we set up a shelter and then built snow kitchens and cooked some soups and hot tea and things like that to keep us warm. We set up a camp as we would if we were going to stay overnight in the area."
The participants also had the experience of clogging around the camp in snowshoes.
"The hardest thing was probably the cross-country skiing," said Garvey. "Everybody was really tired and a lot of people got fed up with it because everybody was falling down a lot."