As Summit Hut Outdoor Adventure Camp starts to wind down, I want to take this time to thank everyone who came out and helped us this week! We had a lot going on, and without their help camp wouldn't have been nearly as cool as it has been.

We started off the week with John and Dave. John talked to the girls about riparian areas and conservation and was very excited when they were actually interested in the discussion Dave taught the girls how to use a map and compass and took them outside for some hands on fun. They worked in teams, one blind folded and one leading them around. I think they all completed the course successfully. At the end of the day we had the girls journal about somewhere they would like to orienteer!

Tuesday, though I didn't get to watch, was apparently pretty awesome! The girls have been talking about Jessica and Stephanie all week! Jessica walked in on Tuesday with a sweet orange pack full of gear for hiking and taught the girls about hiking essentials. From I hear, it was a pretty great class and I think all of the girls are more than prepared to brave their next hike! When we got back from climbing around 3 o'clock, someone ran out to meet us screaming “there's a dog here!!!!” Stephanie was teaching a class on hiking with you dog!! Needless to say, everyone thought that was extremely cool.

On Wednesday, Krystal was awesome and stayed at camp with us ALL DAY! In the

morning, she taught some basic first aid skills and in the afternoon the girls learned about Leave No Trace Outdoor Ethics! The Leave No Trace training came in real handy when I had to explain why we couldn't remove a tree that was on our climbing route!

Thursday brought us Emily and Amanda. Everything they learned yesterday will come in very handy on our overnight- they learned how to set up camp and cook outdoors! The girls had a blast with these two ladies and wouldn't stop talking about them when I got back from climbing!

We also had some other Summit Hut folks come along each day on our climbing adventures! They were all awesome and helped girls fit their harnesses, choose the right shoes and more importantly- helped to coach them on the rocks! Our Climbing days would not have gone as smooth as they had without them- so THANK YOU to Frank, Alison, Jeff, Meagan, Tyler and Dana!

Which brings me to an ULTRA HUGE THANK YOU to Matt and Sam from Inner Passage! Without them, we could not have exposed these girls to this awesome sport of rock climbing. They provided us with all the gear, expertise, coaching and even some silly voices that made our three days of climbing go off without a hitch. If you are interested in more climbing opportunities for your girls, your family or even your office, check out Inner Passage on the web atInnerPassage.net!

It's hard to beat the heat when you're at camp… but we're trying by learning how to set up camp… inside!

We managed to beat the heat with the tents… but we couldn't manage to fit the rock wall inside the Casa Catalina Thanks to

our friends at GoArmy.com we were able to have a rock wall at camp again this week. It was a piece of cake compared to the real rock climbing the girls did on Mt Lemmon this week, but fun all the same! Here's some pics from the rock wall:

Have you ever stood at the bottom of a mountain and said “I can climb that”? Chances are, you probably haven't. There's a pretty good chance you'd never even consider climbing that mountain. It's no secret- with your feet planted on the ground, your head craned back as far as it will go, eyes squinting through the rays of sun trying to find the top- It's a little terrifying to picture yourself clinging to the side of that rock. But even more than it is terrifying… it's exciting! You strap your harness on, clamp your helmet to your head, tie into the rope- and even with all that protection, all you can think about is you and that rock… and falling. You take your first step and you're off the ground. Your blood starts pumping a little harder. You can feel the shape of the rock on your finger tips. It's warm. You feel like you're going to fall but you stick to the side of that rock like duct tape. After that, it's just a few series of hand and foot moves and you're nearly at the top. You can see it. A few more moves and you're there. You've done it. You've made it to the top! You not only defied gravity but you conquered your fears! Not just your fear of heights but trying something new. Dude. You did it! It's a rush. You're breathing a little hard. Did you breathe at all on the way up? I can't remember. Your blood is pumping even more. You can feel it. Your muscles are burning. There's sunlight in your hair. Your friends are cheering you on from the bottom. You want to go down. But to do that, you'll have to release your death grip on that hand hold and lean back in your harness. You'll have to have a li

ttle faith and trust. Trust your harness. Trust your rope. Trust your belayer. Trust yourself. That's a lot to think about in just a few seconds. You lean back a little and your foot slips out from under you and its terrifying. All those fears that you left on the ground have found you again and you cling to the rock. You lean back a little more. A little more and from the ground it looks like you are lounging on the beach. You take another step back, tears welling up in your eyes. You took another step but you didn't slip! You take a couple more steps back and start thinking that this is a piece of cake. You lose track of how many steps you are taking and pretty soon your feet hit the ground. And you've done it. There's not many people who can say that they've climbed that mountain. But you can. You go girl.

As of today, 37 of our girls have gone rock climbing. During the approach, the majority of them thought they couldn't do it. They were super nervous, even scared. But with the encouragement of our Inner Passage guides and our Summit Hut volunteers, all of them gave it a try. And all of them made it to the top and back down again. There have been some tears shed and some scraped knees and elbows…but there have been 37 accomplished smiles seen from the top. The girls all tried something new, conquered their fears and encouraged their friends. It has been an AMAZING experience and I can't wait to take our last two groups climbing tomorrow. Matt, our Inner Passage guide asked the girls to sum up their experience this afternoon in one word and here are the ones that I could remember (tomorrow I'll have to write them down!): Scary. Fun. Amazing. High. Supercalafragilistic. Exciting. Cool. Awesome. Spectacular. Rocks. Super. Incredible. Isn't that fun? We had a lot of awesomes and cools. Matt crowned them all Rock Climbing Princesses

Big thanks to our Guides from Inner Passage, Matt and Sam and to our Summit Hut volunteers so far- Allison, Frank, Meagan and Jeff!

PreviousNext

Outdoor Adventure is in full swing and these girls are rockin' it! Matthew Walker, our Mountain Guide from Inne

r Passage, deemed all of our climber girls who went yesterday Rock Princesses! Check out the pics from yesterday!

The girls are back in town! The girls are back in town! (Did I get the song stuck in your head? cus it's stuck in my head…) We've got close to 60 girls here at camp again this week! This time they are going to learn to brave the outdoors, conquer their fear of climbing a  mountain and go on an overnight adventure on Mt Lemmon! Sweeeeet! Already

this morning John from Summit Hut came by to talk to the girls about riparian areas and conservation and later today, someone is coming by to do Orienteering with the girls! So Parents- next time you are lost somewhere, leave the GPS at home! These girls can get you to where you need to be with a compass, a map and a smile!

More later!

We took a break from the art projects today and went to Pump It Up! I only went through the inflatable obstacle course

twice, but it was seriously exhausting watching all those girls bounce and bounce and bounce some more!

slid

eshow

Well, Day 1 of art camp is done and gone and it was a seriously GREAT day! We did so many awesome projects and the girls were so creative and fun. I think everyone's favorite project today was painting ceramics with the nice folks at Color Me Mine! The younger girls got to paint an ice cream bowl so that it looks like it is full of ice cream and the older girls painted pizza plates! SO COOL. We also made sculptures, mixed media collages, wrote and started to illustrate stories, made button mosaics, learned about shading and perspective techniques and were very very silly.

Since we had SO many girls register for Express Yourself Art Camp, I get the pleasure of having a group of 1st grade girls this week! We are the purple group, aka the purple people eaters This afternoon, while the girls were writing their stories, I started my own story about my group of purple people eaters. It's kind of a tongue twister! Enjoy

Once upon a time at a Girl Scout Camp not so far away, there was an 8 eyed, 8 horned, flying purple people eater! This purple people eater was no ordinary purple people eater. This purple people eater wanted to be an artist! The purple people eater thought about being a sculptor and made mini aliens, flower pots, bugs, balls and even some animals but the purple people eater was not satisfied. Next, the purple people eater wanted to paint! The purple people eater walked all the way to the other end of the Girl Scout Camp and painted some pottery. The purple people eater painted a bowl that looked like it had ice cream in it and secretly wished that it really did. All that ice cream dreaming made the purple people eater hungry!! For lunch, the purple people eater ate a ham and cheese sandwich and

some yogurt. The purple people eater was still hungry so the purple people eater ate a pizza, apples, cherries and some cookies! But the purple people eater was STILL hungry! The purple people eater thought maybe some chicken nuggets would be more filling but they weren’t. The purple people eater was STILL hungry!! So, the purple people eater ate a turkey sandwich, cow cheese, pepperoni, salami and some pretzels. But do you know what? The purple people eater was STILL HUNGRY!!! The purple people eater ate some eggs, peanut butter, celery, carrots, noodles, chicken, broccoli, and another cookie and FINALLY the purple people eater was full. After lunch, the purple people eater thought it was time to get back to artist training. The purple people eater thought maybe that if you combined a whole bunch of different types of art it would be really really cool, so the purple people eater made a mixed media collage with fabric, stamps, ribbon, magazines, stencils, brads, markers and lots and lots of glue. The purple people eater was right! The mixed media collage turned out AMAZING! All that art though, made the purple people eater HOT so the purple people eater decided to go swimming!! Part of the purple people eater didn’t want to get in the water because it was a little cold and another part of the purple people eater didn’t have a swimsuit on. So, the purple people eater had to compromise by keeping two legs out of the pool. After all that swimming, the purple people eater was hungry again, but this time some yogurt and some applesauce filled up the purple people eater’s tummy all the way to the top! Then, the purple people eater sat down and wrote a story about how hungry the purple people eater had been all day long. To be continued…