Power Poles Element – a 25 foot telephone pole with a small platform on top
Individual climbers or pairs of participants start at ground level. Team members who are not climbing are assigned positions as belayers and work together to keep their teammates safe while they ascend, jump and descend.
Participants start by climbing a ladder to reach the first rungs on the pole. From the top of the ladder, they climb large metal staples until they reach a small platform (one foot by 8 inches) at the very top of the pole. Once there, with the pole swaying beneath them, participants must work with their partners to negotiate on how to arrive at a standing position on the platform. Once standing, climbers face the next challenge of having to jump or lean off the platform. While one exit option is to simply step off the platform and allow for teammates on belay to slowly lower them to the ground, another option is to leap out and try to hit a hanging soccer ball before gravity can do its job.
Power Poles - outcomes
- Paired climbers must learn to work together and communicate
- Solo climbers must face a situation with a high degree of perceived risk
- Largest challenge is a mental one – coordinating one or two people into a standing position atop a swaying pole and then having to jump instead of climbing slowly and safely back to the ground
- Greatest reward – the synergistic effect on the climbers as they learn that the performance of the group is greater than each of their individual capabilities
The synergistic effect is evident at the Power Poles when group members choose to challenge themselves beyond what they would have had they been without their team on the ground. Experiencing the value of being a part of a team in such a dramatic way reinforces much of what we hope to instill in participants throughout our programs.