Upcoming Events
Sam has finished working with Chris Cavert and Faith Evans to publish a new book that focuses on the how-to aspects of facilitating large groups. We call the book The More The Merrier. To take a peek at it or purchase it, click here .


February 23, 2008 - Sam will be working in Buffalo, NY at the Western NY Student Leadership Conference. Several universities and colleges will be represented.



March 8, 2008 - Sam will be working in Connecticut at the Connecticut Challenge Course Professional Annual Conference. We will be having fun with large group and new activities that facilitators can use on ropes courses and beyond.Click here for details.



May 16, 2008 - Sam will be working in Tulsa, OK doing a workshop called WOW! DiSC - Experiential Facilitator Training. The workshop is designed to help trainers who use the DiSC assessment integrate activities into their courses so that people understand and use the DiSC better. Even if you are just starting to use the DiSC, this will be a useful workshop. If you are interested in coming Click here for details .



May 19-23, 2008 - Sam will be holding a Challenge Course facilitator training (TTT) in Tulsa at Camp Loughridge. We will cover everything from icebreakers to learning theory to low and high ropes course to rescues. Trainers and leaders of all experience levels welcome. Click here for details .




New Experiments and Fun Stuff

Igloo Building on Spring Break

Let me set the stage for you. It’s spring break. My wife and two girls, ages seven and ten need something fun to do together. My wife and I have tent camped a few times in our 20 years together (although she is not a country girl) and my girls were excited to do something new. So I think “igloo!” I know that is probably not what you would be thinking, but almost a year ago I purchased an igloo maker from Grand Shelters and determined that I would build and sleep in an igloo.

I decided that the closest snow to Austin, Texas was going to be near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Santa Fe is a good place to visit, so I figured that even if things didn’t go well with the snow, we could still enjoy a vacation.

We left on a Monday and arrived in Santa Fe eleven hours later. The trip went very smoothly. The girls were very motivated to be there. We got up the next morning to find a good place to rent snowshoes and poles and then to find a place to build our igloo. The forest area north of Santa Fe has many trails and a ski area. We decided to stop at the Big Tesuque trail number 152. It is a popular place for people to stop by the road and sled in the woods. We hiked up the trail no more than 300 yards and found a hill to go up and look for a flat space large enough to build on among the aspen.

The next day we got up and ate a good breakfast. We bought some lunch food and rented shoes and poles. The intent was to build the igloo in about four or five hours, and be able to cook dinner that evening at our campsite and go to bed under our snow shelter. Unfortunately, a few things slowed us down. We found a good site and started compacting the snow where the igloo would be. After it looked good, I took off my snowshoes and was going to do a little touch-up flattening to the area when I discovered how useful those snowshoes are. I sank up to my hip in snow more than once while I tried to get back on top. My wife had a great time watching and laughing. The next day she did the same thing outside the igloo, so I got to return the favor. We filled in the holes and finished preparing the base. The first row of blocks if the most important and we took our time to do them well. On the second round, we were moving fairly rapidly. We had two shovels and two of us packed snow into the form. By the third row, my wife started getting a bad headache. She lay down and drank some water while the girls and I kept going. The girls had never used shovels before, so they used up a lot more energy than necessary, but they kept going with frequent breaks. As the sun started to get close to setting, it was obvious we were not finishing that day. I cooked potato and cheese soup and we ate and sat on our mats inside our partial igloo. The moon was full so we decided to get our equipment inside the igloo and leave for the night and come back the next morning.


The next morning we headed back to camp after a breakfast in town. Everything was just as we had left it. We started back to shoveling and packing, but on the first two bricks we had some troubles because the cold night temperatures kept the snow from sticking together. We worked the snow a bit and the sun helped too. We were back into the routine. My wife got her headache back. It may have been the altitude, but after a while she was feeling better. All of us got sunburned on our faces the day before. We had put on sunscreen, but not until our faces started looking red. This second day was especially tough on my youngest, so she stayed inside the igloo with me to avoid the sun.

As the sixth row of blocks started being built, there was a great sense of getting close to the end. I barely had elbowroom to pack the snow the girls slide up to me in their shovels. The seventh row was really just one block at the very top. It was too high for the girls to shovel snow to the very top, so they stayed inside holding the form steady while I put snow on the peak and packed it down.

We did it! It only took eleven hours and 23 minutes. Honestly, it would have gone MUCH faster if everyone had known how to use a shovel. We took lots of pictures, rested for a while, and enjoyed the benefits of an igloo shelter: warmer than freezing inside, no wind flapping the sides, sun protection, nice and quiet, and roomy. With the door trench, I could stand up straight and even raise my hands. The girls could walk around without bumping the ceiling or walls.


We built it, but we didn’t get to sleep in it. My oldest daughter has already started asking when she and I might go and build a smaller one. I said I hoped it would be soon. An igloo built at the beginning of a winter season can last all season and people can use it multiple times. I think the process of building igloos, cooking meals, etc. would be a great way to build a work team who is up for a unique challenge. If you are interested, send an email and let’s see how we could make it happen.

If you are in the Santa Fe area before mid-April when the snow starts disappearing for the season, check out our igloo at:
N 35 degrees 46’ 14.7”
W 105 degrees 48’ 25.4”
Altitude 9841.

If you visit or spend the night, send us a picture. Do you like to throw things even when you are not upset?

I recently built a trebuchet out of PVC and took it to the Texas Experiential Ropes Association (TERA) to play. It was addictive. We spent time doing trial and error throws until we discovered an effective technique for making tosses nearly 100-yards consistently. Lots of fun! It works tossing water balloons too, but expect to get wet...