Facilitated discussion before, during and after experiences is widely accepted practice in the field of outdoor adventure education. Much of the literature appears to house the assumption that individual learning may be considerably restricted if participants' experiences are not processed with the help of an external facilitator, as they may not be able to make sufficiently clear connections between program activities and their daily lives on their own. This business of making clear connections between program and home is central to courses with personal and social development as their principal aim, yet this fundamental concept of transfer lacks convincing support in the literature and has been described as outdoor adventure education's Achilles' heel. It is within the broad themes of facilitation and processing that the discourse surrounding the use of metaphors as a means of helping participants make greater sense of their experiences exists. In this article, through an examination of the relevant metaphor literature, the author examines the possibilities and pitfalls of outdoor instructors using metaphors to enhance their course facilitation in non-therapeutic contexts. The title of the article is a play on the title of Stephen Bacon's seminal 1983 book, "The Conscious Use of Metaphor in Outward Bound."