Learning Latin while hiking the Wyoming mountains

Every year, over eight million people visit Wyoming for vacation and tourism, enjoying hiking, fishing, and wildlife sightseeing across the state. Yellowstone Park is a special draw. And, every year also sees Catholic Latin lovers travel to various spoken Latin immersion programs such as those run by the Veterum Sapientiae Institute.

But what if vacationing in the wild beauty of the Wyoming mountains could be combined with studying Latin?

Professors Scott Olsson and Eugene Hamilton, instructors of Latin at Wyoming Catholic College, want to try that very idea. All the liberal arts students at their college study Latin, and all of them go backpacking. Since 2016, COR expeditions have offered the broader public the possibility of wilderness expeditions, and as of this August, a week-long course in Latin—called Iter Montanum—combined with backpacking will be open to anyone.

Olsson explains that the main audience for the expedition is Latin teachers, whether at the high school or collegiate level, as well as classics majors from graduate programs. He also envisions more advanced highschool and college students, with clergy and seminarians being potential participants.

The teaching model will be immersion. “I don’t know of a better way of learning and activating the language,” Olsson says. “It’s clear to me that while you learn by reading, there is nothing like needful communication to cement words in your mind.” He distinguishes between the words he “really knows” and ones he just “recognises.” As you begin to use spontaneously more and more grammar and vocabulary, more of your Latin knowledge passes from simply recognised to “really known.” “You can just feel your Latin growing,” he says, “and its structures coming into usefulness when you have to use them.”

Jeremy Holmes, Wyoming Catholic’s academic dean, likens the difference between speaking Latin and simply learning its grammar from a book to playing the piano. “If I’m playing the piano and try to think about my fingers–all of a sudden I can’t play anymore. In general, gaining great facility involves taking what used to be in the foreground and absorbing it so deeply that I don’t see it anymore.”

Taking the theory of grammar and using it makes you “forget” it, even as you begin implementing the grammar more and more. “I can remember the first time I read something and didn’t realize I was doing it in Latin,” Holmes recalled. Holmes began speaking Latin after he was already proficient in reading scholastic Latin. In the spoken context, Holmes was able to experience the language not as “the thing you are thinking about, but the thing you are thinking with.”

The backpacking itinerary will take the group through parts of the Wind River mountains surrounding Lander, Wyoming. The “Winds,” as the range’s name is often abbreviated, is a branch of the Rocky Mountains. Home to Gannett peak, which at 13,802 ft is the highest in Wyoming, the Winds contain over 40 named peaks 13,000 feet or higher. Composed of granite, these mountains were heavily carved during the ice age, leaving numerous lakes and cirques, or circular valleys. Glaciers, including some of the largest in the whole of the Rocky Mountains, contribute along with snowmelt to headwaters for several important rivers, including the Green River. Pine forests alternate with lush alpine meadows watered by snowmelt.

The Iter Montanum includes an orientation, training, and gear packing day, before the group—with two Latin instructors, and two of COR’s outdoor guides (themselves Latin speakers)—begins their hiking and camping itinerary, covering 4 to 8 miles a day. With gear, food, and tents, each student’s pack will weigh 35 to 45 pounds.

“The thing about the backcountry is that there is no fake communication,” Olsson explains. Unlike a Latin immersion workshop, there are no pretend activities. “Our shared life demands real conversation, to set up tents, make breakfast, navigate to a new location, or even just safely go to the bathroom.”

Communication has that much more urgency to it: “If we don’t understand each other, dinner will taste horrible.” Olsson explains that another helpful aspect of the trip is that the same activities will be repeated many times: you have to find a campsite every evening, cook and hike every day. This allows one to solidify vocabulary surrounding these common activities.

Moreover, life is simple when camping, and you can talk about the whole world in front of you: rocks, trees, tents, bowls, shoes, sore feet. Unlike the artificial “front country,” where many things exist that are not part of the native Latin vocabulary (such as cars, computers, and soda pop), Holmes believes you speak Latin more easily and authentically in the woods.

Is any experience required? Hamilton, chair of the Latin program at Wyoming Catholic, thinks that it is best if participants have already had about two years of Latin study, although it need not be immersion: he encourages people to reach out with any questions, whether about their level of Latin or physical fitness for the excursion.

Of special interest to student participants, the Iter Montanum can count as a one credit course, and if participants complete a little extra work before and after, they can be granted two credits in Latin. Since they are granted by the College, they are fully accredited credits, acceptable at any college or university in the country.

Hamilton has this to share: “In itinere erit Latinitas, amicitia, et amoenitas naturalis—tam utile quam jucundum.” Which might be rendered, “Our trip will involve Latinity, friendship, and the beauties of nature—how useful and enjoyable!”

Says Holmes, “We are excited to open up to a wider audience this Latin adventure in the mountainous beauty of Wyoming.”