[Philmont]: Costs at BSA High Adventure Bases

Financially speaking, unless you add a huge amount of excess activities,
you can almost always do significantly better on your own than with the
BSA at both Northern Tier and Sea Base. Furthermore, most commercial
outfitters offer comparable packages at lesser prices, and superior
packages at roughly the same prices.

Before quoting Chapter and Verse on exceptions you know, please note the
caveats in the above paragraph.

Philmont tends to be in a class by itself because it's in a class by
itself - both WRT supported backpacking *and* program. Most (if not
all) alternate (Council-run) BSA High Adventure Bases offering a
combination of backpacking and program last only one week, so 5 or
rarely 6 days on the trail. If there's a two week program out there,
I'd sure like to hear about it. There are no equivalent commercial
alternatives for regular Philmont treks, though some of the "Dude Ranch"
type adventures are in the ball-park, but at a significantly higher
price. Developing your own long-term trek is easy - supporting it along
the way and having a varied program too is not at all easy.

Back to NT and SB - Why go then, if you can get equivalent for less?
The answer is time. What is your time worth? As a SM who has planned
most or all of over 20 H.A. treks, I can personally guarantee that the
amount of time needed the first time you plan an adventure is far more
than you would have guessed in advance - especially if you're a novice
Advisor. Repeating that same trek a second time is much easier, and by
the third time et seq. it's routine. [Same as running other major BSA
events like a Spring Camporee (my 11th year in a row, coming up) or a
Hike-o-Ree (Coop and Wally, 15 years in a row). When you hit a BSA
Base, a huge amount of the planning and logistical support is off your
back - most especially so if you go with a Council. That is a heck of a
blessing for novice Advisors, though they may not know it or appreciate
it till they do one on their own, later on in their careers. Commercial
outfitters *nominally* have a similar advantage, but some aspects of
their operations are not in keeping with BSA rules and regs (or ideals),
and their operational support can be all over the map, from doing next
to nothing all the way up to constantly holding your hand, spoon feeding
you, and changing your diapers. There are advantages to the consistency
of BSA approaches, expectations, and support levels, both for the Bases
and for the Crews (though, as one poster indicated earlier today re NT,
that consistency can fail, and sometimes badly).

I spent five years on our Council's High Adventure Committee from late
89 through late 94, and even though I was constantly at odds with the
leadership (which is one of the reasons why I eventually departed), I
also learned a huge amount about how to do High Adventure treks. It was
a very valuable investment of my time that has paid me back many times
over as I headed off into the big bad world of Unit-planned high
adventures. Those who may be considering a long-time involvement in
their Troop's H.A. programs would be well-served to do a similar
"apprenticeship".

- Dr. Bob

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Received on Wed Sep 29 19:13:24 2004