BSA COPE Ropes Course

Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience (COPE) is one of the programs of the Boy Scouts of America. The program comprises team-building initiative games, trust events, low-course events (a challenge course on the ground, and high-course events (a challenge course suspended in the air). Some activities involve a group challenge, while others develop individual skills and agility. Participants climb, swing, balance, jump, rappel, and devise solutions to a variety of problems. Most participants achieve much more than they imagined they could.

COPE is designed to meet the needs of people of all ages who are seeking ways to challenge and expand their physical and mental abilities. As a noncompetitive program, COPE permits every participant to succeed. The group activities are ideal for enhancing the leadership and teamwork of organized groups/families/friends, and activities that challenge individuals can be used to promote self-efficacy and personal growth.

While each COPE course is unique and each person who experiences it has individual objectives, the COPE program emphasizes eight major goals: Communication, Planning, Teamwork, Trust, Leadership, Decision Making, Problem Solving, and Self-Esteem.