Character, the Hard Way

Great things are done when men and mountains meet; This is not done by jostling in the street. --William Blake

Out of a bus in tiny Marble, Colo., (pop. 5) stepped 44 boys from slums and suburbs in 15 states. There they stood awed and silent. All around were 14,000-ft. mountains covered with snow, aspen, blue spruce and Douglas fir; in the craggy heights roamed elk, bear and mountain sheep. The boys could tell it was no place for softies as they started trudging up the steep, three-mile road to a campsite high above the Crystal River Valley. Under the deep blue sky waited tents, blazing alpine meadows and leathery-faced instructors. "I hope you will enjoy your stay here," declared one instructor tersely, "but enjoyment will be a byproduct."

Last week the lads at the first Outward Bound School in the Western Hemisphere were extracting what enjoyment they could from a dawn-to-dusk schedule of running, rope climbing, weightlifting, marathon hiking, survival camping, and icy dips in mountain streams. It was a 26-day test of spirit, stamina and sacrifice, aimed at finding the kind of challenge that would be William James's "moral equivalent of war."

Sea & Life. Outward Bound is a cold-shower-like British idea, begun in 1941 by Founder Kurt Hahn of Scotland's rugged Gordonstoun School* (TIME, Nov. 14, 1960) and London Shipping Magnate Lawrence Holt, who were alarmed at the number of seamen lost in World War II because they did not know how to cope with emergencies. Hahn and Holt started a rigorous sea-rescue school in Wales, saw it as an analogy between being "outward bound to sea" and "outward bound to life." A British trust has since sponsored 13 Outward Bound schools in Britain, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

The Colorado school, 14th in the world, was promoted by F. Charles Froelicher, 35, founder of Denver's Colorado Academy, and the only headmaster with an earned reputation for doing an Eskimo roll in a kayak . Director of the new school is William McK. Chapman, 56, a onetime newsman and schoolmaster. Chief Instructor is Ernest Tapley, 37, a veteran teacher of Army mountain troops in Colorado. The school has noted backers, including former Secretary of State Christian Herter, Headmaster John M. Kemper of Phillips Academy, and President Henry P. Van Dusen of Union Theological Seminary.

Mountains & Muscle. By design, Colorado's Outward Bounders are a mixed lot. Aged 15 to 21, they range from prep school boys whose parents are delighted to pay the $300 fee to underprivileged Negroes sponsored by the Boys Club of New York. Boys of similar brawn and background are separated and formed into four mixed "patrols," fittingly named Carson, Crockett, Bridger and Boone, which compete against each other. Since the key to success is teamwork, every new test prods the strong to help the weak, and the weak to push themselves to their limit.

Up and out of their tents at 6 a.m., the boys run three-quarters of a mile to a frigid stream and plunge in. They spend hour after hour training muscles, learning survival techniques, studying mountain-craft, developing leadership. In between come big endurance tests: a five-day climb in windswept high country, a six-mile run up and down mountains (best boy's time so far: 38 min. 10 sec.), a 50-mile hike to test speed and accuracy over a specified route, a 48-hour session alone in the woods without food, which becomes a lesson in the edible qualities of roots, berries, frogs and rabbits.

Blisters & Women. The result may not be "instant men," as one lad puts it. But most boys come away with heightened self-confidence and responsibility. One boy who got such bad blisters that he could not wear shoes put on heavy socks and trotted the six-mile race just to keep his patrol in the competition. Eight of the boys brought off an unscheduled mountain rescue, climbing 2 1/2 hours to save a Baltimore tourist who had suffered a heart attack on a 13,000-ft. ridge near Snowmass Mountain.

Happy with the success of the Colorado summer school, Founder Froelicher & Co. plan to soon keep it open ten months a year, and to start sea schools in Maine and California. They have an admiring new applicant: the Peace Corps. Slated, to join the third batch of boys in Colorado this summer are 50 Nepal-bound Peace Corpsmen--including 19 women.

* A current boarder: Prince Charles, whose father, the Duke of Edinburgh, is Gordonstoun's most famous Old Boy.

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