Adventure Programs Offer a Diverse Array of Term 3 Trips
Jasper Everingham | February 9, 2023
Every year, the Adventure Programs Crew offers numerous outdoor trips and expeditions to Warren Wilson College (WWC) students. This term, Adventure Programs Crew leader Liza Thomas said they are very satisfied with the programs that have happened already and are looking forward to the ones still to come.
Thomas said that planning which trips to go on is a very important, very volunteer-driven part of the process. Anybody on the Adventure Programs Crew can lead a trip, they said, adding that trip-leading skills are part of the training one does when becoming a member of the crew.
“[Trip planning] is really where the student-led part comes in and my role as a crew leader comes in,” Thomas said. “We have this whiteboard that we’ll take to crew meetings. At the beginning of the term, we [brainstorm] ‘who wants to lead a trip this term?’ ‘Ok, you do? When do you want to lead? Where do you want to lead it?’ Then we just write it down and piece it together.”
Adventure Programs trips vary widely in terms of activity and location, Thomas said, and they added that Adventure Programs crew tries to always offer a wide selection. They said that even though individual members of the crew might have a particular inclination towards one kind of activity or another, the crew as a whole tries to keep things balanced and engaging for everyone.
“[A multi-day wilderness trip] is not what outdoor connection and playspace education has to look like,” Thomas said. “You don’t have to be one with the woods for three days straight: it’s totally fine to not want to do that. So something that we’re really working on is trying to diversify the kinds of programs that we offer.”
In keeping with that desire for diversification in program types, the Adventure Programs Crew is offering five activities spread out over the remaining three weeks of February. On Feb. 11 there is marginalized gender climbing in Pisgah National Forest. A hike and rappel also in Pisgah is being offered on Feb. 12. A hot springs hike in Hot Springs, N.C. is happening on Feb. 18. On Feb. 19 there is a bear safety workshop at Bryson Gym scheduled. There will also be paintball at a to-be-decided location happening on Feb. 25.
Jasper Schmook, a WWC first-year, went on a caving expedition to Worley’s cave on Feb. 5. He said that he enjoyed the trip, which made him aware of the possibility of becoming more involved in future Adventure Programs offerings.
“I realized it’s true with a couple of adventure programs trips I’ve been on,” Schmook said, “Where I do something new and I realize ‘oh, there are people that are really into it, there’s so much more that you can do with this.’”
Thomas added that a major emphasis of theirs is to show more people that while it is possible to get more involved in Adventure Programs activities, the barrier to the entry itself does not have to be high. They said that their biggest goal was to get as many people outside as possible, in as non-intimidating and beginner-friendly a way as possible.
“A lot of people on Adventure Programs are [Outdoor Leadership] majors,” Thomas said, “But — for me too — a big goal of mine with adventure programming is to reach those people who will never sign up for a class.”