Skip to main content

River Rafting as Team Building

Leavenworth, Washington
Henry Ford was quoted as saying, "Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success."  Managers, work-group supervisors and corporate leaders may want to consider looking outside of the box for tools and ideas that motivate and bring groups together.  Orion River Rafting believes they need look no further than their closest Washington river outfitter.  Our guides become guides beneath the banner of teamwork and know how to provide a quality river trip that will bring out the best in your group and get them working as a team.
River Rafting Brings People Together
River rafting is not all flailing paddles and great big splashes.
White water rafting trips, once again, are becoming a popular way for corporate groups to bond and grow together. Co-workers unite in powerful ways on a whitewater trip because - by necessity - they are working together to challenge the forces of nature. There are few things more exhilarating than spending a day, or several days, together confronting white water rapids and working as a unit. The outdoors inspires esprit de corps and a well-earned, shared sense of accomplishment.

On longer river trips, such as the Deschutes River, river rafters communication skills are sure to improve.  Effective communication is often challenging in the office, with the constant distractions of email, meetings and ringing phones.  In the great outdoors, like the solitude of the high desert country of the Deschutes River, there is time for co-workers to truly connect around campfires and while scouting rapids.

Co-workers rarely have the chance to simply share in new experiences by day, and then hear each person’s input on the day’s adventures as everyone comes together. On the river, this is a part of the experience that participants anticipate.  Gathering together in camp each evening over a great meal after a fantastic day of outdoor activities in itself is a powerful relationship building experience.

James L. Moore, founder of Orion River Rafting says, “There is no doubt about the formative aspects of a shared out-of-your element experience like a river raft trip to bring a group of people together.  Over my 35 years of rafting, I have watched many a group go through the "forming, storming, norming" phases of team-building and come out the other side with a much tighter, cohesive bond.  Few group activities are as effective at bringing people together as a day or a week of river rafting."

Orion River Rafting offers a range of Pacific Northwest rafting adventures that bring corporate teams together.  The Leavenworth River outfitter’s experienced guides and crew work with team building facilitators to create an excursion uniquely tailored to specific goals and objectives.  They can choose from day trips with tough white water challenges like the Skykomish River, or mild white water, like the Skagit River where participants can even get a shot at steering the raft and learning to guide.

On our overnight river trips down the Deschutes, there is plenty of time in camp for additional planned activities or down time, whichever is preferred.  Itineraries are flexible and can include easy to challenging hikes, lazy river swims, and facilitated team building exercises, spirited camp games or just time for people to connect while relaxing in a majestic natural setting.

If your company group or organization is looking for a meaningful means of enhancing the team building experience, white water rafting in Washington or Oregon could be the answer to better communications, increased productivity and a lot more joie de vivre around the office all year long. No rafting or camping experience is required.  All people need to do is show up ready for adventure and fun, and the river outfitters will do the rest.  The company provides the facilitator and exercises; Orion River Rafting provides all of the equipment, gear, food and river expertise so that participants can get the most out of their team building adventure.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Jim Fielder - Washington River Rafting Pioneer

Jim Fielder was, as they say, larger than life. The former middle school teacher, beloved by many, and former white water rafting outfitter , envied by even more, lost his life recently due to poor electrical wiring and a flash fire.  He lived on Queen Anne hill in a house handed down to him by his mother. The Queen Anne News reported that he was also a former screenwriter and novelist of true crime stories.  I know he had published a book or two, and I know he wrote an insightful article about Mary Kay Letourneau for a women's magazine, but I don't know if I would characterize anyone who has been published as being 'former'.  Once a writer, always a writer. Jim Fielder owned Zig Zag River Runners from the late 70s through the early 90s, and that is how I know him.  But the last time I saw him, he was haunting a Queen Anne coffeehouse, absorbing information and scheming about subject matter you could sink your teeth into.  He was long past his white water outf

Best Time for River Rafting in Leavenworth

The ideal time to river raft the Wenatchee River is between May and July. May is peak, snow-melt runoff, so the water will be cold, the air temperature in the 70s and the water level can be moderate to high. June is nice because the ambient temperature has risen considerably, while the river levels usually are still good enough to provide some exciting white water. July is typically low and slow, but the weather is reaching the high 90s, so rafting continues to be fun, but more memorable due to water-fighting and voluntary swims. Orion River Rafting provides daily, unhurried river trips out of Leavenworth, Washington. Established 1978. http://orionexp.com in reference to: "Spring mountain snowmelt creates excellent rafting conditions in the Wenatchee River." - Leavenworth, Washington - A Great Place to Visit ( view on Google Sidewiki )

River Rafting Rescue 101

Rivers are cold in the state of Washington. Gushing down the slopes of the North Cascade mountain range, westbound toward the Salish Sea and eastbound toward the Columbia, Washington rivers are the result of melting snowfields, diminishing glaciers, brisk Pacific Northwest rainfall and subterranean cold water springs. Meanwhile the Skagit River has all of those factors plus it is water spilled through turbines released from the depths of a very deep and very cold Ross Lake. For those specific reasons, it is not unusual to be wearing neoprene throughout the white water season in the grey and mossy Pacific Northwest. Even on the Skagit in August. And when the river is running high in the spring from snow melt, not only is the temperature of the water frigid (prolonged exposure to 70 degree water induces hypothermia - as I can attest to on a pleasant afternoon without a splash jacket on the Pucon River in Chile) it is moving rather fast. 'Swimmers', as we call persons over