What Makes Blue Goat Expeditions Different?

There are many mountain guide services offering trekking, climbing, and skiing expeditions to the greater ranges and polar regions. And like many of them, we utilize the wilderness environment to teach expeditionary ski and wilderness mountaineering. But Blue Goat Expeditions are different and, so far as we know, one of a kind. Why?

• First, we integrate a sophisticated and deliberately developmental learning platform (Immunity to Change, or ITC) into every expedition we run.

• Second, we embed a certified ITC coach—who also holds a PhD—in the expedition for the duration providing an unprecedented measure of coaching support and challenge.

• Third, we administer the Subject-Object Interview (SOI) prior to the expedition so we can better understand your growth edge and provide more effective coaching

You might be wondering why we combine deliberately developmental coaching (ITC) with ski and wilderness mountaineering. Why this marriage of two disparate experiences and disciplines? The ITC curriculum requires a significant measure of self-examination so having the space and time to think reflectively is key. Ordinary life is full of so many distractions that entering a deeply pensive space is difficult, and, for most of us, something we rarely do. Research has demonstrated the remarkable power of the wilderness experience to bring one into a self-reflective space, and to do so quickly (Kaplan and Kaplan, 1982). Additionally, wilderness is able to hold us in that space indefinitely. This intentional marriage between the wilderness experience and a deliberately development learning platform (ITC) makes for a potentially robust crucible for change.

The changes we coach to are not changes to your fund of knowledge or changes to what you know. We coach to changes in the complexity of your mindset, changes in the way you make meaning, changes to how you know what you know. It is change, not at the information level, but at the epistemological level (understanding what it is to know). And it is that kind of change that will transform you. It is that sort of change that can significantly increase your capacity, deepen life’s meaning, and lead to a life of considerable joy.

Our intent on these expeditions isn’t simply to provide you a remarkable wilderness experience, though you will certainly have that. Our intent is to design and lead expeditions that help you grow in a deliberate way. Teaching you how to do that and coaching you to that end is what we are, ultimately, about. We hope you will join us for an adventure that may very well change your life and, consequently, equip you to continue this life-changing work long after we say goodbye.