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| Dear Young Explorer, It is not my intention to produce a booklet about your expedition to Alaska in which EVERYTHING has been explained, itemised or compartmentalised. If contains certain important and relevant information, but not all of it. The expedition is about discovering things associated with the environment, your colleagues and yourself. A whole host of topics are therefore no included, e.g. fitness training, interesting and relevant reading, the topography, specific mountaineering techniques, camping procedures, Alaskan history and so on. These and many other topics are for you to discover before, during and after the expedition. You are likely to receive other information from the office, from me, and from the Chief Scientist, maybe also your Fire Leaders and colleagues. Matters of safety and important logistics apart, they may all differ in their advice on similar matters, YOU must decide which advice YOU must take. For example: Personal Kit. Exactly what you take is up to you. Read and consider the advice, but it is a decision you have to make. It is your expedition. Such information that it does include ought however to be read carefully as it represents the accumulated wisdom of many leaders, collected over many years, and therefore there ought to be something of value in it! Its style, and that of leaders in the field, may appear patronising and frustrating. This is not intended. Apologies if it happens too readily. You however must be fully aware that all Leaders have a legal and moral responsibility for your health and welfare from the moment you arrive at Gatwick airport on 21 July at 0700, until the moment you see your parents et. on 3 / 4 Sept. Being over 18 does not exempt you, you have willingly forgone the responsibilities and accountabilities that go with that watershed of majority by being a member of BSES AK1. You should however continue to act in an appropriately mature fashion of course. You are not experienced in all of that which you will be facing in AK and its challenging environment, whereas leaders will have experienced it in AK or in other similar scenarios. They will be keen for you to learn and to be safe. Pleas, listen, learn, be understanding and apply that wisdom. By the end of the expedition you could be in the position of being skilled and mature enough to lead, as opposed to follow – make that your aim! Above all have a really great time in Alaska. It should be tough both physically and mentally but not all the time, it ought to be memorable, it ought to provide new friendships and a new understanding of yourself and others, and it could open all sorts of new vistas for the future. |