Bachendri Pal with other TSAF members during the training near Uttarkashi. (Below) TSAF secretary PP Kapadia with senior instructor Iris Saxer. Telegraph pictures

Jamshedpur, Jan. 9: Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) has tied up with US-based National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in an effort to benchmark its outdoor leadership programme in the Himalayas.

A nine-member team from the foundation recently underwent 10 days of special training from a senior NOLS instructor at Uttraon base camp near Uttarkashi.

The TSAF had invited Iris Saxer, a senior instructor of NOLS and Shantanu Pandit, who looks after the school’s India operations, to conduct the programme after city-based TSAF shifted gears to institutionalise its outdoor leadership programme.

Speaking to The Telegraph, ace climber and TSAF head Bachendri Pal said the training was a unique experience that helped members learn new aspects of leadership qualities. “Though we had been conducting this programme in the Himalayas for quite some time, Saxer’s tips gave us a completely new dimension,” she admitted.

Pal said that TSAF wanted people to take outdoor activities seriously. “We linked up with the US body to benchmark our outdoor leadership programme. The participants of our programmes will certainly benefit a lot as we can now pass on the tips given to us by Saxer and Pandit,” she said.

Besides Pal, other members of TSAF who attended the training programme included P.P. Kapadia, Rajender Pal, Pratim Bhowmick, Navindra Singh Pawar, L Annapurna, Susan Mahto, Arvind Sherpa and Sandip Tolia.

Barring Kapadia, who is secretary of TSAF, other instructors were already at Uttraon, conducting outdoor development programmes for New Delhi Power Limited.

Recounting the experience, Kapadia said Saxer shed light on four aspects — designated leadership, active followership, peer leadership and self leadership.

Besides, the US instructor also provided details about other skills that were required — expedition behaviour, competence, communication, tolerance for adversity and uncertainty, judgment and decision making, self awareness, vision and action, he added.

According to Pal, TSAF would continue to get more feedback from the US school, which has several high profile clients, including NASA.

“It is a world class school. We are happy to learn something from a person of Saxer’s experience. We also have plans to learn risk management skills from NOLS. Right now, we are trying to implement whatever we went through during the 10-day training programme in the Himalayas,” she added.