Special Education Content: ICS 2014/2015

Learning the ropes.

by Dan Gerbus, ICS Coordinator

This year marks the fifth year I’ll be involved with running ICS, our Intermediate Climbing School, and now I take the helm. This path started innocently enough when I took the course in 2009-2010. I took the class, had ideas on how it could be improved, and noted them in the feedback form. A few weeks later Bob Murphy, 2010-2011 coordinator, asked me to be on his committee for the class. He and his assistant, Darrell Weston, implemented a lot of improvements to the course that year, and one problem courses like ICS run into is maintaining the changes in following years. Their plan to circumvent this issue involved building an infrastructure of future coordinators in the pipeline, and apparently I was part of this plan.

My background is in engineering and engineering education. While finishing my doctorate in mechanical engineering, I taught a course in Mechanics of Materials. It was in that course where I cut my teeth on teaching. Some years later I landed a job at Intel where I find myself essentially teaching

Snow practice.

again. This time it is deeply technical content taught to a worldwide audience, most of whom do not speak English as their primary language. Soon after that I find myself talking anchors with ICS students. Yes, of course with the engineers, but also with the non-engineers. I’m finding all my time spent teaching VP’s, marketing, and non-technical heads abroad about computer specs has helped me realize how to reach those non-engineers in ICS. Looking back it makes sense how I got to this position. Now I am grateful for this opportunity to lead ICS, and I am going to leverage my background to make ICS as robust as it can be.

Through these years in ICS I have seen 158 students graduate. In each class there are about 40 students, one to two tend to not be Mazamas members or haven’t taken BCEP, an average of 37% are women, and about 80 individual volunteer assistants help each year. I’ve conducted several surveys in the past year and am using that data to make incremental improvements to the class. We are going to have more opportunities for students to practice the skills. The cohesiveness between topics will improve with a strong objective for each skill. I am going to provide our volunteer assistants with more support and information as well.

The class will be challenging. We cover advanced belays and rappelling techniques,  movement on rock and Learn more about the class on our website.

Campfires & Potlucks.

snow, rock and snow anchors, crevasse rescue, leadership, avalanche awareness, snow camping, high angle snow,  navigation, and single and multipitch climbing. This merely highlights most of the topics covered.  If you want to know more about the class there will be a virtual information night on our FAQ page covering many of the questions ICS candidates have.

I pledge to provide a solid learning environment that accommodates students of different backgrounds, expertise’s, and experiences. It’s also going to be a blast. A common theme I see in all of my surveys involves the camaraderie students develop while in the class. They meet fellow climbers wanting to climb at similar levels. They find people that can safely push their climbing levels. Some overcome fears and nurture a new confidence in climbing. Others have found themselves yearning to lead and go into our Leadership Development program. If this class sounds like something fits you, go check out our webpage or email me: Mazamas.ics@gmail.com