Don Parker

On June thirteenth through the seventeenth, I participated in the AMC's Mountain Leadership School. Leadership is a set of skills that can be taught and learned. I have been a leader in the Maine Chapter since November 1999. Having led off road bike trips, hiking and cross country ski trips, I felt it was time to sharpen my

leadership skills. The program accomplished that goal.

I was with a group of seven participants; myself, Leonna, Chris, Pete, Colleen, Claire and Jim. Our instructor was Joe, his assistants were Katherine and Johann. The first day was spent registering at 8:30 am in the Joe Dodge Lodge Conference Room at the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center. Following registration were staff introductions and then we got our group assignments. The remainder of Wednesday we were kept very busy with classes and field exercises. One of which involved us getting an imaginary vial of serum across a river to the natives on the other side. After one stepped on a rock, the rock disappeared! I was able to shower and get to bed by 9 PM.

We were up early Thursday morning and ate together as a group in the visitor center cafeteria. Then we waited until about ten for a van ride to the Baldface Circle trail head; where we geared up and backpacked to the col between Eastman and S. Baldface Mountains. We were hit with our first roll play while in sight of Rt. 113! Leonna went down in a heap; we faired well in coping with this scenario. During the trip the weather was very hot and buggy, demanding huge water consumption. By Sunday morning we were out of iodine tablets! We used an emergency stash of chlorine.

Friday we backpacked across the summits and ridge of the Baldfaces and were presented with several roll plays. I was asked by Johann to take point and to move as fast as I could to see how the group would handle that. I trucked on up to North Baldface summit and waited for the group to catch up. They shunned me by sitting with their backs to me. The leader and coleader at that time was Leonna and Claire. They asked me to go with them off a little ways and talked with me about being a good group member. I was then asked if I would like to rejoin the group; to which I responded "yes". They were then told that it was a roll play and the instructors debriefed us. I felt that the leaders handled the situation extremely well. A side issue of this scenario was time management. We had some slow

hikers but learned that if we keep moving we make our destinations at a reasonable time. We hiked on to Eagle Crag and down into the Wild River valley where we made camp for the second night.

On Saturday we hiked past No Ketchum pond on to Carter dome. On Carter Dome we had a real emergency. One of us had not been drinking enough water and was having cramps and feeling generally awful. The instructors, feeling this could develop into a very real medical emergency, dealt with this problem. They laid him down checked vitals and plied him with water and Gator Aid. He recovered enough to continue. We camped the third and last night along the Carter Dome trail. This was where I got my chance to play leader. I knew we had a very realistic medical emergency coming up. I talked with my group and assigned some rolls for people, such as a head of the medical team, a scribe, a person to stay at the head of the injured, someone to manage bystanders and a person to manage the scene. Generally the leader is in charge of the scene so I took that roll. Sure enough the next morning, in sight of the trail junction of the Nineteen Mile Brook Trail and the Carter Dome Trail, one of our party went into the woods for a bathroom break and fell, impaling a stick in the upper left quadrant of his stomach! We dealt with the situation, making some good decisions and some other not so good! This roll play and all the others accomplished the goals I had set for myself. I feel more confident in my ability to handle real emergency situations while on AMC trips.