The Summit, WV

As one of the Boy Scouts of America's national high adventure bases, The Summit provides scouts the chance to experience many new and exciting activities. I served as a COPE and Climbing Director for the summer 2020 season and helped with a variety of projects in the
fall season. I shared staff training and
scheduling responsibilities with two other
climbing and ropes course directors, but
my day-to-day responsibilities centered on
managing a realistic artificial climbing
facility (see pictures) and delivering low
COPE (team-building activities) experiences.

My climbing staff of 15 instructors helped about 3,000 scouts experience climbing and instructed about 70 scouts in climbing merit badge. Rock climbing program was facilitated during open climb, introduction to climbing workshops, Rock Climbing Merit Badge instruction, and adult training clinics. Scouts learned to belay for eachother, a handful of climbing knots, and were able to climb a whole lot with numerous TruBlue auto-belay devices at the facility. Additionally, we ran a high ropes course as part of our evening program operations.

We did well managing the program during the first summer with COVID-19. There was lots of gear and facility washing, hand sanitizing, and mask-wearing.

Above: "Boulder Cove," the climbing area I managed summer of 2020.

Above: A scout learning to rappel at Boulder Cove.

Above: We used TruBlue devices to get off the high ropes courses.