Interest in outdoor education and recreation has spiked significantly in recent years; cautionary stories about our sedentary digital lives abound, as do ad campaigns and editorials imploring us to get outside and explore. As more of our culture looks to reconnect with an authentic experience in nature, schools are also looking for ways to broaden the classroom walls and incorporate hands-on outdoor learning into their curricula. Mountain resorts like Bear Valley now find themselves in a unique position to respond to these needs, and are creating a new outdoor resource for school groups and adults alike.
“We recognized that by combining our year-round mountain recreation with the expertise of our local outdoor professionals, we could offer really valuable programs to people of all ages that go beyond sports,” said Rosie Sundell, Bear Valley’s marketing director. “It’s really a way for people to connect to the mountain and learn about the different ways to experience it.” Inspired by the new opportunities to combine adventure with outdoor education, Bear Valley has launched an exciting new line-up of programs for the current season.
Adventure Academy
In a partnership with local outfitter, Bear Valley Adventure Company, and mountain guide service, Mountain Adventure Seminars, the resort earlier this year inaugurated the Sierra Adventure Academy. In this program, school groups can customize their own multi-day adventures that combine environmental education and team building activities with a variety of seasonal mountain sports. A typical summer itinerary might include rock climbing, kayaking, nature hikes and mountain biking, all the while surrounded by a living classroom of Sierra geology and ecology. Winter courses will generally include skiing, snowboarding and cross-country ski instruction with hands-on workshops in avalanche awareness, building snow shelters and backcountry travel. The concept is for educators with an existing science and environmental curriculum to look to Bear as a venue and technical facilitator to help bring the courses to life in a real world setting.
Reading Challenge Program
Continuing with their efforts to reach out to the student population within their region, especially those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to learn to ski, Bear is now offering a special incentive to encourage literacy, outdoor education and recreation. The Reading Challenge Program, launching this fall, will award lift ticket, lesson and rental packages to elementary students who complete the month-long assignment, which will correspond to their grade level. For example, a second grader would complete 300 pages in a month, while a sixth grader would need to read 400 in the same time span. For the high school crowd, the stakes get a little higher, and instead of reading the challenge will instead be multimedia creation. Basically, students will work in teams to produce a short video piece that demonstrates how they connect to the outdoors. Winning pieces will be featured on the resort’s website and the winning teams will be awarded a comprehensive snowsports package.
While most of the schools within Bear’s immediate vicinity have welcomed the reading and multimedia programs, the opportunity is being made available to any school within Bear’s market, which includes Central Valley and Bay Area schools. Those interested should contact Bear Valley Mountain for further details.
Grown-ups will find plenty of ways to improve both their skills and snow safety awareness as well this year at Bear. New lessons and clinics being offered by the resort include Powder Progression, a group workshop specializing in powder skiing technique. “Last season we started offering these in response to the enormous quantities of fresh snow that seemed to be forever falling on the resort, and they were wildly popular,” according to Snowsports Manager Chris Moore. Since the clinics are completely weather dependent, and conditions change from one day to the next, anyone interested in improving their powder turns should sign up for “powder alerts” on the resort’s website. Powder clinics will meet in the early morning and last a couple hours. If you prefer to catch air and pull tricks in the freestyle park, there is the Park Progression series for you. Sunday afternoons, freestyle instructors will be on hand at the mountain’s beginner/intermediate park for clinics on railslides, aerials and other park techniques.
Moving beyond the resort’s boundaries, a new partnership with Mountain Adventure Seminars opens up the backcountry and “sidecountry” (terrain that is outside the official boundary, but still skiable with lift access) for special adventure tours, including half day snowcat tours accessing untouched powder for groups of up to eight people, and ski descents of the fabled “Zones,” a closed area with technically demanding chutes and steeps. Along with the great skiing these trips offer, MAS also provides a comprehensive set of courses in everything from avalanche rescue to snowshoeing to winter mountaineering, all within the vicinity of Bear Valley Mountain.
This season MAS will also be teaming up with the resort’s ski school for two programs—the Adventure Ski Team and the All Access Team—specifically for teens that want to learn solid snow safety and backcountry skills to combine with all mountain free riding. The resort’s other team opportunities are Competitive Ski Racing and All Mountain. The Competitive categories are for youth only and include Competitive Freestyle Teams. The Development teams in the Competitive category are specifically focused on preparing youth athletes for competition but do not travel. The All Mountain teams are development teams for youth and adult athletes that will cover a variety of technical skills, techniques and terrain across the entire mountain, including parks and side country.
To keep up to date with new events or to sign up for any of the above mentioned programs, please visit the Bear Valley Mountain website at www.bearvalley.com, or call their central reservations line at 209-753-2301 ext.777.
To learn more about Mountain Adventure Seminars, visit them at www.mtadventure.com, or 209-753-6556. Bear Valley Adventure Company is found at www.bearvalleyxc.com, or 209-753-2834.
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