February 15 2021: After a hearty breakfast it was time for the long awaited and highly anticipated solo briefing. After being constantly reminded over the course of the term that “all questions about solo will be answered at the solo briefing”, we were extremely curious and prepared. Quinn and Erica explained what we were doing and how solos would work. Three nights in the wilderness in complete solitude. Upon being briefed, the room was filled with mixed emotions, some were excited to have some quality time to themselves to relax and others were anxious to be left alone in the wild with no one to talk to. I was somewhere in between. 

Proctor Academy's Mountain Classroom program continues their term-long adventure in the American Southwest. This week's blog post highlights the group's Boulder Mail Trail backcountry expedition. Read more from Paul's '22 perspective below. 

Proctor Academy's Mountain Classroom Program continues their term-long adventure in southern Utah. Climbing in Moab, baking competitions with program director Patty Pond who was visiting with former Mountain Instructor Coco Loehr ‘07, studying water rights, a visit to Arches National Park, and so much more punctuated the last two weeks on the road. Read more from Tahg ‘21 and Griffin ‘22 below! 

Proctor's Mountain Classroom program continues its exploration of the American Southwest through place based learning, expeditions, and community living. Read more from Meg '22 in this week's blog! 

Proctor's Mountain Classroom program ventured to Zion National Park and hiked deep into the breathtaking canyons. Read more from Mountain Classroom and their adventures below!

After returning from quite the freezing but thrilling Paria River backpacking expedition where we spent four nights and five days venturing in some pretty ridiculously cool canyons, we ventured back to our home for the next week in the town of Kanab, Utah. Erica and Quinn gave us a tour of the cabin and we rushed to shower as fast as we could, as it had been 9 days since any of us had showered…I know, gnarly. With all of us being relatively tired from our expedition, the rest of the day consisted of exploring the cabin and the surrounding area along with a nice meal cooked by myself and Sasha. 

After spending our first couple days at Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas, we all piled onto Deb (our trusty bus) and spent the four hour drive down to Utah playing games and looking out the windows at the beautiful scenery. For our first night we camped in the front country and slept in tent/tarp shelters for the first time on this trip, as we had just been sleeping in sleeping bags at Red Rock.

Core to any Mountain Classroom experience is teaching students to adapt, to embrace challenges, to be prepared for the unexpected and to work collaboratively to face each obstacle that arises. When COVID-19 threatened to cancel Proctor’s Mountain Classroom program this winter, instructors Quinn Harper and Erica Hample partnered with program director Patty Pond and Proctor’s Health Center staff to create a quarantine and testing protocol that would allow the program to function, with modifications, and allow ten lucky students to experience a term of place-based learning and expeditions in the American Southwest. Today, we share the group’s first blog post after ten days together.