This spring semester the Outdoor Program (OP) will be hosting a number of trips including cross country skiing, ice climbing, hiking and rock climbing.
There will be a trip from Feb. 22 to Feb. 23 with ice climbing at the Ouray Ice Park, camping at the Orvis Hot Springs and cross country skiing. There’s another trip on Feb. 23 that’s more beginner friendly. This trip will only last a day and will go over the basics of ice climbing. These are just some of the many opportunities the OP provides for students.
In addition to these, keep an eye out for the Spring Break trips that the OP is organizing. These are various rock climbing, canyoneering and rafting trips.
“I know that there are some pretty cool Spring Break trips in development that people are probably going to want to keep their eyes open for,” Outdoor Program student employee, Kaleb Koerner, said.
After Spring Break, the OP will be hosting more warm weather trips like hiking and rock climbing.
Students can get involved in the OP trips by going into the OP building, located on the south edge of campus next to North Avenue, and ask about the available trips. They can sign up for a trip by writing their name down on a sign-up sheet and either paying a deposit or the full price up front.
The OP offers less expensive trips for students that vary in price with each trip. The OP also offers a variety of free trips for students on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“Depending on the sport and what’s going on, whether its cross country skiing or ice climbing or rock climbing, really anywhere from twenty [dollars] to some of our more expensive trips right now just because of all of the gear with it being cold are around that ninety dollar [range] for the weekend,” Koerner said.
Information about these trips is available to students on the OP’s social media pages on Instagram and Facebook, allowing them to learn more about the trips before signing up for them.
The Outdoor Program hosted a New Moon Cross Country Skiing trip on Jan. 24 at the Grand Mesa for students to go cross country skiing at night, and CMU student Natalia Delatorre said that she had an amazing time.
“I heard the Outdoor Program was having a free New Moon Cross Country Skiing outing and I’ve never been cross country skiing, so I wanted to try it out. It was such a fun experience, everyone who went on the trip was down to earth and made the trip super memorable. We ended the night by playing […] in the snow and drank hot chocolate,” Delatorre said.
This trip was one of the many free trips the OP hosts and it allowed students to try a new sport without costing them large amounts of money to do so.
“I love cross country skiing, the Grand Mesa, and the outdoors, so I love most of the trips at the Outdoor Program. The trip was so fun and the people leading the trip did a great job of making everything run smoothly, considering there were a lot of new cross-country skiers,” CMU student, Isabella McNutt, said.
