By Joel Holtzman
Learning to work together with others as a team is a life skill that every young man needs to acquire. The Mountain Wisdom wilderness camps aim to provide team-building experiences from year to year but 2009 was special. One of last year’s challenges, a low ropes course, required the young men to communicate, depend on and trust each other to be successful.

The camp was divided into two teams. Each team had to separately complete the ropes course. I was the course master of ceremony and as such I was always the final word if a rule had been broken. To start the teams were led through the course and the rules were explained. The last rule being, that if any one member of the team broke a rule, the whole team was required to start over from the very beginning. Simple enough. Of course each team started off like a ball of fire. One or two young men were always jumping to the front trying to complete the course without any help. Very quickly it was discovered that they couldn’t do it alone – the members of the team had to communicate and work together to be successful.

The first obstacle was to walk a 2” wide ratchet strap tightly stretched between two trees about 3’ off the ground while holding onto another strap stretched above their heads. As they moved through the course from obstacle to obstacle they were required to move and carry their walk path with them. The walk path was an 8’ long 2 x 4. If any member of the team stepped on or even touch the forest floor with a toe, the whole team had to start over. It looked a lot easier than it was – at least for a group of young men unaccustomed to working together. None of the counselors were allowed to help by giving hints or suggestions.
Neither team was able to complete the course on day one and only one team was able to complete the course successfully on day two. Regardless of how many times the young men had to start over, they eventually learned that if they worked together, the team’s progress would extend further and further down the course.

Of course the three counselors present demonstrated the courses “do-ability.” We completed the course in just 10 minutes, which included one “do-over.” The young men were a bit dismissive of our achievement but impressed with our time.