COR Custom Courses
About Our Custom Courses
COR Expeditions offers a wide range of customizable courses, and our staff is trained to meet the specific needs of your group. Perhaps you are in search of an adventure where the primary goal is for participants to have fun and spend time with one another outside? Maybe you are looking for a leadership training course for your staff? Or perhaps you are simply looking for a spiritual retreat? We can suggest the best activities to meet your objectives, from a day of rock climbing to a multi-week trek filled with instruction and hands-on leadership training. We look forward to discussing your objectives, the pros and cons of adding or removing certain elements, and deciding exactly what programming will work best for your group.
Though COR Expeditions are highly customizable and outcomes are as varied as our course offerings, all of our trips are designed to renew the heart and are built around the Four Pillars of COR such that at the end of a COR trip students will have, at least:
- A renewed sense of beauty and wonder
- An understanding of how important a real, human community is in their life
- Increased confidence through the accomplishment of challenging adventures
- An invitation to participate in the prayer and life of the Catholic Church
Our contract courses, like all COR courses, do not end when the trip is over. Every course is designed to be an experience that will teach and continue to change lives for years to come. Alumni are encouraged to stay in touch with the nationwide COR community and take advantage of resources that will allow them to continue to learn and grow.
Our base rate for contracted courses is $125 per person per day, with discounted rates for Catholic organizations/groups. This rate will go up if the group is smaller than seven, or if the adventure requires more technical gear and additional guides. For example, backpacking is the most affordable adventure activity we offer, while horseback riding or skiing would be on the more expensive end of the spectrum. Climbing and water trips fall in-between.
We can design trips for any age or group. We have worked with such organizations as FOCUS, White Heart, Saint John Institute, Adventure Mission Corps, Eagle Eye Ministries, and the Saint Joseph Abbey Seminary College. We have also worked with families, father-son groups, youth groups, and school groups of all ages. We look forward to expanding our offerings to many others, so let us know what you are looking for!
Don’t want to come all the way to Wyoming to have an adventure? We can meet you at another course location to minimize travel and maximize your time in the outdoors!
Designing Your Course
We offer short (1-3 day) leadership seminars in the city or “front-country,” but most of our trips are located in the wilderness. We suggest that backcountry trips be a minimum of five days, as longer trips will have better learning outcomes. Most of our trips are one week in length. Schools and seminaries who are able to invest three weeks of their time see increased growth of character, self-confidence, and communication as they have the opportunity to go through more stages of group development and personal reflection and become more independent in tasks such as navigating in the mountains.
Our favorite course locations are in and around Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. This is where we hold the majority of our permits and have the most flexibility with resources. However, we are happy to consider building a course in your backyard or in your dream destination (subject to budgetary and permitting restrictions). In the past, we have run courses in Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nebraska, California, Nevada, as well as internationally in Italy, Nicaragua and New Zealand.
When choosing a specific outdoor activity for your group, we look at four major considerations: activities you are most excited about, activities that will best meet your goals and objectives, cost of the activities relative to your budget, and the time of year for the proposed course location. (For example, May is not a good time to go backpacking in the mountains, but it is a great time to go rafting or desert backpacking.) Certain activities, such as mountain biking or ice climbing require a very small group, expensive technical gear, and a lower instructor/student ratio. Activities we offer include, but are not limited to:
- Backpacking
- Rafting
- Canoeing
- Rock Climbing
- Rappelling
- Mountain Biking
- Canyoneering
- Snowshoeing
- Cross Country Skiing
- Backcountry Skiing
- Ice Climbing
- Horseback Riding
Every student who comes on a COR course learns practical skills: the ability to do something necessary and hands-on for the good of themselves and for others. While examples of the skills that are taught vary from how to dress properly given the weather to how to set up a technical rope system, these skills are integral to the COR curriculum because they put our students in touch with levels of challenge that are rarely a part of modern living. The development of such skills is essentially the development of character, and practical skills are the tools we use to teach self-leadership and competence, or, in Christian terms, self-discipline. The ability to care for oneself and to thrive amidst challenging conditions becomes, in reality, the ability to care for others and the type of tolerance for adversity which is the backbone of real leadership.
The only elements of trip design that are non-negotiable are specific safety and skill trainings required for certain adventure activities. For example, there are at least ten lessons that we require all students to participate in before we can safely take them backpacking in the wilderness, from training on the use of bear spray to staying found (how to avoid getting lost).
Our staff are prepared to teach a variety of topics through facilitating experiential activities or by providing lecture-style presentations. For example, on our backpacking trips, students have the opportunity to be the ‘Leader of the Day’. They get hands-on experience making real decisions, with our staff coaching as needed and overseeing any safety considerations. Other topics our staff can incorporate in your course include, but are not limited to:
- Leadership
- Risk management
- Conflict management
- Self awareness
- Communication
- Group development
Start Planning Your Course Today!
Get in touch with COR Expeditions’ Contract Coordinator Sarah Carlstrom to learn more details about COR’s custom courses, ask questions, and start planning your course today.
sarah@corexpeditions.org
307-438-9954