Aspiro Wilderness Camp in Utah

[Anonymous]

Looks like the HLA staff is slowing moving to Utah to work at Aspiro Wilderness Camp. Look at www.aspiro-inc.com    Brian Church from Ridgecreek, Josh Watson former admissions guy at HLA, Kristen Bell-Intake staff at HLA and Brad Carpenter-that did testing at HLA all have followed Josh and Brian's lead and got the heck out of HLA and moved on to Utah. I hope that Aspiro is a more positive and honest place for kids. I also hope that they take what they learned about BS at HLA and do right by families this time at HLA. Wonder who will be moving to Utah next? Any guesses on who the next HLA staff member to bite the dust will be?

[Anonymous]

I meant I hope these former HLA staff have learned from the BS environment that was going on at HLA and will do right this time by families in Utah. HLA hopefully taught them what NOT to do this time. I hope that Aspiro Wilderness camp is run much better and is a positive environment for teens, because in my opinion, HLA was run into the ground with greed and negativity and dishonest business practices.

Johnny Ringo keeps asking what familes did not get that they paid for at HLA. How about the fact that these kids were promised help academically with the learning disability teacher that never took place. Paying $6000 a month should ensure the best education in the world, and that did not take place at all. Dwindling teachers and other staff made for a very bad situation for familes at HLA and I think the familes that had kids there since September 2006 should get a full refund! They DESERVE a full refund for sure. I am not alone in feeling this way!

[Anonymous]

I hope that Aspiro Wilderness camp is run much better and is a positive environment for teens

[Anonymous]

a positive wilderness camp for struggling teens is an oxymoron.

take the treatment aspect out of it, a'la NOLS or outward bound, and it ceases to be an oxymoron.


moron.

[Anonymous]

There are many wilderness camp experiences that seem positive.  I have a few friends who graduated at Aspiro with nothing but good to say about it.  They said they were treated with utmost respect at all times and had a lot of fun.  2 of the 3 were not happy about being there at first because it was a surprise, but are now very glad for the experience.  The other knew that she was going to go a long time before she did and was able to adjust.  They all said they had fun and learned a lot.  One relapsed once, but has healed completely and is dogin very well.  The other two have not relapsed at all and say they are happier than ever.  All three continue to have good relationships with their parents.  What was your experience that you think so negatively about wilderness camp experiences?

[Anonymous]

I have not been at a wilderness program but I have interviewed a lot and seen a lot of the manuals in various programs.

The main problem is the legacy from Cartisano - the founder of the modern wilderness therapy concept.

Once they removed the voluntary aspect and introduced boot camp methods two things happened:

1) Kids started to die
2) A lot of those who entered the programs had to deal with them for decades. Look at a site like 63 days for more info. You can also look around in our Wiki-database and investigate the links. We have a datasheet about Aspiro. They have some management problems but no kids have so far died in their program (kind of rare) or at least that is what is public knowledge because 90-95 of such "incidents" are settled out of court.

[Anonymous]

You have no idea if anyone has died at Aspiro, or been injured or maimed, or emotionally abused. Programs are somehow becoming more able to keep such negative info out of the media.
Is the Fornits Wiki now into making referrals to "safer programs"? Just curious?
CAFETY was skewerd for less.

[Anonymous]

You have no idea if anyone has died at Aspiro, or been injured or maimed, or emotionally abused. Programs are somehow becoming more able to keep such negative info out of the media.
Is the Fornits Wiki now into making referrals to "safer programs"? Just curious?
CAFETY was skewerd for less.

If some have died at Aspiro and someone is able to find just one link to an article, a death announcement or obituary, you can bet that we will print it at once.

We are not making referrals to any programs. What some claims is good for them, can be very bad for others. But we can only print what is going on.

If someone has been at Aspiro or someone would send their workbooks to one of our volunteers, we will print all what is to know about how they work to achieve behavior modification.

The purpose of Fornits Wiki is:

* to maintain a list of all active and closed programs with details of how they work
* to keep address records of places where kids are kept, so friends and extended family can seek them
* to list when kids are hurt or killed in programs
* to have lists of survivor groups so survivors can find others to talk with. None back at home can understand them.
* to have links to message boards where survivors state their experiences and the programs are discussed.

[Anonymous]

The main problem is the legacy from Cartisano - the founder of the modern wilderness therapy concept.

They have some management problems but no kids have so far died in their program (kind of rare) or at least that is what is public knowledge because 90-95 of such "incidents" are settled out of court.

That sounds like an endorsement to me.

And BTW, Cartisano is NOT the "founder of the modern wilderness therapy concept".
WikiResearcher needs to do some more research.

[Anonymous]

W

The main problem is the legacy from Cartisano - the founder of the modern wilderness therapy concept.

They have some management problems but no kids have so far died in their program (kind of rare) or at least that is what is public knowledge because 90-95 of such "incidents" are settled out of court.

That sounds like an endorsement to me.

And BTW, Cartisano is NOT the "founder of the modern wilderness therapy concept".
WikiResearcher needs to do some more research.

I am saying that there is no deaths in that program WE KNOW OFF. Is that endorsing? Is a program successful if they can avoid deaths?

As for Cartisano, do you know any wilderness program before he entered the market, which wasn't just outbound. Olsen's early wilderness programs did cost a few hundred bucks because they were voluntary and had no boot camp compoment in them. What you see today is his concept and even if it is not 100% the truth it will be once it is stated in +100 sites. Manipulation? Is that not what the entire industry is about?

[Anonymous]

Wilderness was well on it's way and there had already been at least a dozen deaths before Cartisano came along.

http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... nored.html
Founders of Modern Wilderness Movement Honored in “Clan of the Hand” Ceremony
The first honorees were the five most influential men behind the modern wilderness movement: Larry Dean Olsen, Ezekiel Sanchez, Dave Wescott, Doug Nelson, and Larry Wells.
Most of us in the wilderness field recognize Larry Dean Olsen as the "father" of the modern wilderness movement.

1996
http://www.nospank.net/bacon.htm
Critics say there is little evidence to show that wilderness therapy works. They cite one study in the mid-1980s, where the city of San Diego tracked the first 100 delinquent boys it sent through the VisionQuest program. After one year, 55 percent had been arrested again. After three years, 92 percent had been arrested again.
But as scandals continue to hound the industry, some programs are disappearing. In Utah, for example, the number of wilderness therapy schools has shrunk from 13 in 1990, to three today. [Escaping Regulations]

http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... sit01.html
As near as I can tell, Larry Wells is the first person to establish a therapy business for seriously non-functioning youths using primitive living skills as a major tool. He started doing this in 1971. He is a quiet, unassuming man who finds it difficult to blow his own horn. On the trail, however, working with students, a transformation takes place. Then, I saw there is no question in anybody's mind that Larry is in charge, and everything is going to be done exactly right.
He was featured on Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story" in 1985. In past years he was called on by S.U.W.S. and Wilderness Challenger when they needed the best man they could find to help them get started.

http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... /oe01.html
The wilderness experience was discovered by America in a massive way in the 1970s. It was quickly found that the wilderness experience was an effective tool for working with young people with behavior problems. How is it that those children who are unable to learn the lessons of responsibility at home or at school, can learn those lessons by leaving civilization behind for a while?

http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/ ... 006p14.htm
While wilderness therapy programs date back to the 1940s, the field experienced a boom in the late 1980s and early 1990s, following on the heels of the success of programs such as Outward Bound and a growing nationwide interest in activities such as backpacking and rock climbing.

http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... sit01.html
1991
The first campus was started in 1985. Since then, it has grown to five programs in three states with a combined enrollment exceeding 190 residents with an average completion time of 15 months.
The phenomenal growth in just six years suggests Three Springs is rapidly becoming a major player in the Special Purpose Schools industry. The growth continues as they add a short-term program this summer.
The Three Springs Creed is prominently displayed throughout each of the facilities. It was developed in 1985 by Mike Watson and Jim Payne. It is a good statement of their philosophy and goals.

http://www.strugglingteens.com/artman/p ... 0130.shtml
The scene is post World War II, a different world than today in many ways, but the same world none the less. The place was East Texas. The man, a professional with several degrees in higher education, yet an outdoorsman with the patience of Job, and a knowledge and deep respect for all living things, especially the boys that were campers at Camp Woodland Springs.

Campbell Loughmiller was hired by the Dallas Salesmanship Club to run a camp for underprivileged children in the Dallas area during the summer and on weekends. The magic that occurred by accident, as well as by Campbell's purposeful design, soon led to the first long term Therapeutic Wilderness Camp.

If time is the ultimate test, some 60 years later, through trial and tribulation, Therapeutic Wilderness Camping still exists and is utilized by a variety of organizations and agencies throughout the United States and internationally, to serve special needs groups and their families. Indeed, some programming evolution has transpired since Campbell Loughmiller first authored "Wilderness Road" and the subsequent "Kids in Trouble," two priceless gems that address the rationale, mission and story of Therapeutic Wilderness Camping.

In the 1980's, the nation was swirling with need for therapeutic programs and schools to effectively serve the burgeoning swell of youngsters getting caught up in a society's push to have them "grow up" before their time. Many new programs evolved from that original, successful first camp in Texas.

http://www.strugglingteens.com/artman/p ... 0820.shtml
The second major impact was the development of wilderness programs. Doug Nelson, Larry Olsen and Ezekiel Sanchez were early pioneers of wilderness programming. All three men were involved with Brigham Young University in Provo, UT. There they developed wilderness programming for BYU students who were not achieving at levels of which they were capable. This program had great success, and out of this experience, Doug Nelson developed what is now called Aspen Achievement Academy (AAA). Over the years, AAA also trained and influenced many therapists, medical staff, logistics personnel, field instructors and others who had learned how to operate a wilderness program. It is very difficult to find a wilderness program in the State of Utah that has not been influenced by these three men and, specifically, Aspen Achievement Academy. From these modest beginnings, wilderness programs in Utah have developed more than 10 fold since 1989 when AAA was founded.


http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... ews01.html
The Wilderness Conquest Inc. vision began in Idaho in 1971 as Expedition Outreach Inc. Expedition Outreach Inc. conducted programs throughout the western states for juvenile and adult correction agencies. In 1973 they designed and conducted the wilderness phase for VisionQuest now known for their wagon trains. In 1982 they designed and conducted the wilderness program for the School of Urban and Wilderness Survival [SUWS], the first wilderness treatment program to market to the general public. In 1984 they developed the long term 60 day "specialty program."

http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... resnp.html
For the past 31 years [since 1972], Wilderness Ventures has worked with high school, junior high, and college students, combining their “love of teaching young adults with their “passion” for the American Wilderness.” They feel that rather than teach exclusively hard skills and low impact camping, as many other well-known outdoor schools do, Wilderness Ventures offers a more comprehensive approach to leadership training that is more relevant to the ‘real world’, that emphasizes the importance of group problem-solving, decision-making, and conflict-resolution, in addition to the hard skills

http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... ews01.html
On May 16, 2001, Larry J. Wells, owner and director of Wilderness Quest, will celebrate 30 years of service conducting outdoor survival treatment programs and counseling individuals.

Wilderness Treatment Center is proud to announce it is celebrating its 25th year anniversary this August. Since 1983,
http://www.strugglingteens.com/artman/p ... 0807.shtml
http://www.strugglingteens.com/artman/p ... 5124.shtml

http://www.ritesofpassagevisionquest.org/
Rites of Passage is a non-profit organization whose mission is to reintroduce meaningful rites of passage for people of the modern world, so that they may be able to mark and celebrate important life transitions with courage, strength and wisdom.  Since our founding in 1977, we have guided thousands of adults and youth from a wide variety of backgrounds, occupations and geographic locations on Vision Quests, retreats, and training programs.

http://www.wildernessquest.com/history.html
In 1965 Larry Wells teamed with Darrol Gardner Dist Supervisor for Idaho Adult Corrections Probation and Parole in starting an ex-con talk program and creating Volunteers in Adult Corrections in Idaho. This relationship began the planning for a wilderness based substance abuse treatment program.

In 1970 Larry attended BYU Instructor Training program and went as a student on a BYU, 26 day 480 Survival Program. On returning home he and Darrol recruited a Board of Directors consisting of Law Enforcement personnel, a Prosecutor, Judges, and an Attorney. A Non-Profit Corp, Expedition Outreach Inc was formed, and a LEPC grant obtained.

In May 1971 the first 30 day program went into the wilderness of Idaho with clients from the Idaho Prison, Idaho Youth Service Center, Adult Probation and Parole and Juvenile Probation and Parole and a percentage of "straight clients".

For the next 15 years contracts were obtained from agencies in Adult and Juvenile Corrections, Courts, Mental Health, BIA and Alternative Schools through out the Western States. The contracts consisted of training agency personnel, designing and conducting programs for the different agencies and designing and instituting wilderness based programs for companies such as Vision Quest and SUWS.

By the late1970's Expedition Outreach Inc. had evolved to specialize in substance abuse treatment. It was apparent to Larry the family of the client needed to be involved. Through out the 1980's several attempts through contract was made to achieve that objective.

In 1988 Wilderness ConQuest Inc. was created and through national marketing for private pay clients, a program with a strong family component was developed. In 1996 because emphasis was on the family, the program was reincorporated as Blue Mountain Family Center, Inc. d.b.a. Wilderness Quest.

[Anonymous]

Wilderness was well on it's way and there had already been at least a dozen deaths before Cartisano came along.

http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... nored.html
Founders of Modern Wilderness Movement Honored in “Clan of the Hand” Ceremony
The first honorees were the five most influential men behind the modern wilderness movement: Larry Dean Olsen, Ezekiel Sanchez, Dave Wescott, Doug Nelson, and Larry Wells.
Most of us in the wilderness field recognize Larry Dean Olsen as the "father" of the modern wilderness movement.

1996
http://www.nospank.net/bacon.htm
Critics say there is little evidence to show that wilderness therapy works. They cite one study in the mid-1980s, where the city of San Diego tracked the first 100 delinquent boys it sent through the VisionQuest program. After one year, 55 percent had been arrested again. After three years, 92 percent had been arrested again.
But as scandals continue to hound the industry, some programs are disappearing. In Utah, for example, the number of wilderness therapy schools has shrunk from 13 in 1990, to three today. [Escaping Regulations]

http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... sit01.html
As near as I can tell, Larry Wells is the first person to establish a therapy business for seriously non-functioning youths using primitive living skills as a major tool. He started doing this in 1971. He is a quiet, unassuming man who finds it difficult to blow his own horn. On the trail, however, working with students, a transformation takes place. Then, I saw there is no question in anybody's mind that Larry is in charge, and everything is going to be done exactly right.
He was featured on Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story" in 1985. In past years he was called on by S.U.W.S. and Wilderness Challenger when they needed the best man they could find to help them get started.

http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... /oe01.html
The wilderness experience was discovered by America in a massive way in the 1970s. It was quickly found that the wilderness experience was an effective tool for working with young people with behavior problems. How is it that those children who are unable to learn the lessons of responsibility at home or at school, can learn those lessons by leaving civilization behind for a while?

http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/ ... 006p14.htm
While wilderness therapy programs date back to the 1940s, the field experienced a boom in the late 1980s and early 1990s, following on the heels of the success of programs such as Outward Bound and a growing nationwide interest in activities such as backpacking and rock climbing.

http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... sit01.html
1991
The first campus was started in 1985. Since then, it has grown to five programs in three states with a combined enrollment exceeding 190 residents with an average completion time of 15 months.
The phenomenal growth in just six years suggests Three Springs is rapidly becoming a major player in the Special Purpose Schools industry. The growth continues as they add a short-term program this summer.
The Three Springs Creed is prominently displayed throughout each of the facilities. It was developed in 1985 by Mike Watson and Jim Payne. It is a good statement of their philosophy and goals.

http://www.strugglingteens.com/artman/p ... 0130.shtml
The scene is post World War II, a different world than today in many ways, but the same world none the less. The place was East Texas. The man, a professional with several degrees in higher education, yet an outdoorsman with the patience of Job, and a knowledge and deep respect for all living things, especially the boys that were campers at Camp Woodland Springs.

Campbell Loughmiller was hired by the Dallas Salesmanship Club to run a camp for underprivileged children in the Dallas area during the summer and on weekends. The magic that occurred by accident, as well as by Campbell's purposeful design, soon led to the first long term Therapeutic Wilderness Camp.

If time is the ultimate test, some 60 years later, through trial and tribulation, Therapeutic Wilderness Camping still exists and is utilized by a variety of organizations and agencies throughout the United States and internationally, to serve special needs groups and their families. Indeed, some programming evolution has transpired since Campbell Loughmiller first authored "Wilderness Road" and the subsequent "Kids in Trouble," two priceless gems that address the rationale, mission and story of Therapeutic Wilderness Camping.

In the 1980's, the nation was swirling with need for therapeutic programs and schools to effectively serve the burgeoning swell of youngsters getting caught up in a society's push to have them "grow up" before their time. Many new programs evolved from that original, successful first camp in Texas.

http://www.strugglingteens.com/artman/p ... 0820.shtml
The second major impact was the development of wilderness programs. Doug Nelson, Larry Olsen and Ezekiel Sanchez were early pioneers of wilderness programming. All three men were involved with Brigham Young University in Provo, UT. There they developed wilderness programming for BYU students who were not achieving at levels of which they were capable. This program had great success, and out of this experience, Doug Nelson developed what is now called Aspen Achievement Academy (AAA). Over the years, AAA also trained and influenced many therapists, medical staff, logistics personnel, field instructors and others who had learned how to operate a wilderness program. It is very difficult to find a wilderness program in the State of Utah that has not been influenced by these three men and, specifically, Aspen Achievement Academy. From these modest beginnings, wilderness programs in Utah have developed more than 10 fold since 1989 when AAA was founded.


http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... ews01.html
The Wilderness Conquest Inc. vision began in Idaho in 1971 as Expedition Outreach Inc. Expedition Outreach Inc. conducted programs throughout the western states for juvenile and adult correction agencies. In 1973 they designed and conducted the wilderness phase for VisionQuest now known for their wagon trains. In 1982 they designed and conducted the wilderness program for the School of Urban and Wilderness Survival [SUWS], the first wilderness treatment program to market to the general public. In 1984 they developed the long term 60 day "specialty program."

http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... resnp.html
For the past 31 years [since 1972], Wilderness Ventures has worked with high school, junior high, and college students, combining their “love of teaching young adults with their “passion” for the American Wilderness.” They feel that rather than teach exclusively hard skills and low impact camping, as many other well-known outdoor schools do, Wilderness Ventures offers a more comprehensive approach to leadership training that is more relevant to the ‘real world’, that emphasizes the importance of group problem-solving, decision-making, and conflict-resolution, in addition to the hard skills

http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... ews01.html
On May 16, 2001, Larry J. Wells, owner and director of Wilderness Quest, will celebrate 30 years of service conducting outdoor survival treatment programs and counseling individuals.

Wilderness Treatment Center is proud to announce it is celebrating its 25th year anniversary this August. Since 1983,
http://www.strugglingteens.com/artman/p ... 0807.shtml
http://www.strugglingteens.com/artman/p ... 5124.shtml

http://www.ritesofpassagevisionquest.org/
Rites of Passage is a non-profit organization whose mission is to reintroduce meaningful rites of passage for people of the modern world, so that they may be able to mark and celebrate important life transitions with courage, strength and wisdom.  Since our founding in 1977, we have guided thousands of adults and youth from a wide variety of backgrounds, occupations and geographic locations on Vision Quests, retreats, and training programs.

http://www.wildernessquest.com/history.html
In 1965 Larry Wells teamed with Darrol Gardner Dist Supervisor for Idaho Adult Corrections Probation and Parole in starting an ex-con talk program and creating Volunteers in Adult Corrections in Idaho. This relationship began the planning for a wilderness based substance abuse treatment program.

In 1970 Larry attended BYU Instructor Training program and went as a student on a BYU, 26 day 480 Survival Program. On returning home he and Darrol recruited a Board of Directors consisting of Law Enforcement personnel, a Prosecutor, Judges, and an Attorney. A Non-Profit Corp, Expedition Outreach Inc was formed, and a LEPC grant obtained.

In May 1971 the first 30 day program went into the wilderness of Idaho with clients from the Idaho Prison, Idaho Youth Service Center, Adult Probation and Parole and Juvenile Probation and Parole and a percentage of "straight clients".

For the next 15 years contracts were obtained from agencies in Adult and Juvenile Corrections, Courts, Mental Health, BIA and Alternative Schools through out the Western States. The contracts consisted of training agency personnel, designing and conducting programs for the different agencies and designing and instituting wilderness based programs for companies such as Vision Quest and SUWS.

By the late1970's Expedition Outreach Inc. had evolved to specialize in substance abuse treatment. It was apparent to Larry the family of the client needed to be involved. Through out the 1980's several attempts through contract was made to achieve that objective.

In 1988 Wilderness ConQuest Inc. was created and through national marketing for private pay clients, a program with a strong family component was developed. In 1996 because emphasis was on the family, the program was reincorporated as Blue Mountain Family Center, Inc. d.b.a. Wilderness Quest.

[Antigen]

I have a few friends who graduated at Aspiro with nothing but good to say about it.

What's your connection to all these happy campers, Daman?

[Anonymous]

I am not trying to state that Cartisano invented the wilderness concept. I think that we should look even further back at Kurt Hahn. He created with Olsen took a step furter - a form of outward bound therapy.

The big question is: What was the name of the first program, which took teenagers out in the wilderness - involuntary?

What is the exact differences between outward bound therapy and wilderness therapy?

Did SUWS use boot camp techniques before Cartisano entered the business or did they follow the market trend? We know about a death occuring there about 1985.

(Kurt Hahn is a funny guy. Have you ever heard about a jew supporting Hitler? He did until he was bullied in the street. Then he created a boarding school in UK. Some suspects people in the States to have copied some of the concept of wilderness therapy from this boarding school. Did the students like it? Not if you take the words of Prince Charles, who have attended his school at some point).

[Anonymous]

I didn't say that you said Cartisano invented wilderness. You appear to want to single out Cartisano because he applied a military style and effective marketing, transforming "a marginally solvent industry into a cash cow"? Implying that others are "safe". That's not the case. They're all based on deprivation and torture, which is passed off as "therapy".

Connect the dots between the players. They all lead back to BYU. The industry needed a scapegoat- Cartisano. Despite regulations and postively spun PR, deaths continued, and you don't have to use "military" tactics to abuse kids.

1995
Loving Them to Death

As yet, none of these questions has been adequately answered. Nationwide, more than 120 companies are in the business of wilderness therapy, and a small but significant number of them--perhaps two dozen--employ harsh methods. By definition, treatment conducted miles from the nearest road isn't easy to monitor. If the Bacon case is any indication, a flurry of vaunted regulations enacted five years ago by the state of Utah (in reaction to two other fatalities in Utah-based programs) accomplished little beyond giving the public a false sense of security.
[2 dozen? How does the journalist know this? Did he get that info from Olsen? Wells?]

In 1962, Outward Bound transplanted its methods to the United States, opening a school in the mountains of western Colorado. Its standard 26-day course included rock climbing, bust-ass backpacking, and a three-day "solo." Before long, scores of imitators materialized, and by the seventies the United States was home to more than 200 programs dedicated to self-improvement through outdoor adventure.

A disproportionate number of the Outward Bound-inspired programs originated in Provo, Utah, on the campus of Brigham Young University. The spark was provided by an Idaho farm boy named Larry Dean Olsen, who enrolled at BYU in the midsixties. Olsen, a folksy, gregarious man in his fifties who today heads the Anasazi Foundation, was a self-taught survival buff who knew a lot about chipping arrow points and living off the land. To help pay his way through college, he started teaching backcountry survival to local hunters and fishermen.

In 1968, the university asked Olsen to lead an experimental "expedition," based loosely on the Outward Bound model, for a group of students who were flunking out. The 30-day course, held in the Utah desert, was a grueling physical trial, but most of the 26 kids who completed it showed a striking improvement in academic performance the following semester. The course ultimately became a centerpiece of the university's Youth Leadership Department.

Olsen went on to write a widely read book, Outdoor Survival Skills, which brought him minor celebrity. Although he left BYU in the early seventies following allegations of mismanagement and sexual impropriety--"Larry liked the girls a little too much," explains a former BYU colleague--the success of the university's outdoor education curriculum continued to balloon.

BYU is closely affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and at the core of its wilderness programs was a spiritual component that had no equivalent in Outward Bound. They were intended, first and foremost, to be deeply religious experiences that promoted faith in the Mormon ideal. As one result, graduates of BYU courses established similar programs across the West with evangelistic zeal.

Most of these operated uneventfully, but there were serious setbacks that presaged what would happen to Aaron Bacon. In 1974, a 12-year-old boy became dehydrated and died of heatstroke while enrolled in an Idaho State University program established under Olsen's guidance. The next year, a young woman in a BYU course died while hiking across Utah's Burr Desert, also from dehydration. In each case the staff was inexperienced and inadequately equipped; both deaths could have been prevented with basic precautions.

"In those days," says Larry Wells, a onetime BYU student who currently directs an exemplary program called Wilderness ConQuest, "the staff at these programs received almost no training in things like logistics or safety. Because we were doing 'God's work,' there was a strong belief that God would look after everybody." The deaths served as a wake-up call. BYU brought Wells in to overhaul its program and establish new safety standards.

Despite such reforms, deadly mishaps continued. In the mideighties, a 13-year-old boy fell from a cliff to his death while enrolled in a course run by the Idaho-based School for Urban and Wilderness Survival. Vision Quest, a notorious Arizona-based program that is still in business, began racking up accident deaths that to date reportedly total 16. Many of the wilderness schools that proliferated in these years specialized in the rehabilitation of wayward teenagers. By and large, however, none of the commercial programs made much money until Steve Cartisano burst onto the scene in 1987. Applying the full brunt of his marketing genius, he transformed a marginally solvent industry into a cash cow.

Cartisano, who turned 40 in August, joined the air force in 1974 and was made an instructor at the prestigious Fairchild Air Force Base Survival School. Later he became a parajumper with the elite 129th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Group. While in the service, he became close friends with a Mormon airman and converted to the faith. Soon thereafter he moved to Utah and enrolled at BYU. There he studied film and wrote a screenplay about the exploits of a crack air force rescue squad whose hero was a part-Italian, part-Cherokee Mormon adventurer named Steve Montana. Cartisano never made it to Hollywood, nor did he earn a BYU degree, but while on campus he worked briefly as an instructor in one of the school's wilderness courses and thereby found his calling.

After leaving school, Cartisano decided to launch his own commercial wilderness-therapy school. Toward that end he hired Doug Nelson--who had directed the BYU wilderness programs for many years and founded the Boulder Outdoor Survival School--as a consultant. "Steve told me he was going to charge $9,000 for a two-month course," Nelson recalls. "At the time, most commercial programs were charging something like $500 for a 30-day experience, and I told Steve there was no way anyone was going to pay that kind of money."

Horsehair was Lance Paul Jaggar, an air force vet who served as Cartisano's field director. He and another devout Mormon, Bill Henry--an Idaho acquaintance of Larry Dean Olsen's who had been active in Scouting--supervised daily operations out of Escalante, allowing Cartisano to concentrate on marketing from his Provo-area home, a lavish residence that previously had been owned by golfer Billy Casper.

A brilliant promoter, Cartisano persuaded his "good friend" Oliver North to put in an appearance during his Iran-Contra notoriety and hired a publicist who booked him on Donahue, Sally Jesse Raphael, and Geraldo. "All the big talk shows," Cartisano boasts. "They loved me. I'd go on TV with kids who'd been through the program, these beautiful 14- to 15-year-old girls who'd talk about how they'd been out on the street stealing and doing drugs and turning tricks until Challenger changed their ways."

In the aftermath [of Kristin Chase's death], the state of Utah resolved to monitor the wilderness-therapy industry more closely. Many concerned individuals, including Doug Nelson and Larry Wells, came forward to help draft a set of strict regulations.   :roflmao: Prominent among the would-be reformers were Lance Jaggar and Bill Henry, who zealously decried the abuses of their former employer. In short order, they submitted the necessary paperwork to start their own wilderness-therapy program and in October 1990 were granted a license to operate in Utah. Three months after the death of Kristin Chase, the two individuals considered by many to be most responsible for the tragedy were back in business. They called their new enterprise North Star Expeditions Inc.

By the time Challenger, minus Cartisano, had turned into North Star (the name changed, but most of the key personnel remained the same), the company was tightly woven into the civic fabric. When felony charges were filed in connection with Bacon's death, the local Mormon church provided financial assistance to some of the defendants, and Escalante closed ranks to support the beleaguered corporation.

Responsibility for enforcing the regulations, however, fell to a lone civil servant, Ken Stettler, who was supposed to monitor more than 100 youth-treatment companies statewide. In practice, it was impossible for him to ride herd on so many programs, and North Star was among those that escaped close scrutiny. Stettler, a devoted Mormon, knew Jaggar and Henry well and says that he trusted them, as fellow Saints, implicitly. After Bacon's death, Stettler's confidence in Jaggar and Henry remained steadfast. He quickly cleared North Star of any wrongdoing and allowed the program to stay in business--which it did for six months, until the state of Utah filed criminal charges in October 1994.

In reality, North Star operated as Challenger had. Food was strictly rationed. Students were deprived of provisions, sleeping bags, and shelter as a matter of course. The counselors were poorly paid and had little training. There was one credentialed therapist on the payroll--David Jensen, a clinical social worker--but Bacon saw him only once. Therapy at North Star consisted almost exclusively of intimidation, deprivation, and military-style discipline.

Anasazi's methods are rooted in the Mormon principle of "agency," the idea that "God will force no man to heaven." According to this precept, righteous behavior cannot be coerced. It has to be a conscious choice. "We don't lay a lot of rules on these kids," explains Elizabeth Peterson, an irrepressibly upbeat 20-year-old counselor. "If they insist on smuggling in contraband, they can, but we explain that they won't start to make progress until they choose to turn over their drugs. The whole program is based on trust. Without it, there's really no point in even doing this."

This approach works at Anasazi in part because Anasazi turns away students who might not be disqualified from other programs: kids who exhibit violent behavior, for example. Still, many of Anasazi's clients are deeply troubled, and Anasazi is no holiday. Students march hard, sleep on rocky ground, and once a week receive a 15-pound food bag containing staples like cornmeal, flour, and lentils. The daily ration of 2,000 calories is extremely lean, and if a kid consumes it early in the week, he or she has to subsist on wild plants, lizards, and bugs. The Anasazi students I met looked healthy, but food monopolized their fantasies.

At least from what I could see, the Anasazi staff manages to impose discipline without making threats. Larry Dean Olsen, Anasazi's founder, calls intimidation "Satan's tactic." There are, he says, "only two ways you can help a kid. Love him and love him some more. You've got to guide him gently and prayerfully to the right path." As Olsen's words suggest, religious dogma is an integral part of the Anasazi curriculum. While such indoctrination raises questions about the program's effectiveness in treating kids from outside the Mormon community, on the surface, at least, Anasazi appears to work.