Inside Out

In 1965 Paul Petzolt, founder of the National Outdoor Leadership School in Wyoming used the phrase “Expedition Behaviour” for the first time.

For him it represented a series of principles which guide the decisions and behaviours of an expedition’s members in order to achieve the maximum across the team with the minimum of stress. By 1974 he’d refined the idea enough to write 17 pages on it in his seminal “Wilderness Handbook” and it continues to be at the core of NOLS courses today.

Expedition Behaviour means being prepared, on time, organized, flexible and humble; seeing the humor in everything; exercising a tolerance for adversity, uncertainty and discomfort; and putting the needs of the group and others on the same level or above one’s own needs. Some people do it instinctively, others take a while but eventually, given the reality that wilderness places in front of us, almost everybody gets it.

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This 2002 obituary for Goran Kropp, the Swedish adventurer and mountaineer contains this passage which describes how he prepared himself for the unexpected.

“While doing his national service in a Swedish infantry regiment, he trained for Alpine climbing expeditions by sleeping in a gravel pit. His tough, self-imposed programme included setting his alarm clock at random: if he woke at 3am he would walk 30km in full combat gear; if he woke at 6am, he would walk 60km. “I wanted to get used to living with the unexpected,” he said.”

The rest of the obituary further emphasises how dedicated this man was to both adventure and minimal impact techniques.

“Kropp aimed to tackle each expedition “in harmony with nature”, without support and leaving no trace of his passing. “It is important for me to leave nothing behind me on a mountain,” he said.”

You can read the rest of the obituary on the Telegraph website.

Photo from MountainZone.com.

A Wild Campsite

I’ve just returned from four days in the Brecon Beacons, working with Marlborough College on a life skills week for 180 fourteen year old students. My small part in this enormous logistical exercise was to run two 2-day hill walking expeditions for twelve of them at a time.

We were wild camping in remote mountain campsites with no facilities so we had a carry all of our equipment in our rucksacks. Despite being given a packing list, many of the students failed to being essential items or brought inappropriate items and learnt the hard way from their mistakes or laziness. There is nothing like experiential learning to drive the message home!

I was asked many times over the course of the trip ‘What’s in your bag then?’ and so I thought I’d share the contents of my rucksack here, so you can see what I need to survive 48 hours in the hills.

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