Lander, WY – In addition to the long-running and extremely popular fall-break Outdoor Week trip option of “Lander Frontcountry Backpacking, Wyoming Catholic College is adding a second trip option for students who wish to remain close to civilization and still have epic adventures at the same time. Not just located within Lander, WY but in fact entirely within the school’s own campus, the trip called “Lander Climbing”, will be an intensive week-long exploratory tour of WCC’s own buildings.
“People often talk about the outdoors being something special, giving you something you can’t get elsewhere. But that’s all hooey about nothing,” says sophomore Rodney Rathbone who’s leading the trip. “We all learned in Field Science how Lander was all in some wilderness or something millions of years ago. I’d say it’s just about the same nowadays, especially when the internet doesn’t work, or when Frassati Hall’s closed, or when nobody else is around. There’s plenty you can do that’s just as cool as driving twelve hours to walk around somewhere with a weight on your back for a week or even climb on some rocks.”
Rather, this trip will simply have students explore buildings on and neighboring WCC’s campus, practicing rappelling from the top of the Baldwin Building and some of the dormitories, climbing outside and inside nearly all buildings, and “lots of exploring the crawlspaces” according to Rodney.
Unlike other Fall Break trips, “Lander Climbing” won’t have any additional cost to students, something that’s already making it an extremely popular option, especially to freshmen. Senior Marcus Gardner of Virginia, however, as well as several other upperclassmen have “been waiting for an opportunity like this to come for a long time” and, for Marcus in particular, are also excited “to finally have a chance to see and enjoy Lander.”
No paperwork will be required for the trip as well, as “living in the moment without having planned anything in advance is really a great way to work on the virtue of prudence” according to Dr. Mark Remmiz, head of the school’s Outdoor Leadership Program. “Although it took me a little while to be convinced about the idea of urban climbing, WCC is trying to become a little more open to innovation,” he added. “So we’re at least trying it out this year.”
26 students have signed up for Lander Climbing this year, making it already the most popular trip after regular climbing. 2020 graduates Keegan, Ryan, and Ian are rumored to be returning to assist as technical instructors while Rodney also promises, with little elaboration, that his trip “may even feature more advanced and multi-pitch climbing at other places around Lander, like Safeway, the airport, the Millhouse, and NOLS.
Students on the trip won’t have to worry about sleeping in tents, cooking on camp-stoves, or any of those other little annoyances, “having the time” according to the trip’s co-lead sophomore Jacinta Rioux, “to focus on the more important stuff like experiential learning, far-transfer, experiential far-transfer, and integral DOE experiences that are really at the core of the whole purpose of the OLP.”