November 5, 2003

Update, Nov. 6: View the Evening Magazine episode featuring the Ft. Miley Ropes Course online. Got to the Evening Magazine Web site and click on the "video" button that's next to "Wed. 11/5." The course is featured throughout the show so make sure to click on each of the segments to see Malou Nubla and Mike Rowe at Ft. Miley.

Hosts Malou Nubla, an alum ('91, broadcast and electronic arts), and Mike Rowe put aside their fears and climbed up to 25-feet in the air, supported by little more than harnesses and ropes held by students from Galileo High School in San Francisco.

Ropes courses were first developed during World War II to help newly assigned troops work together more effectively. Today, the Ft. Miley course -- made with steel cables, forged bolts and state-of-the-art safety systems -- has replaced the traditional ropes strung from trees. Yet the goal is still the same: to build self-esteem and confidence and to promote mutual support, trust and collaboration.

Since 1980, about 18,000 Bay Area residents –- many of them at-risk or underserved youth -– have completed the ropes course operated through the Pacific Leadership Institute within the Recreation and Leisure Studies Department. About 25 Galileo students spend two days a week at the ropes course as part of a special program where the teen-agers study outside a traditional classroom setting by taking part in challenging experiential curriculum.

The Evening Magazine pair shot the segment on a warm sunny day in late October -- sweating bullets as they successfully completed a series of courses that found them high in the air holding onto little more than each other and the ropes.

"How do we get down?" Nubla asked after finishing a challenge.

In one scene Rowe climbs a pole about 25-feet in the air. On top of the pole is a small round platform –- less than a foot wide. He attempts to stand up on the platform with both feet and reach out to touch a plastic ball dangling a few feet away.

"Are you getting scared?" asked one student standing below.

"I was scared when I showed up today," quipped Rowe. "Now I’m just trying to live."

Check out Evening Magazine tonight to find out if Rowe is successful in grabbing the ball.

-- Christina Holmes

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Last modified November 5, 2003, by the Office of Public Affairs