“We don’t conquer the mountain. We become it.”

My most recent adventure took me SnowCaving with my Grade 9 students—a journey into the cold, into challenge, and into ourselves.

There’s something powerful about watching young people step into an environment that demands everything of them: focus, teamwork, grit, humility. They traded comfort for community, warmth for wonder, and in doing so, revealed the kind of quiet strength that can only emerge through shared adversity.

Yes, we learned how to build snow shelters. Yes, we practiced winter survival skills. But the real lessons were the ones that didn’t come from a textbook—lessons in patience, perseverance, and trust. In huddled circles and snow-carved homes, they discovered what it means to rely on each other and to show up even when it’s hard.

This is why I teach Outdoor Education!

It’s not just about lighting a fire or carving a cave—it’s about the fires lit within, the connections carved between. It’s about moments when a student who thought they “couldn’t” stands back and realizes they did. It’s about quiet leadership emerging in the crunch of snow under boots and the glow of headlamps in the dark.

We don’t conquer the mountain.

We become it—shaped by wind, bonded by cold, and strengthened through shared experience.

Proud. Grateful. Inspired.

 Reflections from the Trail

For Educators & Leaders:

• When was the last time your students truly struggled—and what did they learn from it?

• How can we create more opportunities for youth to face discomfort in a way that builds—not breaks—their confidence?

• What would it look like to design learning around shared experience rather than individual performance?