LAS Bronze Award at Adventurous Journey

The Ice Saints put a strong dose of adventure into our first International Award Bronze Adventurous Journey at LAS.

The snow started flying as we hiked out of the Fishbowl on May 15 and was 10cm deep by the time we reached our campsite at Solacyre. Cold wet fingers didn't help as we set up our tents in the storm and crawled into sleeping bags to warm up before dinner.

Fortunately, the snowfall tapered off as we stood around a campfire and cooked pasta. Wind replaced snow during the night, making it hard to sleep with all the tents flapping hour after hour. Our big break came in the morning, when the sun burned off the clouds and we resumed hiking. Our planned route on a trail across steep west-facing alpine meadows was buried in snow, so we adapted to conditions by hiking east-facing slopes that the sun rapidly melted.

Finally we returned to the Fishbowl tired and happy, where we spread out our tents and bags to dry. The man with the microphone in the photos is Felix Betzin, a podcaster from Germany who covered our journey. Great job everyone! You've experience nature at her most capricious. You took it all in great stride and are clearly born adventurers all!

What is the International Award?

The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award is the world’s pre-eminent youth achievement award: it’s now offered in 140 countries, where more than 8 million students have participated since the Award was founded in 1956. The Award encourages young people to develop long-term goals and to learn the perseverance needed to fulfill such goals. These goals fall into four categories: developing skills, engaging in physical recreation, providing service to the community, and leading an adventurous journey that involves overnight camping. Depending on their age, students can earn a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Award. As might be expected, the higher levels require longer commitments. It gets a bit complicated describing just how much time is required, but the range is approximately three months for Bronze to 12 months for Gold, with an hour devoted to each activity every week (a total of three hours per week). 

Learn more about the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award.