Klondike 2009

In February we had the Klondike competition for Scouts. Friday I got off work at noon and met Brian, Nathan, Sonny and David. We went up to Camp Glenwood before the rest of the troop. When we got there we set up camp, watched the elk and hung out until the rest of the troop arrived. Around 7 o'clock Eric, Dave, Brandon, Jake, Tyler, Dallon and Ben showed up. We ate some spaghetti and the boys played around for awhile. We went to a fireside where they all sang songs. Then came back and got our fire going and had our own little fireside on "Accepting those around you" and did some last minute preparation for the next day's competition. We got up early Saturday morning ate some breakfast and the games began.

The first event was the pancake race. David, Brandon and Tyler competed in this event. In two strikes of the flint they had the fire going. They had a full on fire in 30 seconds, then they put the # 10 can over the fire and cooked their pancake. The pancake was cooked in a little over a minute then David ate the half cooked, hot pancake. They finished this event in 1:35 and got 2 minute bonus for starting it with flint and steel.

David eating the pancake

Then next event was the flag pole raise. The object of this event is to create a 12' flag pole by lashing poles together with their patrol flag on top. They had to do 6 round lashing and they chose to do a longer pole then 12 feet. For every foot over 12' they got a 1 minute bonus. Their time for this event in 1:31 and had and 18 foot pole. This picture is the whole troop getting ready to start the flag pole race.

Nathan finishing up the lashing while Brandon and Jake encourage him.

The next event is the shelter construction race. In this event they had to create a shelter that would cover 4 people. They had to use the taut-line, two half hitches and the clove hitch in the construction of the shelter. They did this event in 1:26


The next event was the first-aid event. In this event the Senior Patrol Leader was attacked by a Yeti and had a lower left leg fracture, right collar bone fracture and an open wound on the left arm. While Nathan and Brandon took care of David the other boys made a stretcher.

The boys carrying the victim on the stretcher, right before the finish line they dropped him. They finished this event in 3:53 and got a 2 minute bonus for treating the collar bone fracture properly. The judge told them the were only the second troop up to that point to treat it correctly.

There was a mystery station that we didn't know anything about. They had to answer several questions on winter camping then they had to pop a balloon about 12-15 feet away. They could only use the supplies they had on their sled. The boys decided to lash together some poles and duct tape a pocket knife to the end. They had a little trouble with one of the questions. They constructed their pole really quickly but had a little problem popping the balloon. The event time was 8:22.

This event was called Yeti or Knot. Each boys was required to tie a sheet bend. Then they had to work as a team and tie a clove hitch around Tyler. I was really proud of the boys on this event. Sonny had worked hard on his knots and it payed off. We had practiced it the night before but at the event there were a couple rules they weren't aware of. The first time they did it it took them several minutes but after a couple tries they were able to finish it in 29 seconds. It was great to see them communicate and adjust as a team.


The next event was the ice flow rescue. In this event they had to tie several ropes together with a sheet bend, Square knot, Fisherman's knot and then tie a bowline on the end to rescue the victim. When we practiced this event their fastest time was 1:30 seconds. At the competition it was competed in 46 seconds on their second try.

This event is Non-Verbal communication. Prior to the event the boys created a signaling system for the entire alphabet. The boys were given two phrases and they had to signal their partners 150 feet away. If you look way in the distance by the bushes you can see the receiving group. Ben was the receiver and Dallon was the sender. They did this event in 5:30.

This was the Himalayan Grouse hunt. They started with an elapsed time of 15 minutes. The troop got 50 shoots to hit 10, 20, and 30 second targets. For every target they hit, the amount was deducted from the total time. They hit the target 15 times for a time deduction of 4:10, giving them a time of 10:50. This was their final event. We went back and broke camp, then the boys went sledding until the awards ceremony.

These are all the boys that participated. They are a great group of rambunctious boys. The boys went to the awards ceremony with high hopes. They had practiced hard and competed very well. They knew based on their times the could possibly win the whole event. As they all sat there anxiously, they announced the 3rd place winner with a time of 55 minutes. All the boys looked at each other because they knew their time was in the 30's. They announced the second place and then the first. It was now time to announce the Grand Prize winners. I was excited for the boys because I knew they had won. They announced the winners (41 minutes) and it wasn't Troop 423. The boys looked around and didn't know what had happened. After everyone had left and the prizes had been awarded they came and asked me if they could go see their score. I told them go ahead. They all went to the scoring table and looked at their score card. They quickly realized where an error was made. The event they did in 29 second was entered in as 29 minutes. Even with that error they still placed 5th. The committee quickly recalculated and realize that the boys of Troop 423, were the KLONDIKE CHAMPIONS with a time of 29 minutes. I was really proud of the boys. I didn't hear any complaining or blaming. I quickly gave them a high 5 and let the know that I was proud of them and that all that mattered is they knew they did their best. Yeah, they were a little disappointed they didn't get the recognition but they were excited that they had achieved the goal they had set out for. The Klondike committee is going to come to our Court of Honor in April and make it up to the boys. It was a good experience for all the boys and us leaders. Some of the best teaching moments are unintentional and I think everyone walked away a little taller.