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Six current students, six Hamilton alumni, and four employees attended the Northeast Regional Association for Experiential Education (AEE) Conference in Becket, Mass., from April 21 to 23. The regional conference draws educators and students who use experiential methodology to engage with students and participants in and out of the classroom.

Eighteen students, faculty and staff trekked to the base camp of Annapurna in Nepal's Himalaya as an optional part of Professor Maurice Isserman's History and Literature of Himalayan Mountaineering course. Anne McGarvey '17 blogged from Nepal.

The Hamilton Outing Club held its second leader training course Nov. 5 and 6. The two-day class – in conjunction with the Wilderness First Aid course – qualifies students to lead hiking and backpacking trips.

Warm sunny weather and beautiful fall foliage made for an unforgettable fall break for members of the Hamilton Outing Club. The short vacation saw Outing Club trips hiking in the Adirondacks and sea kayaking in the Atlantic off the coast of Maine while other members used the break to tackle personal outdoors challenges throughout the Northeast.

More than 125 Hamilton students took to the High Peaks of the Adirondacks on Sept. 24 and 25 for the Outing Club’s (HOC) annual 46 Peaks Weekend.

If there was ever an internship tailor made for a student, Sam Bernstein ’17 has found it. Bernstein is a veteran Hamilton Outing Club member and leader who is interning this summer at Zoar Outdoor in Western Massachusetts. Zoar is an outdoor recreation company that offers guided whitewater rafting trips, zipline canopy tours, and whitewater kayaking and canoeing instruction for everyone from beginners to advanced paddlers.

Summer break has just begun, but Gaby Pilson ’17 has already had a memorable experience. Pilson, a member of Central Oneida County Volunteer Ambulance Corps., is a glacier guide in Seward, Alaska, this summer. An active member of the Hamilton Outing Club, she put her EMT training and outdoor leadership experience to use when she assisted in a medical rescue last week.

At opposite ends of the U.S. members of the Outing Club swam in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans during the second week of spring break.  In Big Sur, California, a stretch of land along the coast about three hours south of San Francisco, nine students waded into the frigid Pacific Ocean waters.  Thousands of miles away, on the east coast, nine other Hamilton students paddled to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, where water from seven different states meets the Atlantic Ocean.

Mountains are a “defining characteristic of American culture,” according to Maurice Isserman, the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History. He spoke about the release of his new book Continental Divide, a tale of American mountaineering, on April 7 in Glen House.

Though the winter weather in Upstate New York this year has been nothing but sporadic and unpredictable, it has not stopped the Hamilton Outing Club from getting into the woods and playing in the snow. However, since winter conditions in the Upstate region are usually much colder and snowier than fall or spring conditions, student Outing  Club leaders who have been trained to handle mild fall weather must be trained with a different skill to handle most extreme winter conditions.