RMS XVIII

News from RMS XVIII

Weekly Updates
Click on a date to read an update from the students of RMS XVIII:

5/23/2007
5/16/2007
5/02/2007
4/18/2007
3/27/2007
3/19/2007
3/06/2007
2/28/2007
2/20/2007
2/12/2007
1/28/2007

5/23/2007
Photo: Clare and Hildy pass the halfway mark of the Fun Run.

Hello everyone.

Here we are, down to the very last week. But, the RMS is still full of activities and things to do. For our last English class, we wrote a poem or story on our views of the West. We then shared our work in the yurt while eating donuts as a way to end our class for the semester. It was a great way to end the class! Our science presentations on sustainable energy sources were due on Monday. The 15-minute presentations on solar, wave, and wind energy, sustainable architecture, and even one on a sustainable dance club were all were very interesting. It is unbelievable the amount of energy we can save by using renewable resources all around the world and even in our own houses. We were nervous before the presentations, but as they got going, we grew very comfortable talking about our subjects because we had done so much research on our topics.

We completed our last exam, the P & P test, on Wednesday morning. The exam was a mix of practical and technical skills. Part of the test was explaining some of the key concepts that the RMS teaches about leadership and different decision-making styles. Then we had to run around the different buildings for the technical part of the
exam. We had to safely start a stove with Cooper, tie a bowline and truckers’ hitch with Ben, orient a map with Karl, find a bearing with Katie, practice conflict resolution with the apprentices, and do a first aid recap with Danny. This by far was the most fun we have ever had taking an exam. As we turned in our exams, a sigh of relief came over us as we had now finished all aspects of academics for the semester.

This last week has not been all tests and assignments. A prank war has erupted between the girls’ cabins. The first prank of the week was played on Cabin 4. While all the girls in cabin 4 were out to dinner with Molly for winning cabin inspection for the semester, all other cabins, in a prank sponsored by Katie Redding, went to Cabin 4. They distributed Cabin 4’s entire eight foot tall wood file all over the cabin! This prank was in retaliation for Cabin 4 stealing the mattresses of the beds in Cabin 3 and using them to block the doors to the cabin.

As we think about going home, we just try to put it out of our minds. Our time here, as everyone said it would be, feels so short. Last Saturday was our last trip to downtown Leadville, the Safeway, and the Laundromat. The campus continues to echo with laughter, but the mood is bittersweet. Saturday night we had a bonfire with a drum circle and charcoal face painting. Some of us watched movies in smaller groups, including a special showing of Chariots of Fire to get us ready for the 10-mile Fun Run. We were quoting it all the next day leading up to the race and wore sport coats to the starting line in gentlemanly style. On Sunday morning at 10:00 AM, we ran the 10-mile-at-10,000-feet Fun Run, and finished well. Charlie came in fastest, with the third fastest time in the RMS history, at 1:14:45. Overall, the Fun Run was great for everyone. We all surpassed our expectations and learned about all we can accomplish.

On Monday evening, Intermediate Spanish went to Ben’s house and cooked a traditional Mexican meal. The menu included cactus salad, zucchini in garlic sauce, flambed cheese, and Mexican chocolate cake. We spent Wednesday afternoon packing and getting ready to leave on our 24 hour solo in Lodgepole Flats, during which we’ll be writing our Full Circle speeches. The solo will be a great opportunity to reflect on all we have learned, laughed, and shared over the last four months.

We will see you back home on Sunday,

By David Wilder, Alex Sonnenblick, and Nubia Galindo

5/16/2007
Photo: Hannah helps complete a new cabin deck during HMI’s recent Project Day.

Hello everyone!

Last week began as Cooper took us on an amazing field trip to a sustainable home in Buena Vista. The house was constructed with wood from a small lumber mill in town and its walls were made of a mixture of local gravel, dirt and concrete. The construction of the house all together was amazing. We had a tour of the outside of the house before heading inside. Read pointed out his hot water solar panels located on the roof and in the
backyard as well as a wind turbine. Soon after, we entered the stylish, ecofreindly house and realized that it looked just like any other house. The owner, Read, incorporated into the house a composting toilet, giant windows for light and heat, efficient storage and many other ecofreindly concepts. He lives in the house with his wife and is able to comfortably entertain guests regularly. The visit showed many of us that if you are willing to take the challenge, a nice house can be green. Thanks Read!

As the semester wraps up, so does the academic year. It is very busy around here with everyone working hard to finish the semester and their work on a good note. In almost all of our classes, we have one final project or paper to show what we have learned. History classes are working on a final analytical paper. US History is writing on a topic of their choosing related to the American West. We have chosen a variety of topics, including the American West and World War II, the portrayal cowboys in film, and the American Indian Wars. In addition to our papers, we finished up the class with final current event presentations and a small group discussions during which we tied together major themes of the semester. AP US History spent much of last week reviewing and preparing for their AP test. As we work hard getting our papers together, we are also researching for our final science projects. Cooper has given us wide latitude in designing our projects. We can study anything related to sustainable living to help better the environment we live in now. Topics range from sustainable architecture to passive solar energy. Among other things, we are looking into the environmental benefits, political issues, and economic costs and benefits.

Last weekend was one of our last at HMI. After morning AMX and classes on Saturday, Karl completed Cabin inspection. Cabin Four still holds a narrow lead after last week’s sabotage prank by the other cabins. We then split into groups to do laundry, chop wood, or spend some free time in town. For Saturday night activity, we hung out at a picnic area and park above the Leadville Fish Hatchery. We had a cookout, played on the swing-set, and held a lively game of baseball. It was great that it was still light enough and warm enough to run around outside at night.

We woke up earlier then normal on Sunday so that we could be in the vans headed toward A-Basin at 7:45. Everyone was so excited to ski that we hardly slept during the hour long drive. Only in Colorado can you still ski on Mothers’ Day! After organizing gear and tickets, we were ripping up the mountain by 9:30. Since it was Mother’s Day we all elected to honor our moms by dressing wacky. There was lots of spandex, hot colors, and even a bright orange wig. It was hard to miss an HMI student on the slopes. The weather was nice to us and we were able to stay out all day, some of us in short sleeves. It was so great to be out on the snow again practicing tele-turns, snowboarding, or continuing to learn how to ski. All in all, it was a busy two weeks and we are in the home stretch of a wonderful semester.

By Dylan Stewart, Cori McGinn, and Clare Boals

5/02/2007
Photo: RMS 18 students enjoy Grand Gulch, Utah.

Hello everyone. We are back from our final expedition and ready to make the most out of our final month at the RMS.

We traveled to an area of the canyons in Utah called Grand Gulch. One of many reasons that this expedition was so different from our first two was the presence of ancient Anasazi ruins. We passed by ruins, pictographs or petroglyphs high up on the canyon’s rock walls every mile or so. However, unlike other famous ruins such as Jerusalem or Pompeii, there are no ropes between you and the ruins. We could hike within six inches of the ancient paintings and carvings, and we could climb into old houses, storerooms, and kivas. One day, our expedition hiked up Bullet Canyon to see some of the most intact and striking ruins in Grand Gulch: the Perfect Kiva and the Jailhouse Ruins. At Perfect Kiva, we were able to climb underground via an old wooden ladder and sit in the underground room. There were even remnants of maize (corn) lying in the underground shelves. Then at the Jailhouse Ruins we saw large pictographs resembling full moons. Exploring ruins where there are no masses of tourists, guardrails, or tour guides was an incredibly unique and powerful experience.

The expedition gave us all the opportunity to work on backcountry skills and to apply the things we had learned on previous expeditions. We were also faced with the new challenges and the excitement of being more independent. We planned routes and led hiking days ourselves. This portion of the expedition was called IST (Independent Student Travel). It varied for each group depending on differing routes, but all four groups earned the privilege finding each evening’s campsite for themselves. The instructors sometimes left ahead of us and met us at the site and sometimes followed farther behind us.

Once at camp, we had to find our own tarp sites and got to decide how to plan our time once we got into camp. We decided as a group if we wanted to have circle, play a game, or have study hall. Depending on the site and other factors, sometimes the instructors camped near us and sometimes they camped much farther away. We learned so much about communication and decision-making by having to figure out things on our own. Over the course of the expedition, we got much better at working as a group and became more confident in our ability to live in the backcountry.

Academic standards were raised for this expedition. With assignments in P&P, history, English, and science, the faculty challenged each student with difficult assignments. For U.S. History, each student wrote a five paragraph essay on the degree to which a society can alter its environment for its own sustenance. This related well to the cultural history that surrounded us. For all over the canyon walls, ruins of the Anasazi people who lived in the canyons over 800 years ago stared down at us and demonstrated how seamlessly the Anasazi had incorporated their surrounding environment into their own living conditions. In science, each student completed a field study that investigated different environmental patterns and trends in the canyons. In English, we read essays of two of the most well-known western writers, Edward Abbey and Terry Tempest Williams. After each essay, students compared the author’s vision of desert use with their own. Finally, in P&P, Ben and Cooper had us read the first half of The Beast in the Garden by David Baron, a non-fiction book discussing the return of mountain lions to suburban Boulder, Colorado. Regardless of all the work, we all had fun doing working in one of the most beautiful areas in the America.

By: Charlie Phillips, Lauren McDonald, and Hannah Baranes

4/18/2007
Photo: Clare shares a laugh on Parents’ Weekend.

Hello all! Much has happened since our last update, starting with Parents’ Weekend before spring break.

After being at HMI for almost two and a half months, our parents finally arrived to the place we have begun to call home. There was a certain excited, anxious feeling among us. But by the time we meet our parents at Molly’s house, we ran out of the vans into the warm arms of our parents and family members. From Molly’s house, we went with our parents to different restaurants in Leadville and up at HMI for a campfire. Many students and faculty performed and spoke, including Xander, who juggled flaming torches, and Laura, Lauren, Hildy and Sydney, who sang “Here Comes The Sun.” After the campfire, we said farewell to our parents while we went back to sleep in our cabins for our last night at HMI before break.

On Saturday morning, our parents joined us in a walk to the Beaver ponds for AMX, which was followed by an exquisite breakfast. Our parents then came to our classes, and they were all really impressed by our teachers and all that we are learning in our classes. In history, we held a debate about the meaning of the West (which actually counted as part of our unit test grade). Discussions in Spanish and French anchored those classes, and, and a great moment in the day was reading our poems to our parents in English. The beautiful poems about our experiences thus far made many parents both cry and smile. The most exciting part of the weekend was the slideshow of our adventures to date, which was filled with many hilarious pictures of the students and faculty on expeditions or around campus. After saying our final goodbyes before spring break, we each found our parents and walked out of the place that has become our home.

Our arrival back on campus last Wednesday was terrific. Not only were there big hugs and big smiles all around, but we spent the evening on a fun trip to Breckenridge and the rec center there where we raced down the waterslide, played water basketball, tennis, ping-pong, and ran around.

On Thursday morning, our P&P class began preparations for the 3rd expedition that is coming up soon. We found out who the student expedition leaders are and who is in each expedition group. Congratulations to Clare, Hannah B., Charlie, and Lauren, our student expedition leaders! This being our third trip, we take a leadership role on the expedition, planning all aspects of it. Since Thursday, we have been making our RAD plans (Route and Description Plans) for the expedition and figuring out what food and equipment we will need.

On Friday, we started taking a Wilderness First Aid class. Instructors from the Wilderness Medicine Institute taught us tons of stuff about how to help people who are having medical issues in the backcountry. We learned CPR to be used in both the wilderness and in urban areas. We spent a lot of time in the classroom learning about every medical condition from a dislocated shoulder to altitude illness. The course included opportunities to go outside and participate in scenarios as the victim or rescuer. On one particular scenario some of us had to pretend to be 12 years old and allergic to bee stings. Among other things, it was up to the rescuers to discover that our bee allergy was simply “when I get stung, it hurts a lot.” Overall the scenarios were a lot of fun, and it was great to learn about how to take care of people in the backcountry.

On Sunday, about twenty of us went on a college visit to Colorado College while the rest stayed on campus to sleep in, relax, and catch up on homework. Everyone who went enjoyed a long 2 hour van ride, a lunch with RMS alums, information session, and a tour. The visit helped all of us, even those not interested in Colorado College, to continue the college process we started at HMI before spring break.

Before classes on Monday, Cabin 4 pulled a prank on Molly by stealing her chair from her office and locking it in their cabin. They then set out clues that led her on a scavenger hunt to find the chair. Unfortunately, Molly managed to free the chair despite a padlock, and she ended up taking the stuffed animals from our cabin which were sitting in the chair. Cabin 4 is still trying to free their stuffed animals that Molly is holding hostage. Many of us are still laughing at the prank, and we all love the fact that our Head of School is willing to play along.

Classes started up again on Monday. In science with Cooper, we learned about river systems. As part of a fun trip to the Arkansas River, we measured the rivers velocity and strength. In Spanish, the intermediate class reviewed the subjunctive while the advanced class watched a movie about Chicano culture. In English we discussed bioregionalism, how there are different political, ecological, and social boundaries to the land. Then in P&P, our last class we discussed Flight Maps, a reading by a Yale academic that we completed over break about environmental ethics.

All in all, it has been a busy and successful couple of weeks. Our next update will be after our final expedition.

By: Xander Tartter, Kali Rieman, and Allie Miller

3/27/2007
Photo: Lauren reads for science class with one of Colorado’s highest peak in the background.

Hello Everyone!

Our return from the expedition got off on a great start. Everyone was eager to see each other again and ready to get back to comfy beds. Cleaning and returning gear was like a breeze (it is amazing how quickly we have picked up the new skills), and we were all ready for showers in no time. Upon exiting the showers, everyone headed to Who’s Hall for St. Patrick’s day dinner. Corned beef and cabbage and potato cakes headed the menu. Sunday was a cabin activity day. We spent the day with our cabins, working our way back into the social life of the RMS. Cabins bowled in town, ate dinner at Zicchitella’s, or watched movies. It was nice to be back with our cabins after the week away. Study hall followed the cabin activities and was devoted to finishing our P&P homework from the expedition.

Classes got off to an easy start on Monday with science lab. Cooper took us to the National Mining Museum, where we completed a scavenger hunt during which we collected clues on importance of mining to our society. In English, we started Dharma Bums and the Beat movement. We wrapped up our leadership unit in P&P with the presentations of our expedition group’s theories of leadership. We defended our ideas before a distinguished board of HMI faculty and administrators. To continue easing back into the routine of things, we completed a four mile run in AMX on Tuesday. Tuesday continued with normal classes and activity, including the start of our first Risk game of the semester. The week got started without a hitch, everyone just loving being back and super excited for Parents’ Weekend and spring break.

Thursday was a normal day of classes. In Spanish class, we presented our Latin music projects. Each group gave an oral presentation and then played a clip of the song they had researched. Music groups such as RBD, Ivy Queen and Moenia were represented. Friday was again an academic day. During lunch, however, Allie Miller set a new HMI record by fitting 30 grapes in her mouth at one time! Danny’s history classes examined the impact of the cowboy culture in the West and began discussing the New Deal by listening to audio selections from the first and second inaugural speeches of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Saturday was an extremely busy day. For AMX, we played Townball, which is similar to baseball, but more than one person can be on the base at a time, and everybody gets a turn to bat. We finished meeting with our college counselors, who came to talk to us about our future plans. Every student had a 45-minute session with a counselor, and they comforted us by providing all the information we need to start the college process. P&P included a lively discussion about land ethics, and our views on it. We based the discussion on Aldo Leopold’s seminal Sand County Almanac. Then, we were off to town to do laundry, buy food at Safeway, and to prepare for ‘80s bowling. ‘80s bowling was crazy! Everyone looked like they just came out from the 1980s. Mickey Mouse bathing suits, short and tight purple shorts and side ponytails were some of the highlights of the night. It was Eliot’s birthday, so it was appropriate that he had the high score in bowling. We went back to HMI to celebrate, and to eat a delicious birthday cake. Saturday was a lot of fun!

Sunday was a great day to sleep in, relax, and catch up on some work. Half of us stayed at HMI and did a huge kitchen clean up and the other half participated in an activity with Full Circle, a local non-profit. The afternoon was a great opportunity to become immersed in the greater Leadville community. Students walked dogs, played games with Middle School kids, and ate pizza.

On Monday we had a full day of classes. In English, we turned in our Parents’ Weekend poems and discussed Jack Kerouac’s Darma Bums. For science, we drove to the Twin Lakes to learn about glaciers. The Twin Lakes still have glacial evidence and were amazing to look at. Tuesday morning for AMX we ran the Loop, which is almost 6 miles and the longest we have run so far. We are all anxious for Parents’ Weekend and can’t wait to see you all!

Our next update will be after Spring Break, and we will see many of you before then!

By: Jennie Kress, Hannah Lovejoy, and Jud Packard

3/19/2007
Photo: Allie, Kali, Clare, Catie, and Ali, show off their dessert pizza on the expedition.

Hello everyone!

We have just returned from our winter expedition in the Sawatch Mountains about 10 miles from the HMI campus, meaning we spent much of the time around 12,000 feet above sea level. Despite warm and sunny weather, we were still camping in 10 feet of snow! Both factors made the trip quite a unique experience. What is it like? Well, we woke up early in the morning warmer than we ever thought we would be sleeping in a mound of snow (snow is a great insulator!), perhaps cuddling ski boot liners, water, or freshly risen yeast dough for breakfast. We then sleepily slid down an ice luge to get out of our show shelters and into our snow kitchen to cook a delicious back country breakfast (always with lots of butter!). Then each day was always a little bit different. If there was a nice-looking slope nearby advanced and beginner skiers alike would take a few ski runs, if it was time to move campsites we would pack up our sleds and ski over to the next site to dig out new quigloos (the shelters), and on a crazy day we even summited a 13,898 foot mountain. Also, there were relaxing days to laugh, have classes, play some games, cook dinner, and go to sleep early.

As always, we had classes on the expedition. Prior to the history class, Danny had us read three articles on the history of Leadville, giving us a better understanding of the lovely town that has become our home. We learned a lot about its mining history, how mining has shaped everything about present day Leadville, and possibilities for the future. A position paper on whether we believe a reintroduction of mining would be good for Leadville complemented the class.

In English, we have moved into a new stage of learning, creative writing! In our class we were told to write (and read aloud if people felt comfortable) two poems: one in the form of an ode focusing on taste and smell, and another on the sound of silence. Results for the first were often comic, such as an Ode to my smelly Neo boots or an Ode to cheesy pasta, which everyone enjoyed! The second poem type was often more serious, and people expressed deep personal moments in silence.

For science class, we were given three assignments to complete in the field: a species account similar to the one we conducted on our first expedition in the Canyons, a tracking study, and a field study. For the tracking assignment we were told to find three animal tracks and carefully sketch and identify them. We mostly found snowshoe hares or the foxes, but some people were convinced that they found tracts a lynx! We’ll see how accurate we were when we compare drawings to actual prints in class. For the field study, we dealt with snow pack quality, and, in groups, examined different aspects of the snow that alter habitat for the wildlife in the mountains.

Practical classes also filled our time. We discussed theories of leadership before coming to an unanimous decision that good leaders adapt to different situations. As a follow up on the class, we examined our own leadership preferences. The faculty presented a grid of four boxes, and each box represented a different type of leadership style. The faculty asked us to place ourselves in the boxes based on our preferred leadership temperament, such as “cool as a cucumber” or “red hot tamale.” Although the activity helped us understand how we, and others in the group, prefer to lead, we also realized that the activity was hard because in different situations your leadership style changes.

The last planned non-academic class we had was a map class. In that class we learned how to take bearings in order to find our planned destination in case were ever caught in a white out and could no longer see far in front of us for whatever reason. We had lessons in self-reliance as well. Because we experienced problems with our one-burner stoves, our instructors decided to hold a spontaneous stove repair class. The class was very helpful because most of us had no idea how to fix them. However, our instructors told us that since we now know how to fix our stoves, we could no longer turn to them for help!

There was plenty of fun and games as well. The weather was wonderful, with sun shining down on us practically everyday. We all enjoyed playing baseball on layover days. The games had a twist, however, as few of us were used to baseball on skis! It made for lots of laughs as people fell while running to bases. Afterwards, everyone enjoyed delicious dinners while gathered around the group kitchen. As the night came to an end, the quigloos became illuminated with the light of candles. During evening circles, we all shared our reflections and accomplishments of the day. Just before bed, we enjoyed hilarious games of Animal Kingdom, Elbow Tag, or Yee-Ha and always climbed into our quigloos ready for a good nights sleep.

All in all, the whole trip was great fun, and we are all in great moods as classes begin on campus again!

By: Nick Maya, Hannah Baranes, Catie Czajkowski and Teddy DePalo

3/06/2007
Photo: With Mount Elbert in the background, Ben teaches in yet another RMS classroom.

Hello everyone!

Last week was a busy one as teachers wrapped up units in time for our winter expedition, and we headed to the slopes for the great tradition of Ski Week. After early class dismissals, we all piled into vans and headed for the local ski mountain, Ski Cooper. When we got to the mountain, we split into groups based upon our past skiing experience and hit the slopes. During these afternoons, we learned to telemark ski, which is how we will travel on our winter trip. Telemarking employs skis that have a free heel binding and a flexible toe box on the boots. Learning how to “tele ski” can be very frustrating at times, but it turns out to be incredibly smooth and rewarding once you get the hang of it. On Friday, Karl took us to a “special locals spot” of the mountain that was filled with powder past our knees.

Academics continued as well. In English we wrote our first critical essay, and a lot of people got panicked the closer it got to Friday. Katie assigned us a poem or short story to analyze for larger cultural depictions. We had a science project due on Friday as well. Cooper had us design posters about different animals and their methods of adapting to winter environments. In class we had been learning about how animals keep warm in the snow, and our projects enabled us to examine and understand the adaptations of specific animals.

On Saturday, we had our first history test. The AP class had a mock exam with multiple choice questions and a document-based question (DBQ). The US History class’s test consisted of an essay in which we had to solve a modern problem using examples and evidence from history. We also created a dialogue between three historians with conflicting views of the history of the American West. In this case, it was a conversation between Fredrick Jackson Turner, Patricia Limerick, and Donald Worster.

The rest of Saturday classes continued as normal. We had a P&P quiz on Shakespeare’s Henry IV and math classes. After lunch we broke into teams for a trip to the Laundromat and the local Safeway grocery store. We then chopped wood for an hour before heading back to town to watch Leadville’s annual Ski Joring competition. Ski Joring is amazing to watch. The town closed Harrison Avenue (the downtown thoroughfare) and filled it with snow jumps. Horses galloping at top speed then pulled skiers up and over the jumps. We cheered and hollered in support on skiing taken to an extreme we had never seen before.

Monday was a long but fun day. Those of us who take Spanish had a test yesterday (yet another reminder that the RMS is a school!), and everyone had a science lab as well. For the science lab, we drove to Turquoise Lake and compared the varying amounts of ground cover found in different kinds of tree groves (Aspens and Conifers, in this case). That afternoon saw us all outside for P&P class as we started on our field studies for the expedition. Lessons included learning how to build group kitchens, how to set up an effective snow shelter, and how to use snow saws to cut things like shelves, benches, and refrigerators.

We were all excited about the winter expedition yesterday, and getting all our equipment together Tuesday only got us even more ready to leave. Everyone split into their expedition groups in order to get the right gear, learn how to pack sleds, and divide up food. We have lots of food on this expedition much more than we did for Dark Canyon, and we got to supplement our ration with our own purchases as well. We leave Wednesday morning at 9:00, and there’s definitely a positive feeling in the air. Having been on one expedition already has given everyone more confidence in themselves and their abilities, and we have all bonded over the past month or so. When we depart tomorrow, it will mean leaving behind some of our friends for 11 days, but it is easier to do that armed with the knowledge that even more of the great people we have come to know will be with us.

By: Seth Douglas, Ryan McIntosh, and Hannah Cary

2/28/2007
Photo: Christina helps Sarah review the grammar in her French paper.

Hello all!

This past week has been pretty crazy. In English, we studied the myth of Cowboys and Indians and began writing papers analyzing stories and poems related to this theme. Katie has found time to meet with each of us individually for a long discussion about our papers and how to improve the quality of our arguments and grammar. AP US History moved through the Gilded Age, and Wednesday’s class ended with a debate about populism and whether or not it was a conservative movement. We also prepared for the AP exam by completing a DBQ (document based question) on the settlement of the American West. After the DBQ, Danny met with each of us to discuss how to better use documents, analyze outside information, and efficiently respond to the question prompt.

In science, we are learning about snow and its impact on the environment and climate, and how animals and plants adapt to winter. We conducted a really cool experiment on the effectiveness of different types of animal insulation. Cooper and John gave us three different types of gloves with which to cover our hands. They were made of mock fur, feathers, and an animal fat substitute. We put our hands in a bucket of ice water, with one hand insulated by a glove and the other bare. We studied how much of a difference each extra layer of insulation made.

Math class has been typical, although one class went to the coffee shop in town for class, as we do every Friday. US History had a mock trial. We put historian Fredrick Jackson Turner on trial for misunderstanding the history of the West. We served as lawyers or witnesses, and it was funny to see everyone dressed up as Indians, farmers, miners, and New York lawyers.

On Saturday, we chopped wood in the morning and headed to the Leadville Loppet, a country ski race, where we handed out glasses of water, Gatorade, and cookies to the skiers as they passed. Karl and Danny both competed in the race, which Karl won by two seconds! Then we went to town, where we purchased a wide variety of interesting (to say the least) thrift store items to wear and decorate our cabins. At night, we hung out in Who’s Hall. Some people watched movies, others did work, and some played ridiculous games.

Sunday morning started early with a brisk walk for AMX. We then had classes because we missed Saturday’s to help out at the cross country ski race. After breakfast and chores, we had math and P&P. In P&P we discussed the different types of influence that people can have after reading a section of Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point.” We also had cabin meetings to decide our cabin heads. The cabin heads represent all the students in faculty meeting. RMS XVIII cabin heads are Alex, Dylan, Hannah B., and Ryan.

Monday started with some relaxing ski conditioning for AMX. It was hard to concentrate through breakfast, chores, and morning classes because everyone was so excited to officially start ski week. As soon as math let out a 12:00, everyone scrambled into their ski gear and piled into the vans. Once we were at Ski Cooper we split into out ski groups and headed down the hill. The advanced skiers learned telemark turns while the beginner group prepared for their first time on the chairlift. A good time was had by all, but our legs were definitely tired at the end of the day.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we continued ski week with the same enthusiasm. On Tuesday, for AMX, we ran three miles. It was our longest run yet! In Spanish, we discussed readings about the Chicano movement and reviewed for our upcoming test. In P&P, we prepared for our expeditions by journaling about our strengths and weaknesses. We then headed to Ski Cooper for the afternoon. Everyone continues to improve at astonishing rates and continues to get more and more excited about the winter expedition.

We continuously remind each other that we are at school because, despite all that we are learning, we are having so much fun!

By: Cakey Worthington, Claire Boals, and Sydney Chun

2/20/2007
Photo: John examines a snow pit during a science lab.

Our first week back on campus was amazing. The best part was definitely getting to see the whole group again. After spending fourteen days in the canyons, campus was like the Hilton. On Monday, we went into town for our first laundry run and raided the Safeway grocery store. We turned in all of our work from the expedition and ate lunch as a group. We shared funny stories from our trips and talked about what an awesome time we had. We could hardly tell who was in which expedition group because we all reconnected so well. It speaks volumes about how amazing RMS 18 is!

We had our first Science, Spanish, and English classes early in the week. Wednesday started off our day with walking for AMX, or morning exercises, at the usual time of 7:25. At 8:00, we returned to Who’s Hall for breakfast and at 8:30 we started our chores. Classes began at 9:00. Katie led us through a discussion of how the myth of the West is represented in literature and film, and we began studying limits, radicals and exponents, and matrices in our math classes. Lunch clean-up crew rocked out to crazy techno while they washed the plates and utensils. We had three periods in the afternoon, including French, where we examined French influences on North America as Christina led us through a class conducted entirely in French.

On Thursday, we had our first Intermediate Spanish class where we were required to speak entirely in Spanish. This presented a challenge to many, but we will get used to it. In the afternoon, we had activities for fourth period. We went climbing on HMI’s climbing wall, played Broom Ball at the ice skating rink in Leadville, helped Danny with the recycling, or went sledding. At dinner we all compared the activities we had participated in and debated which one was best, although no conclusion was drawn. After dinner we all made our way to our study hall locations so we could do our homework for Friday’s classes.

Saturday was our first real Saturday at home. It began with a game of freeze tag and Captain’s Calling out on the playing field with Cooper. Then we had Saturday morning classes; in P&P, we discussed qualities of leadership in relation to a reading we’d completed “The Arctic Hedonist.”

We then had two other periods of math, language, and history. In the afternoon, we split into three groups to do laundry, chop wood, and go to town. We especially enjoyed checking out the local coffee shops and thrift stores. Most people ran into Safeway while their clothes were in the dryer to stock up on snacks for the week. We got a major thrill from chopping our own wood in order to heat our cabins. Since we all come from homes with electric heating, getting to provide for ourselves is empowering. After our busy day we had free time before dinner to hang out and call home. Instead of study hall, Karl (the FOD) took us all to the local ice skating rink. Some of us were pros on the ice and played a game of hockey with the faculty while others could hardly keep themselves upright. We all had a lot of laughs and the evening turned into a school-wide snowball fight on ice. All in all, our first Saturday on campus was a ton of fun!

Sunday, arguably the best day of the week at the RMS offered a relief from the first week of enjoyable academic classes. A great night’s sleep and an enormous delicious brunch at 10:00 led off the day. Once we packed lunches and loaded our skis into the vans, we were off to Ski Cooper for our first experience on the slopes of the semester. A blue bird day with the sun shining set the scene. After a few hours of cruising the slopes and a lot of falls and laughs, it was back to HMI for a few hours of free time before dinner.

After a dinner of 20-inch noodles and fortune cookies to celebrate the Chinese New Years, study hall concluded the exciting weekend. As class started Monday morning, a Science Lab on our snow covered campus opened the academic week with an exciting bang. Trudging through knee deep snow, we dug snow pits and studied the variations of the snow pack and its affect on local ecosystems. Classes continued on Monday as we began another full and exciting week.

By: Forest Devitt, Alex Sonnenblick, Sarah Heely, and Charlie Phillips

2/12/2007
Photo: Charlie and Cakey examine a map in Dark Canyon.

Hello everyone!

Over the past two weeks, RMS 18 has been on our first expedition, circumnavigating Jacobs Chair and hiking through the Dark Canyon region of southern Utah. We split into smaller groups of eight students and three faculty members. For many of us, the small slot canyons near Jacob’s Chair were the most amazing feature we saw. The slot canyons have been sculpted by water flowing through them for thousands of years. All the edges are curved and smooth, and some sections were barely large enough to squeeze through. Another highlight was our hike to the Colorado River. We hiked a total of 8 miles, taking breaks along the way to observe the deep turquoise pools in the canyon. We finally reached the Colorado, and paused to watch the dark yellow canyon walls rise from the magnificent river. The canyons are one of the most amazing places we have ever seen.

During the expedition we did actually have homework and academic classes. This might sound like regular school, but it was definitely better! Most days after we got into camp we had an hour or so of study hall where we could spread out and admire the amazing views while reading about the area in which we were living. We also could use this time to do a field study for science during which we examined a particular pattern in nature or write in our journals for English. Faculty members led English classes about the portrayal of animals in literature after we read several different stories and articles about the subject. History classes examined the problems caused by subjectivity in writing and studying history after we read Howard Zinn’s “The Use and Abuse of History.” We also read Jack Turners “The Maze and the Aura” and discussed his unholy trinity: photography, mass tourism, and mapping, and their effects on an individual’s experience in any powerful place, such as the canyonlands. To cap it all off, we had a geology class on the canyon rim watching the sun set over Dark Canyon. We learned about the main types of rocks as well as about how the different rock formations around us were formed. The fact that we were actually there in the canyons looking at all the layers of sediment in the rock made what might have been a potentially dull class about rocks into an amazing, exciting, learning experience.

We also had practical backcountry classes that helped both beginning and experienced campers. They consisted of information you would never learn in a regular classroom. After being overwhelmed with the number of acronyms we need to learn, it became clear how important these unique classes were. It was the first time a teacher has ever sat down and told us the ways to be a leader and why giving feedback is positive even if it is difficult. The teachers then gave us tools to successfully be a leader and give feedback. As students at the RMS, we learned to communicate and speak our minds in order to create a strong community now and for the future. Another highlight of backcountry classes was learning how to make delicious pizza as a big group. The pizza was so amazing that we were all in shock. Making it was fun too! One of the most important skills to pick up on while camping is the idea of LNT, or Leave No Trace. The seven principles of LNT soon became second nature to us. A few of the ideas are to pack out all your trash, camp and travel on durable surfaces like rock, and only burn fires where they are allowed. The principles of LNT are important because they not only made our experience in Dark Canyon more enjoyable, but also allowed us to leave the area in the same or even better condition that we found it.

The only thing that matched the learning and amazing sight seeing was the amount of fun we had on the trip. Everyday, after hiking for miles while talking, navigating, and joking our way through the canyons, we would get to camp. After exploding our backpacks, we would find a flat surface and set up our tarps by tying each rope to a large pile of rocks or a tree. Living under a tarp with three other boys or girls, you get pretty well acquainted with your “room-mates.” A bond begins to develop that can only be understood through experience. Huddling together at night to keep warm, cooking all of our meals together, talking for hours, we all became close friends. After tarps were set up and meals were cooked, we would get together to have circle. Circle is a place where everyone gets a turn to address a question or a prompt while holding the power object. You hear the funniest stories or interesting thoughts in circle while sipping on your hot chocolate or warm tea. After circle is finished, we played games to keep warm before getting into our sleeping bags. We learned the boot dance to keep our toes warm and played tons of other games like animal kingdom, WA, and big booty. After all is said and done, we would go to sleep as warm as can be, exhausted but happy and ready to repeat the process all over again the next day.

We are now back on campus, and ready to being classes tomorrow!

By: Ace Salltzberg, Dylan Stewart, Lauren McDonald, and Cori McGinn

1/28/2007
Photo: RMS 18 students and apprentices pack food for the Dark Canyon expedition.

Hello Everyone! This is our first update from RMS 18. Our first week was a busy one as we got to know each other, had our first classes, and prepared for our expedition to Utah.

It did not take long for us to realize what a diverse and talented group of students we have in Leadville for RMS 18. We come from every corner of the country, and it seems like we all have just as many interesting stories and adventures. The boys in Cabin 2 have entertained themselves in the evenings by showing off their quirky “skills,” and we have all bonded over warm fires in our cozy cabins. As we get ready for our first expedition, we are encouraged by the closeness of our fun loving and adventurous community.

Much of that feeling comes from everything we have already done together. Morning exercise, for example, began on Thursday with a half hour walk on the road framed by 14,000 foot mountains. A couple of us even decided to run! On Friday morning, the activity was two-ball soccer in the freshly packed snow. Everyone got involved in the game. It was hard to tell which team won because no one cared about the scores with all the fun we were having. Days have been full as well. We had our first community meeting on Friday and talked about what we want to make of the semester. Molly hosted s’mores by a bonfire and a walk by turquoise lake under the moonlight on Thursday night. All the activities have kept everyone so busy that, although we miss home, we are all very happy where we are.

Almost immediately after we had arrived at RMS we were thrown into the academic environment that is such a crucial part of the Rocky Mountain Semester. We were introduced to all the classes we are taking over the semester; Math, Science, English, U.S. History, AP for some of us, and a language. Most of us are taking either Spanish or French but others are taking independent studies in Arabic and Latin. All the teachers were really enthusiastic and you could tell how much they enjoy their jobs and want to be at RMS teaching us. Most of the classes were introductions to material and teaching methods, but Ben and Christina, the language teachers, gave us tests on the first day! We also received assignments in every class, except math, to complete before we get back from our first expedition. We were nervous about the assignments at first, as they seem challenging, but the more we thought about them, the work seemed a nice complement to the adventure awaiting us in Utah. For example, the science teacher, Cooper, assigned us field studies to help us better understand the environment and animals of the Canyon lands.

We began preparing for our 2-week expedition to Dark Canyon, Utah on Friday. We were divided up into groups of 10 or so, and we learned all sorts of stuff from our teachers (who also lead the expeditions), like how to use a camp stove properly, how to pack a backpack, and how to insulate a camp bowl. We gathered all our stuff together and went through checklists with our instructors, and then went to see the wonderful Brenda in the gear room to rent or buy the things we still needed for the trip. We also had a super time rationing all of our food (while jammin’ to some tunes, of course) and figuring out how much we will bring for the first portion of the trip, and how much we will re-ration after the first week. Our groups are already getting close. Everyone is a little nervous, but our Practices and Principles class, led by Ben and Cooper, helped us out a lot. We all wrote our fears on slips of paper and then tallied each type of fear on the board - it turns out that a lot of us are nervous about not being strong enough or not making friends. Seeing that almost everyone is afraid of the same things helped us remember that we are all in the same boat and made us feel better. We’re all excited to get into our vans and head off on an amazing journey tomorrow!

By: Justin Hudgins, Laura Castleman, and Nubia Galindo