Enjoying the Great Outdoors

2/14/08

By Jennifer Ingram
Critic Staff

The Lyndon Outing Club is one of the many clubs around campus that is geared towards students involved in activities and to keep them active.

Members meet every Tuesday in the Rita Bole Gym at 8 p.m. to use the climbing wall, and in the HAC lounge prior at 7 p.m.

“While the climbing wall may be popular now, it has potential to be huge,” Jameson Kneeland, House Representative and secretary of the Outing Club, said. “Because it’s so small we can have a lot of people milling around waiting to get on it. We could easily fill up a wall three times its size.”

The Outing Club is a student run club that provides opportunities for the LSC community to engage in outdoor activities and take part in what the Northeast Kingdom has to offer. It is a club that hosts activities that have to do with environmental issues. “Being a student run club it gives officers a great deal of experience in leadership positions, organizing events and budgeting,” David Coyne said. Coyne is the vice president of the Outing Club and acts as one of the trip organizers/ trip leaders.

The Outing Club takes part in many activities. Many of the activities take place off campus. However there are many activities that take place on campus.

“…We’ve got all sort of outings going on this winter/ spring,” Coyne said. “Activities that are currently being planned are swift water rescue certification course guest speakers for Earth Week. People should come to the meetings or wall to find out what’s going on,” Coyne said.

Another activity that is being tentatively planned is a college-wide climbing competition on the wall according to Kneeland.

The Outing Club have been involved in activities such as, rock climbing, ice climbing, mountaineering, hiking, backpacking, white water kayaking, canoeing, backcountry skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, mountain biking, and extreme kite flying.

In the past outings that members of the Outing Club took part in were trips to:
Mount Hor
White Mountains
Wheeler Mountain
Echo of Franconia Notch, NH
Overnight trip to Jay Peak on the Long Trail
Kayaking on the West River Whitewater in Jamaica, Vt.

The Outing Club has hosted many events such as:
The Meathead Films premier of their new east coast ski flick ‘Wanderland’.
Hosted a ski mountaineering movie from Marmot called ‘The Line’
Has hosted three gear swaps