GC&SU students get high with Venture Out

Ever since I saw “Vertical Limit,” a movie with Chris O’Donnnell about climbing mountains in extreme snow and ice, I have wanted to go rock climbing- just without all the icy deaths.

Venture Out, the Student Activities program that allows GC&SU students to go rock climbing, backpacking, skydiving and spelunking, took a group of 17 students to Sandrock, Ala. for a rock climbing experience.

The 15 passenger van, mini-van and truck used to carry the crew were loaded up on Oct. 21 with students and their backpacks for the four hour drive to Sandrock.

When we got there, it was about 11:30 p.m., so we set up camp and hit the mummy bags.

The next morning we got an early start with some delicious pancakes for breakfast. We started getting our gear together and headed to the various sites the facilitators set up by bolting anchors into the top of the rocks and attaching the ropes to the anchors.

Before we did anything else, we practiced bouldering, moving horizontally across the rocks instead of actually climbing up. No ropes are used because everyone has a spotter, and you always make sure you don’t go higher than your spotter’s shoulders.

After bouldering for a while and after figuring out my harness, I hooked myself to the rope installed by a facilitator and started climbing.

Of course, this was only after yelling the commands, “belay on” and “climbing.” These let the belayer and you communicate so that you don’t fall and die (like the guys in “Vertical Limit”).

For those not in the know, the belayer is the person who holds the ropes that you are attached to, making sure that you never actually fall.

After that first time of actually climbing to the top, I was addicted. There is just something great about being at the top of a huge rock. It hasn’t just been climbed- it’s been conquered.

The majority of the day, we took turns on four or five different sites, climbing and then repelling down.

At Sandrock there are many different climbing options for different levels of climbers.

One site was so difficult that only the outdoor education facilitators could master it, and of course, Annie Geminder, Trey Brown and Anthony Green, who are more experienced climbers.

Geminder is a nursing major who got interested in rock climbing a year ago.

Inspired by the weekly wall climbing sessions at the Centennial Center, she went home in the summer and actually built a rock wall in her room to practice on.

“I got really interested in rock climbing, and I wasn’t getting enough climbing because the rock wall at centennial was only open one day a week,” Geminder said. “So I had a friend back home help me build a rock wall in my house. So that’s what I did over last Christmas break and over the summer.”

Geminder has now perfected an amazing rock climbing move that I like to call the “Geminder” (clever, I know). The move is a kind of jump and swing (technical climbing terms) that I was determined to try before I left Sandrock.

All I can say is I tried it. Thank goodness for trustworthy facilitators and their anchored ropes.

The rocks we were climbing were about 20 to 30 feet high. One graduate student, Amanda Hall, has a slightly more than normal fear of heights.

“I had fun even though I was scared of heights,” Hall said. “When I made it to the top, I just didn’t look down.”

Hall also said there was a trust issue with the belayer that she had to work out.

Mike Pletsch was the graduate assistant for Venture Out last year. Although he is working at Georgia Tech this year, he comes back to lend his assistance with Venture Out trips.

Pletsch said they were “unable to get a grad student for the Venture Out program this fall, so they asked if I would come back to help with the trips, and I said okay.”

Out of 17 participants, only two were actual outdoor education majors. This goes to show that you don’t have to be in the major to enjoy programs like this; anyone can come and have fun.

Making new friends is one of the greatest benefits of Venture Out trips. The camaraderie shared between 15 people willing to not change their clothes for a weekend (oh, maybe that was only Natalee Mayo and I) is hard to find.

Anthony, a senior majoring in economics, came on the trip not knowing a single person.

“I didn’t know anyone before this trip, but I wasn’t worried because usually people that enjoy the outdoors are very friendly and get along very well. And we have similar interests, so I figured we would make fast friends, and we did,” Anthony said.

Hanging out on a Venture Out trip and living in the woods for two days brings people together in ways that other programs simply cannot offer.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Dec 2 2005. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry