Penn State Campus Rec is on a serious glow up, and I am a first hand beneficiary of these changes. I think that largely because of the new rules made for the Outing, Caving, and SCUBA Clubs, Campus Rec is investing a lot more money and effort into the Outdoor Adventures than ever before. From their risk management standpoint, sending kids on trips with an organization where they are in control is a lot easier to allow. Regardless, with a new office and gear storage facility in the Intramural building, Outdoor Adventures is on the up and it's coming at a perfect time for me. I am taking advantage of the amazing training and programming that my job with Outdoor Adventures allows. Over the past two weeks, I took part in an awesome skills clinic series called Gym to Crag. This clinic was a progression designed to teach you indoors about climbing skills necessary for outdoor climbing, then take it outside to practice at the local crag, Donation Rocks. A crag is an outdoor climbing area. There were 3 clinics, the first two were on Wednesdays then the third was on the following Saturday. The clinic was run and taught super well by two of my co workers. While anyone could sign up for these clinics, a few in each clinic group worked for Outdoor Adventures. 101 was how to build top rope anchors. We worked on pre equalized, self equalizing (quad), and natural anchors. This was new material for me, and I was super excited to finally be learning how to be self sufficient. 201 Was how to clean top rope anchors, then rappel down using an extended rappel with an autoblock back up. This material I knew, because I had been working on it for my climbing instructor assessment through work, but it was an awesome review and good practice. Each clinic had 6 participants and 2 instructors, which I felt was a good number. If there are too many people it's hard for each person to get enough hands on practice and instructor help if need be. Gym to Crag 301 was a day trip to Donation Rocks on a Saturday. We got the chance to practice all of our new skills including instructor tethers for anchor building, anchor building, then anchor cleaning and rappelling down. This clinic had 4 participants and 1 instructor. While one pair of participants were practicing their cleaning and rappelling, the other pair got to do a little climbing, then we switched. So it was a really fun day in all, I got to practice everything and also do a small bit of climbing. Now that I have the skills to be self sufficient, I look forward to getting my own rope and anchor kit. My overall review of this clinic series is very positive. I like the small group size and the pace of the teaching. When I am learning new skills I just want efficient teaching then time to practice and that's exactly how the program was designed. The trip to donation was an awesome confidence boost, leaving me feeling proficient in the skills I had been working on learning.I am looking forward to doing a learn to lead clinic later this week at the indoor wall.
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