<p>PWILD takes 80 freshmen each summer and for this coming August I believe we have tentatively 48 staffers (a lot doing trail discovery, medical response, and manning the climbing rock / base camp, not spending the whole time with freshmen). PWILD breaks 100 every year consistently nowadays, size-wise. After August I probably knew about half of the August people by name and 2/3rds of the rest by face - after the spring break trip, the ones that had kept around PWILD were pretty much all my friends to some degree or another.</p>
<p>Another thing that sorta encourages those bonds isn't just spending 2 weeks in the forest, but it's also the fact it's the forest. No outsiders, so to speak, and little to do but get to know your fellow man and woman and enjoy nature. Outside of the hiking, eating, and sleeping, probably almost all of the remaining time goes into teamwork games and storytelling circles and other things to get people to know each other better. From the psychological standpoint there's probably a tiny bit of partial capture bonding going on, because everyone's going through a fun but challenging experience, and sharing that challenge and the risks involved creates a pretty strong bond itself.</p>