Breaking the Halo: Empowering Students in Outdoor Education - Online Classroom

6:30-8:30pm

Link to be sent to course participants

Following the death of a climbing student in 2018 (on a non-Mountaineers climb), Katja and a small group of climbers found several contributing thinking errors and a need to better prepare and empower students to confront heuristic traps. "Breaking the Halo" offers a simple, universal approach to confronting complacency, assumptions, and communication breakdowns between students and instructors. Attendees will the have the opportunity to purchase a copy of the "Breaking the Halo" book, with the goal that they are able to bring training tips back to their own communities.

Katja Hurt is an outdoorsy nerdette with a penchant for volunteering and trying to make the world a better place. In 2018, Katja left her six years in law enforcement to launch Wilderness Chaplains, a nonprofit providing education and crisis support to wilderness first responders. She wrote "Breaking the Halo," a presentation-turned-publication on empowering students to confront heuristic traps in outdoor education. Katja's degrees include crisis and disaster management, communication studies, and a master's in pastoral studies...but she prefers to be known for her work as a police and fire chaplain, Outdoor Emergency Care instructor and 12+ years volunteering with the National Ski Patrol. She is a fourth generation Mountaineer and graduate of the Olympia Basic Climbing Course.