Winter is coming, and Outdoor Program is ready to help the UW community enjoy all the outdoor activities.
Outdoor Program is a part of Campus Recreation and is meant to promote outdoor sport activities to the UW community. It provides students and faculty an opportunity to get involved with outdoor sports, such as rafting, climbing, skiing, kayaking, snowboarding and backpacking.
With the winter approaching, the Outdoor Program is preparing for the copious amount of outdoor activities available in this region.
“Outdoor Program is a great opportunity for UW community to have a high-grade outdoor experience. I think, it is very important to do outdoor sports, such as backpacking and rafting in the summer and skiing or snowshoeing in the winter,” climbing amateur, Ryan Collins said. “The land of Wyoming gives people a chance to become a part of the nature. And we should use it as much as possible.”
The indoor climbing wall, the rental/resource center, leadership development along with seasonal outings, clinics and programs are all areas of operation that the Outdoor Program focuses on.
“We are here to provide services for students on campus, faculty and staff,” graduate assistant at OP, Nichole Lumadue said. “Outdoor Program basically facilitates educational opportunities. We’ve got our seasonal rentals. We’ve got our trips and clinics, that we lead. The climbing wall also operates through our program. And then we also offer freshmen orientationally opportunities.”
Among other upcoming events there is a Friday Night Bouldering Series, which is a low-key climbing competition Nov. 17, and an Avalanche rescue beacon clinic, which is a workshop on the beacon use and avalanche rescue principles Nov. 28.
“We make our trips and clinics, which are updated every semester. We’ve got our educational opportunities, which include outdoor leadership programs, when students can take a class to become more knowledgeable in this specific kind of leadership,” Lumadue said. “We’ve got our climbing wall, which not only offers space to go rock climbing, but also provides clinics on fundamentals of this sport. We are very happy to have just added rock setting clinic. We also have our maintenance area for bikes, skis, snowboards, which gives students, faculty and staff an opportunity to come and fix their gear, or visit the workshops on how to do that.”
Before the beginning of the winter season OP prepared winter sports gear for rentals, and updated their equipment with new cross-country skis.
“In the winter time we offer season rentals for ski packages and avalanche packages,” Lumadue said. “We have day and weekend rentals for such gear, as snowshoes, split boards and ice climbing equipment. It’s heavily utilized by students and faculty.”
