The Colorado University Outdoor Program (OP) is hosting many upcoming trips and opportunities for those looking to venture away from everyday life and experience the outdoors.
There are many affordable or free trips that highlight activities such as backpacking, hiking, biking and rafting. All of the trips are beginner friendly, but some are more oriented toward those with more experience.
There are two trips taking place the weekend of Aug. 31 through Sept. 1. The first is an overnight rafting trip, and the second is a backpacking excursion.
The overnight rafting trip will depart on Aug. 31. The group will put out kayaks in Colorado, and float all the way down to Utah. After staying overnight on a small island that they’ll have all to themselves, the trip continues in the morning with more floating down the river, experiencing easy rapids. The group will get home the same day. Friendly to beginners, the trip still asks that those attending be willing to learn.
“There’s a difference between an easy trip, and one where you don’t need experience,” OP Director, Ryan Dutch, said. “It’s still difficult, physically and mentally, but you don’t need experience to get started.”
The backpacking trip involves climbing up a 14,000 foot mountain. The group will backpack for a few miles, and then camp around 12,000 feet. The next morning, the group will hike again, and then head home. Another trip accessible to everyone, those who sign up should be prepared for long hikes.
“You’ll be able to see more stars than you’ve ever seen in your life when you’re camping,” Dutch said.
The Ice Lakes trip will depart the of Saturday, Sept, 14. After backpacking to a valley and camping out overnight, trip-goers will then have the opportunity on Sunday to view lakes from a 13,000 foot mountain. The Ice Lakes trip contains long distance and two full days of hiking, but no previous experience is required.
The weekend of Sept. 21-22 contains the Via Ferrata trip. “This trip will change your life,” Dutch said. “It’ll change who you are as a person. It’s just amazing.”
Another overnight excursion, this trip involves hiking up above Telluride. The group will hike horizontally rather than vertically, which means that they’ll be clipped into metal rungs that run along the side of the mountain, and have to clip their harnesses to each consecutive rung. Camping the night of the 21, the trip continues the next day.
There are more ways than just going on a trip to get involved in the Outdoor Program. There are weekday trips and activities as well.
“Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons is when we do outdoor free things. Sometimes that’s just hiking, sometimes that’s getting in the water, sometimes that’s bouldering. Sometimes it’s going rappelling, disc golfing, just getting out and doing something,” Dutch said.
The OP also offers rentals to anyone who wants to go on a trip but might not have all of the equipment needed. For all of the trips, rental costs are included in the overall cost.
“That’s another big part of this program: the rental side. So [students] can rent all the stuff they need to go camping, rafting or whatever,” Dutch said.
There are also many other trips that the OP has in the works, especially for the cooler weather coming up in Sept. and Oct.. The trips will include canyoneering, white water rafting, and the time-honored tradition of bonding over a campfire.
“[We’ll have] a lot of camping, just simple camping where you go out and do astronomy nights. We’ll look at the stars, play games, and sit around a campfire eating s’mores, [just] simple camping trips that we’ll be doing,” Dutch said.
