When it comes to exploring and seeing the mountains in New Hampshire, the Outing Club is on top. The organization was founded in 1921 and is among the oldest running organizations on campus. Last year, the club had an estimated number of fifty-five members, and continues to gain members on a weekly basis. The club meets every Wednesday night in the Fire Place Lounge at 7:30 p.m. Oftentimes, the members who attend plan and discuss the weekend trips. There are several trips are planned in one weekend, so if you can?t go to one you won’t miss out. Some of the students even go on more than one trip a weekend. They talk about future plans while sharing conversations about what they?ve done and where they?ve been. The group was excited to hear from one another about their individual trips as well as listening to new ideas.
Senior member Chris Essock expressed that one of the club’s goals was to recruit new members and there is no experience necessary. They are always will-ing to teach people who would like to learn or try something new, and are always open to sug-gestions. If you miss a few meet-ings they are always glad to have you back, and their main goal is to have fun.
The multiple trips that occur per weekend include hiking, back packing, rock and ice climbing and some overnight trips. They even have a canoe trip planned for Spring Fling weekend. Some of the trips they have taken and plan to take again consist of day hikes to Indian Head (Mt. Pemigewasset), Mount Passaconaway and Mount Whiteface, Mount Tecumseh. as well as overnights to Mt. Chocorua and to Presiden-tial Range of the White Mountains (summitted Mount Madison, Adams, Jefferson, and Washington). They are always planning more to come.
The organiza-tion pays for all of the trips and there are no out of pocket expenses for students. They have plenty of equipment in storage, so if you decide to go on a trip and you need to borrow something you won?t need to run to the store. The students get their support by fundraising; they do this by selling Poly-Pro long sleeve shirts, and last year they had a tent at home coming, along with the help of the University.
Each year they look forward to planning and experiencing some major weekend trips. This Octo-ber they will journey to Bigelow Range of Maine from the 17th to the 19th and the Adirondacks of New York which will take place the 24th through the 26th. In order to go on any of their trips you must first hand in emergency contact in-formation for safety precautions, attend a meeting and simply sign up for that weekend trip.