Members of the Carolina Mountaineering and White-Water Club have been trekking trails and conquering rapids for 50 years now.
The Carolina Mountaineering and White-Water Club's members share a connection with nature and the outdoors. This year, they are celebrating 50 years of taking USC students on outdoor adventures.
They currently have more than 200 members who meet once a week, club Secretary Zak Cook said. The club hosts trips every weekend, with some day trips and some overnight trips. Activities can range anywhere from caving to mountain climbing. The club also welcomes all levels of outdoor experience, according to their website.
“I think the main motivation is helping students find that spiritual connection with the outdoors,” Club President Chloe Sligh said. “Being in a city, even though it's a small city can distract you from the simple things in life, and I believe that getting outside helps you ground yourself again.”
Being around others on their trips, Sligh said, helps to cultivate their sense of community and find love for both nature and those around them.
The club's outings recently included trips to Linville Gorge in North Carolina, Botany Bay in South Carolina and Wildwater in South Carolina, Cook said. These trips work to ground the group as a whole, Sligh said.
“Even before we knew it was the fiftieth anniversary, we were already working towards grounding our group again,” Sligh said. “I think that’s gonna be the main celebration.”
The club has been funded solely by student dues and fundraising since its founding. Despite this, the club continues to flourish and supply its members with essential gear they may not have, Sligh said.
“We run like four to five trips every weekend... all officers on the trip lead then we have our other duties,” Cook said. “It's a full-time job.”
The main reason for the club’s prolonged success is the community that is created by its members, Cook said. And not all of the club members have to be pros.
"A lot of the people that go on our trips are not necessarily experienced," Cook said. "A lot of the people are like, 'I've never done this before'."
The club hosts potlucks as weekly community get-togethers before their weekend-long trips. They keep the spirit of community alive and are key in retaining the club's membership over the years, Cook said.
The club's officers prioritize teaching the club's members skills needed to survive in nature, such as how to build a fire, how to deal with poison ivy and other survival skills, said Education and Outreach Officer Alyssa Rend.
"Education takes the time to explain certain things to kids before we go on camping trips," Rend said. "Specifically how to use the restroom in the woods, how to build a fire, what plants you can and can't eat."
Rend said the club hosts classes, such as yoga classes. These classes may seem unrelated to mountaineering but help prevent members from hurting themselves on trips. They teach the club's members to stretch their muscles to prevent damage to them on long hikes and climbing expeditions.
The club teaches the crucial skills needed to survive in the wilderness. But their trips, especially the hardcore ones, give members the confidence to physically and mentally push themselves. Hardcore trips are for the most experienced members and are usually lengthy hikes or daring climbs up mountains. When members overcome that hardship, they feel like they can push even more, Sligh said.
“One of my favorite parts is watching people overcome those personal boundaries, those personal limits that they have set for themselves but aren’t actually true,” Sligh said.
The club thrives on a community based in love and a spiritual connection to the outdoors. It allows people with different backgrounds and levels of experience to surround themselves with our planet's nature, according to the club website.
“The glue that holds it all together is love ... it's a shared love between the members, the trip leaders, the trees, the rivers, the mountains, the peaks, the wildlife and the entirety of the natural order,” Sligh said. “My goal is to help others reconnect with their roots just as the leaders before did for me.”
There have been some other clubs on campus that have adopted that familial community modeled by Carolina Mountaineering and White-Water Rafting, Cook said. USC's Surf Club, founded by the former vice president of Carolina Mountaineering, has adopted this practice. Cook said there's a good reason it has.
"Mountaineering has provided me such a perfect escape from all the weight and pressures here,” Cook said. "Because so much about university is about changing, it’s about growing, it’s about preparing yourself for something in the future, about your life changing.”