For 11 years I was Program Director for Mountain Recreation - an outdoor pursuits division of the Student Recreation Building on the Boulder, Colorado campus of the University of Colorado.

I'll just summarize the quality of our activities, then make some comments about why I am no longer there, changes in the outdoor industry, etc.

From the late '60's til the early '80's I designed program content and guided students in the field. On campus there were internecine turf battles but impetus toward maintaining liason with supporting infrastructural divisions of the administration.

I set performance standards and hired 30 seasonal free spirits to lead 1000 students per year through wilderness whitewater, desert and high mountain trips.  I taught ski touring, rock climbing, rafting, and escorted tours to backcountry Mexico and mountainous regions of Guatemala and Colombia. Training university students to assume leadership roles in these demanding situations came to be my greatest satisfaction.

I also taught wilderness survival practicums through the Continuing Education Division of the University of Colorado.

It was always a numbers served game to justify our bit of the Student Activities budget. In the late '70's the BLM and USFS land managers conspired in an annual series of InterAgency Committees to exclude school groups from use of the public lands - especially narrow resource corridors like rivers, lake shores, trails, etc. Despite increasing public clamor for access, the presssure on fragile environments could be lessened enough to keep their contracted commercial guide service concessionaires in business - by excluding school groups. I was even branded a river pirate for "the theft of BVD's" (boater vistor days) until the resulting hilarity forced Rangers to modify the charge to boater User days, before dropping it.

THAT went well with the baseless allegation I'd been a . . smuggler
in an alternate life.

So the size of the dog got squeezed down, while its tail (my salary) kept getting bigger via the State Employment system. 80 hour weeks in season were not enough to support both the office and field activities when my support staff of interns was pared down. What began as a service for getting students safely in and out of the mountains behind Boulder became eco- politically incorrect in its trampling volume, and the leadership training was attacked as State subsidized competiton against tax-paying citizen yeomen outfitters and their hungry guides.

Besides . . student interests shifted. Post 'Nam late'70's college kids were less interested in go-naked whitewater rafting, folksongs, and ski-in fondue bonfires. Outdoor industry merchandising glorified extreme sport, whereas the Regents and I wanted safe students. Gasoline to get there got expensive, and the USFS asked $1 million indemnification for one lousy raft trip - further outraging the peace and dignity of the Regents, a "body politic".

Personally I went through a messy divorce, and a police investigation instigated by a disgruntled student employee wanting my job upon his graduation. The new Student Rec Building Director would eventually be escorted off campus in restraints - but not before she disrupted the lives of several longer term employees. My stress points added up to a 5 person load, and I was prescribed a vacation. Staff do not get sabbaticals - so I took one. Not surprisingly, on return from vagabonding about India and Europe there was no job waiting for me.

I went from being an AUTHORITY, to deforming into a mature pear-shaped nebbish no followers wanted to emulate any longer. The freedom was un- nerving, but liberating. My grip-to-gut ratio tipped the wrong way to continue dangling over cliff faces. On the other hand, I gained time for reflection and redirection into a lifestyle I could possibly sustain through middle age.
Post graduate work, indeed.