Healthy Body, Healthy Mind

Read how Integrated Outdoor Program of the 180th Pacific Coast Scout Group enables you to achieve exciting goals, by having a Healthy Body, a Healthy Mind

By: John Wong, Advisor of IOP

Hiking and camping are standard fare for outdoor activities in Scout Canada.  We did lots of these in the 180^th Pacific Coast Scout Group (PCC rover crew).  However, we have bigger and more exciting goals.  One tier up is the less ventured into mountaineering and rock climbing.  One of my main initiatives during my 5-year tenure as the Integrated Outdoor Program (IOP) advisor was to take the active scouts to higher peaks and glaciers.  I convinced our Resource person/expert, Vince Poulin into setting up a Mountain Safety Course:  www.mountainskills.ca to teach our scouts the basic skills to survive in the mountains.  We tried to set up a Mt Baker Summit Expedition in 2010 but it was not accomplished until 2011 from the North side.  In 2013, we did the same but from the south side.  It was wildly successful as 5 new rovers plus some friends (in total 11 people) summitted the beautiful and iconic peak in Washington state.  We can see this peak in Vancouver, Canada which beckons us often.

The other main focus in 2013 was to formalize the IOP in to a Department so that it is not on the sideline of the more popular Leadership and Management Program, figuring the training of the body and mind should go hand-in-hand.  This was done and my last important initiative was to take the scouts go rock climbing.  In the Fall of 2013, we started to do indoor gym rock climbing from venues such as the Cliffhanger, the Edge, and finally, our favourite place, the Richmond Oval.  The artificial rock there is like no other we have seen anywhere.

After a few months of training, the real test came in our first ever outdoor rock climbing in the Smoke Bluffs in Squamish.  Click here for a brief recount of our trip (with photos).