News

The Hamilton Outing Club recently brought the 10th annual installment of the Reel Rock Film Tour to campus. Reel Rock is a traveling film festival showcasing some of the year’s most outstanding feats of rock climbing and climbing cinematography.

Fall Break gave the leaders and members of the Hamilton Outing Club a spectacular opportunity to get out and enjoy many different beautiful wilderness areas and outdoor activities. The four-day vacation (Oct. 14-18) saw trips go as far as Virginia’s Shenandoah Mountains and Maine’s Casco Bay, taking advantage of all that the East Coast has to offer in the way of outdoors activities.

Over the past month the officers and experienced leaders of the Hamilton Outing Club (HOC) have taken on the task of giving 35 new leaders the training that they need to lead trips for HOC. Student leaders are the heart of HOC and are responsible for leading almost all of the trips that go out during the school year -- ranging from easy day hikes in the Adirondacks to longer trips further afield during breaks.

For the past two decades, the Hamilton Outing Club has designated one fall weekend as 46 Peaks Weekend. The goal:  to put at least one Hamilton student on the summit of each and every one of the 46 mountains in the Adirondacks that are above 4,000 feet in elevation. This past weekend (Sept. 25-27) HOC succeeded in accomplishing this goal for the second time ever -- marking two years in a row that this achievement has been made.

Each September hundreds of paddlers take to the Adirondacks to paddle in the Adirondack Canoe Classic, also known as “The 90-Miler” or just “The 90.” For the past five years a dedicated group of Hamilton students have joined them and this year saw the College well represented with seven boats of Hamilton students entering into the race. Jillian Donze ’17 and Maggie Smith ’17 came in third in the women’s C2 Stock Class.

A group of Hamilton Outing Club members led by Emma Reynolds and Madison Atterbury, both ’17, took to the Adirondacks for a sunrise hike of Cascade Mountain on May 1 and 2.

A group of 20 students and staff from Hamilton College attended the annual Northeast Regional Conference of the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) in Becket, Mass., from April 17-19. The weekend was packed with games, workshops, speeches and countless opportunities to interact with and learn from educators from across the Northeast.

Although campus was empty, the Hamilton Outing Club was very active during Spring Break. Over the course of two weeks HOC trips visited far-flung places from Mt. Katahdin in Maine to the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.

A group of Hamilton students took advantage of beautiful weather and stellar snow conditions to tackle the 12-mile long Avalanche Pass Backcountry Ski Trail in the Adirondack High Peaks with the Hamilton Outing Club on Feb. 28. Complete with stunning backcountry views and exhilarating descents, the trail is an East Coast gem that holds a place on many skiers’ to-do lists.

The Hamilton Outing Club hosted a screening of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, an annual showcase of some of the best films related to outdoor activities and high-adrenaline sports. Playing to a packed crowd in the KJ Auditorium, the showing brought together a large crowd consisting of Hamilton students as well as many local outdoor enthusiasts.