Blog: 63 Days in the Desert

This blog is a work in progress based on journals made many years before.

The wilderness program is the Challenger Foundation which transformed the wilderness programs from being positive outings to boot camp styled punishments. Did they plan ahead to secure that the children were secured by having backup teams ready with emergency supplies? No. They ran a risky operation and what history later told them were that they were lucky not to having killed more students.

Still despite the punishments and the ordeals these teenagers had to endure they got something from the programs. They got new friends they bonded with under pressure from the instructors. Until the former students die they will share the memories of friendships acquired under extreme circumstances.

However, maybe the price of these friendships was too high because they were forced to leave some behind. For teenagers like Kristen Chase the price was too high because she never made it back to her family.

Regardless of the opinion we have made of the program try to read the blog with an open mind. Everyone carried their own memories back home. Memories which would mark their lives forever.

Source:

• 63 Days in the Desert (Blog)
• Factsheet about the facility (Fornits Wiki)

Blog: Challenger: Summer 1989

Before Challenger there were outbound programs where the goal was to give children from the cities a positive wilderness experience.

Challenger invented wilderness boot camps. Today no wilderness program will state that they are operated like a boot camp. They will use a lot of space trying to tell people that the main focus is therapy.

But the fact is that wilderness programs today function very similar to Challenger.

Another side effect is the children who die in programs. Challenger started this trend and wilderness programs continue to claim the lives of teenagers to this very day. Wilderness programs are not safe regardless of what programs like "Brat Camp" makes it look.

Wilderness programs are deadly!

The author behind the blog survived and she is using her diary to give the readers a rare insight in how it was to be an innocent teenager who was dragged out in the desert by strangers from their own bed without any warning in the middle of the night.

Sources:

• Challenger: Summer 1989
• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)