Learning the ropes of life at Eagle Rock Challenge Course

MOUNT VERNON — The sprawling woods of this town's Eagle Rock Challenge Course hold high-elevation webs consisting of ropes, beams, tires and swings that seem as diabolical as they are intricate. During the past six years they've revealed fears and courage, turned muted personalities into leaders and hosted companies, church groups, sports teams, at-risk youths and even brides-to-be.

On a recent Saturday this month, though, the task happens a foot off the ground. Middle-school-aged girls and the mentors who are part of the rock-climbing program called Girls Rock! have to all be simultaneously balanced on a steel cable strung taut between three Douglas firs. And they must all be on it long enough to sing in unison, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."

They jump into their challenge with gusto. Some hold hands, but when one of them lurches back and then forth she yanks the rest off in a wave of imbalance and finally to the ground. A second group squats on the cable like birds on a telephone wire. A third group tries a little of everything but achieves nothing. In short, they all are failing.

Course facilitator Tera Johnson watches the chaos for about 10 minutes and calls for a break. "Let's try it again, but with a little cooperation and communication," she said. "This time I will give you one minute to complete the task, but how about making a plan first?"

The kids in the group take over, flinging ideas before settling on an approach. They head back to the wire and within 10 seconds, all 19 girls and women are locked in place and singing the song. Some of them latch onto the trees, using them as anchors, and the rest latch onto them front to back as if they were trying to stay warm in a blizzard.

"Yes, that's it!" shouts course manager Kyle McPherson, who had hung back throughout the group's day on the course. "I've never seen anybody do it that way. Very nice."

Lofty goals

In fact, says McPherson, the physical challenges at his and other courses across the Northwest are just means to get to the real goals, which are mental and usually team-oriented.

The day at Eagle Rock, 65 miles north of Seattle, served as an orientation, the start of a 10-week session, for Girls Rock! Operated by Seattle-based Passages Northwest (www.passagesnw.org), the program seeks to mentor girls through rock climbing and the arts. Each girl pairs with an adult female mentor and the Eagle Rock challenge is a way to break the ice and find matches. Jenny Bath, program manager for Girls Rock!, says the challenges spur the girls and women to connect with one another while being part of a team.

"It gives me a perfect chance to observe the girls' personalities and styles, to be able to pair them with the most appropriate mentor for the rest of the program," says Bath. "We also use this day to set a tone for our community, build relationships with one another and introduce positive communication skills."

Many elements

The course rests at the base of Little Mountain on the southern edge of Mount Vernon. Built by the Seattle company Vision Leadership and paid for by a 2001 national grant, it is owned by the city of Mount Vernon and managed by its parks department. McPherson says the fees charged pay for its operation.

It holds 15 challenges, or "elements," five of which are "high," ranging from 35 to 67 feet off the ground and requiring the use of safety harnesses. Users can hang onto a pulley and traverse down a zip line, or act like Tarzan by jumping off a high platform, grabbing a rope and trying to land on another platform.

The "Hub and Spoke" challenge seems the most intricate. It consists of high platforms, interconnected activities and routes on slim beams and wobbly steps as well as swings and ropes to clutch onto or walk upon. It challenges the individual, always harnessed into safety equipment, but it requires physical and mental cooperation, too.

The power of these courses, says McPherson, rests somewhere between wilderness ambience, multidimensional challenges and group dynamics. There also is considerable research that points to these sorts of three-dimensional, real-world tasks as a valuable way to learn lasting lessons.

When a group signs up to use the course, McPherson asks what it wants to accomplish. Do they want to achieve better communication or team work, or to celebrate or to reward? Then he and his staff tailor the challenges. If the group is a company, the leaders of the business are encouraged to refrain from being the boss for the day so others feel freer to express themselves. What happens depends on the members of the group, but the "unpredictable" often happens. And most of those group breakthroughs, he says, come near ground level as with the girls of Girls Rock!

Surprise and support

Each quarter the Edmonds Career Access Program, which helps people who have dropped out of high school get their diplomas, takes its new students to the course and encourages them to develop solutions and work together. Melody Schneider, who works with the program based at Edmonds Community College, recalls one student who was very quiet, but emerged as a leader through his good ideas and quiet encouragement to others.

"The high course is more about helping individuals overcome fears and lending support," McPherson says. "The high course is the sexier part, but the low-course activities are the meat and potatoes. About 85 percent of the activity happens on the low course and that's where you can get real growth."

The challenges represent a wide range of difficulty, and the facilitator can make the task easier or harder. People of various ages, physical levels and ability are welcome, but McPherson says kids need to be at least sixth-grade level to appreciate the physical and mental lessons being presented.

Occasionally, there are group "aha" moments. A softball coach brought his team members to the course because they were underachieving. After just a few tasks that required group problem-solving, they realized what their coach knew.

"They realized they didn't listen to one another and hadn't been doing it on the field and it was holding them back," says McPherson.

Sometimes, McPherson notes, the mission is just to have fun — "and that's OK, too."

Richard Seven: 206-464-2241 or rseven@seattletimes.com