Archive for May, 2009
Survivorman Winners Announced
Posted by Prescott on May 12, 2009The winners of this weekend’s Survivorman Challenge were announced at our Spring Court of Honor.
The Winners were:
- Troop 16 Cup (Pewter) - Moosen Patrol with 249 points, led by Colin B.
- New Scout Cup (Brass) - Tie between Catapulting Rocks and Mountain Men, led by Lewis F. and Danny D. (respectively)
- Elite Cup (Silver) - Staff Patrol with 299 points, led by Justin B. (next time they will compete against a team of adults)
For those who weren’t there, the Survivorman Challenge was a great success and mashed up Wilderness Survival with Orienteering. We used 800 acres of property that has been gifted to the Denver Area Council, south of Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch, near Kiowa. It’s undeveloped area that combines canyons, forests, and prairie. For the first half of Saturday, we taught Survival School, straight out of the US Army Survival Training Manual. This included flint & steel, shelters, signaling, traps & snares, finding water, and everything else that has been stripped from the BSA’s Wilderness Survival Merit Badge book. It is a shame, I know.
Then at 1pm our fictional plane crashed, the Patrols were able to salvage one item from the wreck, and off they went with hyper accurate orienteering maps of the area. They were allowed to make camp anywhere they chose and they got points for demonstrating to a referee the skills taught in Survival School. They only had sleeping bags, a pad, and one or two other things. On their map were marked cache locations where plastic sheeting, tin cans, safety pins, food, rope, and other bits were located.
We had temps in the 30’s at night and clouds, but really no rain. Our Scouts proved they are indeed Survivormen, as they slept in shelters they made, ate the food they cooked in the tin can stoves, and navigated to the Extraction Point, where Helicopters (made by Chevy, Ford, and Honda) picked everyone up.