April 25
Greetings from sn
owy Leadville! We're back from our final expedition to the canyons and have amazing experiences to share.
So, as you might have recalled our 1st expedition in the canyons was just a tad cold. Do you all remember the stories about how we couldn’t feel our hands or feet the entire trip? The 2nd expedition was spent living in giant piles of snow and ice. Finally, on 3rd expedition, we realized that deserts ACTUALLY exist and they can be warm. In fact, sometimes they were downright hot, to the extent that we were hiking in shorts and t-shirts! Yes, we finally had the experience of actually wanting to be in the shade during packs-off breaks while hiking. The best part? Definitely running water. No longer did we have to spend 30 minutes attempting to break the ice in the washes in order to fill our water bottles. There were ponds and streams and even RIVERS (as you will probably see considering we took about 3,000,000 pictures of them…we were that excited). There were days when we were hiking up a canyon wall and the sun was beating down on us and we wanted it to die because we were sweating like mad, but we still loved it…because it was WARM (dreams do come true).
In addition to the newfound warmth in the canyons, our expeditions this time included much more independence from our instructors. Just how much independence depended heavily upon the technical and navigational difficulty of our routes, but all groups had at least a couple of independent student travel days. During the hiking day, we traveled exclusively with students while the instructors traveled separately. This required having efficient and together groups of students and earning the trust of our instructors. Both the students and the instructors would independently find the campsite for that night and travel there an hour apart. The opportunity to travel on our own allowed us to test our navigation skills, as we couldn’t rely on instructors if we were unsure. We all enjoyed having the independence and it was good preparation for any future travels we may do independently as we finish the HM
I experience.
On this expedition, another form of independence was so-called Independent Student Camping (ISC), generally something we earned after Independent Student Travel (IST). It was so cool! It was the first time that we got to travel and camp without our instructors, but it didn't feel strange because we felt so confident. We agree that ISC was better than IST because we could have group kitchen AND an "astro-bivy" (sleeping outside under the stars). One night it was warm enough to sleep in just our base layers with our sleeping bags wide open! It was really cool to be so independent and feel like we really 
could travel and camp without our instructors (even though they were only a ¼-mile behind us, so in case anything bad happened we could get them). We think the best part of ISC was circle. One expedition group had a 3-hour circle that had to be moved inside a four-person tarp because it started to pour outside!
Part of what allowed for so much of the aforementioned independence was having Student Expedition Leaders (SELs). The SELs were entrusted with helping to manage the group when the instructors weren't around. It was a great opportunity for us (the SELs) to take the leadership and outdoor skills we learned over the semester and apply them to the bigger picture logistics of an expedition. 
One of the things that was similar to the other expeditions was that HMI continued to be a school, starting right on issue day when we had our first classes. Classes ranged from how to clean and repair stoves to staying hydrated in the canyons. Mostly the classes were review, but this time around we were teaching the majority of the classes. It was cool to show our mastery of the skills we learned just a little while ago on first expedition. While in the canyon lands of Utah, we continued our peer-taught classes. The classes themselves felt group taught, as after the designated teacher was done talking everyone had something to say about the topic. The classes were great and our expedition all enjoyed teaching and learning with one another.
In addition to student-taught classes, we had a couple of academic classes taught by the instructors. They teamed up to teach an English class on Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer and a P&P class about a reading from Jack Turner's The Abstract Wild. Both were interesting as they related to our experience in the wild Utah canyons.
Good thing we had classes on expedition, because tomorrow it's back to "normal" school and things will be full-swing before we know it!
By: Jill Gardiner, Nina Murray, Tom Braine, Sam Learner, & Kevin Chun