Idaho BaseCamp has officially launched its seventh season of the IBC Sahm 5th Grade Program, a transformative three-day, two-night outdoor experience for students.
Over the coming weeks, more than five schools across three counties, including fifth-grade classes in every Blaine County school, will participate at IBC’s Big Lost Campus.
Since its inception in 2018, the program has served over 2,500 fifth graders. The Sahm 5th Grade Program is designed to immerse students in nature while teaching essential life skills. Activities include Science, Art, outdoor adventure, team building, trust walks, mindfulness, movement, storytelling around the campfire and healthy, nourishing meals.
“The experience takes kids out of their comfort zones,” said IBC founder Mat Gershater. “It’s a challenging world out there, and young people often bear the brunt of societal pressures and changes. This program helps fifth graders grow into confident, kind, and empathetic leaders. We call it developing their ‘Inner BaseCamp’—an internal compass that helps them navigate life.”
The overarching goal is to foster a deep, lasting relationship between students and the natural world. Through hands-on experiences, students gain appreciation for nature's beauty and develop the confidence to take on new challenges.
As a unique aspect of the program, school teachers and faculty attend at no cost. This creates opportunities for deeper connection with students and helps strengthen the bonds of respect and teamwork that carry back into the classroom. By learning and playing away from the traditional classroom setting, both teachers and students can explore new communication skills and learn to rely on each other in a new setting.
“Taking my fifth-grade students to Idaho BaseCamp every year is easily one of my favorite parts of teaching,” said Lee Stoops, a teacher at Alturas Elementary School. “Watching them realize that there is magic in spending time unplugged and outside with their peers and adults who model what leadership and joy look like-–it’s awe-inspiring.
“By the time we come back from BaseCamp, not only are the students devastated to leave that experience, but they are also all changed. They value each other differently and they have found new and stronger versions of themselves.”
This year’s Sahm 5th Grade Program runs from April23 through May 21 and will serve over 230 students.
Mountain Adventure Tours started in the summer of 1998 with the first iteration of what would become Idaho Basecamp with a vision of education about your environment, the community and the outdoors through entertaining activities. In 2014, IBC became a 501(c)(3) certified nonprofit organization and is now the leading resource for outdoor adventure education in the Wood River Valley.
Based in Ketchum, Idaho, with a campus location in Bellevue and a flagship location in the high desert outside Mackay, IBC currently offers five programs dedicated to not only getting kids from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds outside, but also developing their “Inner BaseCamp”--their internal compass for navigating life through a sense of personal responsibility, courage, confidence, and respect for all.