Rites and Retreats

Upcoming Programs:

Family Retreat

Our first eco-centric family retreat, focused on community envisioning, creating, playing, and learning together. Currently closed, at capacity.

Sept 3-5

Arete Expedition

Fathering Life

A 4-day mountain journey and vision quest for up to 9 fathers (including non-conforming, non-traditional father identities), using wildness and adventure as a way to tap into deep reserves of compassion and vitality in order to restore care for themselves, their families, and the earth. 

DATES: September 15-18, 2022

Register Now

OVERVIEW

An arete is a crisp rock feature where two sides of a mountain come to a clear, dramatic, and defined point. A climber knows when they are on the arete, and it is similarly clear when they are no longer on it. Aretes are often difficult yet exhilarating. This is an invitation for fathers to retreat to the mountains for 4 days and three nights: to find the clarifying arete together, to move through forests, valleys, and ridges that inspire and revitalize. This is a mountain journey that goes beyond recreation, working to re-create patterns of health, strength, and balance for fathers. Join our inspired group of dads in order to be in the mountains (alone and together), remembering the nourishment of the earth’s rivers, and the solidity and definition of her ridges and peaks. The journey will be rugged, yet supportive of participants that have limited experience in the mountains, with an intentional skill progression helping participants to move safely and confidently in the wilderness. We will also offer optional climbs, solos, and participant-directed activities. This late summer and early autumn window will afford the opportunity to witness the dramatic changes in season and ecology and to potentially push into more volatile weather and all the vitality that comes with this, while also better ensuring solitude. 

Locations may include Indian Peaks, Sangre de Cristos, or the Gore Range, places that your guide knows well, generally kept quiet and far from popular trails. 

PEDAGOGY, METHODS, AND OPPORTUNITIES

  • The four days follows the spiral of Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnect: 
    • Day 1: Coming from gratitude
    • Day 2: Feeling our pain for the world
    • Day 3: Seeing with new eyes
    • Day 4: Going forth
  • Wilderness as teacher: trusting the wisdom and power of wild lands to open internal spaces for growth and connection
  • Circles and focused conversations
  • Solo opportunities (part-day and overnight)
  • Peak climbs and other physical challenge
  • Pre-dawn wake-ups, morning sit spots
  • Participation in the mundane and essential elements of self care, group-service, cooking, cleaning, and tending to camp needs
  • Storytelling
  • Celebration & Ceremony

GUIDING QUESTIONS:

  • How can this brief mountain expedition bring us towards deeper connection to our innate wildness in order to create a durable vitality in an often deadening modern world?
  • How can we, as fathers, step wholly into the important mythical archetypes of protectors and providers, yet expand these roles to include our broader human and non-human communities?
  • Can we help each other to be courageous in challenging the status quo (internal and external) and to nurture alternative narratives to the dominant, ecologically destructive paradigm?
  • What practices can we cultivate to nourish intimacy and continued connection with our partners?
  • How do we create ritual and routine in our lives to keep joy and inspiration flowing through us and into and within our family and our partnerships?
  • In what ways do adventure and uncertainty open up new perspectives and possibilities in the routine of our daily lives?
  • How can our role as a Father add to the Great Turning, as outlined in Joanna Macy’s work,  as opposed to consumerism, hyper-individualism, and ecological deterioration?

STRUCTURES, INSPIRATIONS, AND MOTIFS

  • Nature connection and ecological literacy
  • Joanna Macy and The Work that Reconnects
  • Bill Plotkin’s Eco-Soulcentric Human Development wheel
  • Moving through spectrums: music and noise to silence; physical challenge to stillness and rest; playfulness and humor to grief and depth. 
  • Readings: 
    • These Wilds Beyond Our Fences, Dr. Bayo Akomolafe
    • Active Hope, Chris Johnstone & Joanna Macy
    • Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World, Bill Plotkin

COST

$850  – includes food and guiding. That said, please do not hesitate to reach out if you are interested but the cost is out of reach. This is essential, community, and earth-centered work, and cost should not be a barrier to access.

Not included – gear and transportation costs (we will arrange carpools from Boulder)

TRAVEL

Program will begin and end in Boulder, CO. Travel to and from the mountains will be arranged once we have a sense for the group size and starting locations of each participant. For participants coming from lower altitude, appropriate acclimatization is recommended.

PREREQUISITES

  • Self-define as a father
  • Interest in self discovery; desire for deepening connection to the earth and emotional intimacy with others
  • Ability to hike up to 7 miles in a day with a 40-50 pound backpack
  • No other previous experience or skills required. A secondary outcome of the journey will be to share and develop backcountry skills, especially for those that are looking to expand their knowledge-base and abilities

YOUR GUIDE: While often co-created and self directed, Tim’s role as a guide will help to craft a container for the experience and also to sort out all the details that make it hard for dads to get out in this way to begin with! He has over 20 years of professional guiding and personal expeditions throughout the US West, Alaska, the Central Andes, Amazon, Patagonia, and the Nepal Himalaya, including notable mountaineering, rock, and alpine ascents. He has had the opportunity to work with a diversity of ages to create meaningful connections to the natural world and nurture personal growth and transformation. Tim’s approach involves pure adventure, ecological literacy, engaged conversations, ceremony, writing, and other creative forms in order to connect to ourselves, each other, and the earth. He thrives in wild, topographically complex places, and has a way of helping others feel capable and competent in these settings. As a partner and father of two, he is blessed to be able to weave these experiences into his family life and greater community. He and Shannon, along with their two kiddos, Celia and Mason, have called the Boulder area home for 10 years, and have also used it as a base for extended domestic and international travels. Tim’s current work is to support the building of regenerative culture in an increasingly degenerating world, using nature connection, changes in risk tolerance, and facilitated spiritual connection to the earth and our latent humanity. He has trained as an Active Hope facilitator within Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects, and is motivated by the fact that working with fathers and families is one of the most direct ways to shape a new future and heal our fractured relationship with our Mother Earth. Tim is also a risk management professional, having worked as Director of Risk Management for an adventurous international education program for 7 years and is a certified Wilderness First Responder.