We offer short (1-3 day) leadership seminars in the city or “front-country,” but most of our trips are located in the wilderness. We suggest that backcountry trips be a minimum of five days, as longer trips will have better learning outcomes. Most of our trips are one week in length. Schools and seminaries who are able to invest three weeks of their time see increased growth of character, self-confidence, and communication as they have the opportunity to go through more stages of group development, personal reflection, and become more independent in tasks such as navigating in the mountains.

Our favorite course locations are in and around Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. This is where we hold the majority of our permits and have the most flexibility with resources. However, we are happy to consider building a course in your backyard or in your dream destination (subject to budgetary and permitting restrictions). In the past, we have run courses in Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nebraska, California, Nevada, as well as internationally in Italy, Nicaragua and New Zealand.

When choosing a specific outdoor activity for your group, we look at four major considerations: activities you are most excited about, activities that will best meet your goals and objectives, cost of the activities relative to your budget, and the time of year for the proposed course location. (For example, May is not a good time to go backpacking in the mountains, but it is a great time to go rafting or desert backpacking). Certain activities, such as mountain biking or ice climbing require a very small group, expensive technical gear, and a lower instructor/student ratio. Activities we offer include, but are not limited to:

Backpacking
Rafting
Canoeing
Rock Climbing
Rappelling
Mountain Biking
Canyoneering
Snowshoeing
Cross Country Skiing
Backcountry Skiing
Ice Climbing
Horseback Riding

Every student who comes on a COR course learns practical skills: the ability to do something necessary and hands-on for the good of themselves and for others. While examples of the skills that are taught vary from how to dress properly given the weather to how to set up a technical rope system, these skills are integral to the COR curriculum because they put our students in touch with levels of challenge that are rarely a part of modern living. The development of such skills is essentially the development of character, and practical skills are the tools we use to teach self-leadership and competence, or, in Christian terms, self-discipline. The ability to care for oneself and to thrive amidst challenging conditions becomes, in reality, the ability to care for others and the type of tolerance for adversity which is the backbone of real leadership.

The only elements of trip design that are non-negotiable are specific safety and skill trainings required for certain adventure activities. For example, there are at least ten lessons that we require all students to participate in before we can safely take them backpacking in the wilderness, from training on the use of bear spray to staying found (how to avoid getting lost).

Our staff are prepared to teach a variety of topics through facilitating experiential activities or by providing lecture-style presentations. For example, on our backpacking trips, students have the opportunity to be the ‘Leader of the Day’. They get hands-on experience making real decisions, with our staff coaching as needed and overseeing any safety considerations. Other topics our staff can incorporate in your course include, but are not limited to:

Leadership
Risk management
Conflict management
Self awareness
Communication
Group development