Walking along a thin rope suspended 35 feet above the ground with nothing but a harness can be nerve-racking, but Adventure Education Coordinator James Rogers sees it as part of the challenge.
The UREC’s Adventure Education program held an Open Challenge Course on Jan. 13, welcoming any University student with a valid LSU ID. The event took place on the UREC’s Challenge Course, which features seven high elements ranging 20-35 feet above ground and ends with a zip line. Rogers said many students are hesitant about the course at first.
“It’s not called an easy-to-do course,” Rogers said. “It’s a challenge course. We want to challenge people.”
Rogers calls it “pre-joy.” Many students are nervous and do not want to participate in the course because of a fear of heights. However, once these students start to climb, Rogers said they push themselves a little further until they finally end up at the zip line.
“They zip down, and all of a sudden they get this feeling of joy after they do it,” he said. “They’ve seen the pre-joy, they’ve done the pre-joy and now they’ve reached the joy by completing the course.”
Rogers said most students are excited after completing the course and eager to do another challenge course. Others are happy they did the challenge but have no intentions of completing the course again, he said.
“It’s all over the board, but I’d say students have more positive than negative reactions,” Rogers said.
Computer engineering senior Daniela Hauber participated in the challenge course. Having done a challenge course before, Hauber said she was not nervous and knew she would like completing the course again. While the ropes course can make first-timers anxious, Hauber said the course is a lot of fun in the end.
“I went here each time with different people, and every time everyone enjoyed it,” Hauber said.
She came to the event with Raquel Lopez, an industrial engineering senior. Unlike Hauber, this was Lopez’s first time participating in a challenge course.
“Yes, I was nervous, but actually, I thought it was going to be easier,” Lopez said.
Most of the course requires participants to walk across tightropes with checkpoints in between the sections. Lopez said the last section, which consists of hanging beams that participants have to jump across on to reach the next one was the hardest part of the course. Although it was tough, Lopez said she still had fun.
Rogers said Adventure Education puts on these open challenge courses once a month. However, Rogers said the program also offers challenge courses for groups or organizations on campus. Groups that want to participate in the challenge course need to sign up online and Adventure Education will draw up a contract and plan the event for them, Rogers said.
Adventure Education also offers trips, clinics and rentals for University students. The program also offers a portable climbing wall that groups can rent out and have brought to events. Rogers said Adventure Education will soon hold events at the UREC’s new indoor climbing area. This climbing area features a 35-foot climbing tower and 1,200 square feet of bouldering surface.