Utah Wilderness Instructor Course - River Skills

The Utah River Educator’s Course is a specialized course for individuals interested in a career in Outdoor Education delivered via the medium of backcountry river travel. This course takes place on and around three different rivers in Utah: the Green, Colorado, and San Juan rivers. It includes Wilderness First Responder and Swiftwater Rescue certifications, and focuses on teaching and facilitation as well as wilderness skills. You don’t need to have previous river rafting or kayaking experience to enjoy this extraordinary expedition which combines beautiful, challenging environments and activities with an intensive outdoor educator curriculum, including professional certifications. Applicants will undergo a thorough review process during enrollment to ensure that the course is right for them.

Wilderness Instructor Course
The Wilderness Educators Course is an Outward Bound course designed to train you in the skills necessary for an entry level job in the field of outdoor education. You will learn group facilitation methods and creative course planning strategies; study risk management with groups in a variety of settings and situations, as well as Leave No Trace ethics and natural history topics in a desert environment. In addition to developing skills in rafting, kayaking, rowing, group and individual management, and teaching, you will learn philosophy and curriculum specific to Outward Bound, the world’s original outdoor education institution. Enhance your readiness to work in outdoor programs by participating in this extensive multi-faceted educational expedition. Academic credit is available.

You and your coursemates will complete an Outward Bound expedition, learning about wilderness education through direct experience. Your staff will enrich your expedition with seminars and discussions about how to teach both the skills you know and those you learn, plus broader issues concerning how to manage a wilderness experience to achieve specific goals for individuals and groups.

The Outward Bound Difference
Immerse yourself into the field of outdoor education through this comprehensive course for aspiring outdoor educators. Designed for those interested in careers in outdoor, adventure, and experiential education, this course focuses on skill development in the outdoor medium of rivers. These technical skills are combined with training in educational theory, OB pedagogy, teaching, leadership, risk management and group facilitation. Also incorporated are specific technical certifications such as Wilderness First Responder (an advanced first aid course), and Swiftwater Rescue. Successful graduates will be well positioned for future work with camp programs, high school or college outdoor programs, or Outward Bound.

Course Description
Traveling from the northeast corner of Utah to the southeast corner of the state, this course not only provides an excellent overview of the desert wilderness of eastern Utah, but an excellent opportunity to refine and master technical skills related to operating numerous different watercraft while honing your skills as an experiential educator and group dynamics manager. You will travel through some of the most remote wilderness areas in the lower-48 states, as your adventure retraces much of the route first pioneered in 1869 by John Wesley Powell and his companions on their first expedition to explore the Green and Colorado Rivers.

Your river expedition encompasses eight of the major river canyons that Powell explored on his historic journey. Additionally, your course descends one of the major tributaries of the Colorado River which Powell did not - the San Juan River along the Utah Arizona border. During your course, you travel over 400 river miles and run famous rapids like Hell’s Half Mile, Disaster Falls, Coal Creek, Capsize and Satan’s Gut.

You also have the opportunity to explore many of the fascinating side canyons accessible only from the river and containing abundant evidence of human history and wildlife such as bighorn sheep, black bear, bobcat, beaver, deer, eagles, Canada geese, mergansers, great blue herons, rattlesnakes, and scorpions. You make this journey in multiple types of river craft: 18-foot paddle rafts, oar boats, sit-on-top hard-shell kayaks, decked kayaks, and catarafts.

Spread throughout the course are a few transitional sections where, instead of boating all day, you’ll learn about planning your own expeditions on the river, complete a nine day Wilderness First Responder certification course, participate in a service project, learn about service teaching, earn a Swiftwater Rescue certification, and experience a solo. By the end of the course, you and your group will have traveled on all but one of the major whitewater river sections where commercial organizations operate in Utah. In short, this course is the most extensive and unique whitewater river experience available anywhere.

Your course begins at our basecamp in Jensen, UT before launching for the first river section rafting through Dinosaur National Monument. You’ll return to the basecamp for a nine day WFR certification course, before launching on Desolation Canyon in a mixed fleet of craft. This section is followed by a San Juan River section where you’ll complete your Swiftwater Rescue training, and have a solo period. Stillwater and Cataract Canyon follow, again in a mixed fleet, water level and skill level dependant. In the final section of your course, you and your fellow students have the opportunity to synthesize all the skills: technical, educational, and environmental that you have learned thus far to execute a seven day river trip.

NOTE: Instructor courses are designed for those with a serious interest in a career in outdoor education. If you are interested in a big adventure and personal growth, but not interested in working in the outdoors, please check out our semester courses.

To enroll in this course click the enroll button next to the course dates that work for you. To shop comparatively on line visit our Advanced Course Finder or better yet call one of our expert Admission Advisers at 866-467-7651. Course tuitions listed below do not include our Application Fee or Transportation Fee.

Region: Utah

Activities: Focused river skills training, wilderness first responder certification

Additional Information:
Application Fee
Transportation Fee

Dates	Days	Age	Focus	Location	Tuition	Course	Enroll
09/05/08 to 10/24/08	50	20+	Instructor	Utah	$5795.00	UII870