Learning the Ropes Together

They climbed and balanced and sometimes took leaps of faith 19 feet above the ground at Balboa Park, just Galpin Ford’s way of making team players out of employees in two merging departments.

And, the Great Ropes program, something of a portable outdoors challenge project, is only as hard as they make it.

“If their life is difficult, then they make the challenges difficult,” said Ellie Ryan, president of the Orange County company that held two days of rope-climbing and balancing activities for the Van Nuys car dealership. “If life is easy for them, it isn’t as much of a challenge.”

Ryan started the Great Ropes program in 1984, but unlike challenge programs in which participants go to the wilderness or an established site for team-building exercises, her challenge course was put on a trailer to move it around Southern California.

Participants wear a harness controlled by Great Ropes staff as they climb the rigging. At the top, they try to catch a trapeze hanging in the distance. Children as young as 18 months and a grandmother older than 90 have completed the challenge, Ryan said.

“They tell us to push yourself as far as you can,” said Frank Lucas, a business manager at Galpin Ford. “And when you can’t push yourself any farther, push yourself another inch.”

Galpin Ford has used similar programs before, said Becky Mello, Galpin’s customer relations manager. “It’s a lot of fun going out and seeing people in different roles,” she said.