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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.

Camping outside in January in the Northeast in a foot of snow with nothing but a foam pad and sleeping bag separating you from the cold earth might not appeal to many people.  But this past winter break, seven students braved the frigid Adirondack winter for five days in the Adirondacks High Peaks Wilderness the week before the new semester began.  This camping trip was “designed for Outing Club leaders who want to build their skill set and lead trips in a variety of conditions,” according to one of the trip’s leaders, Annie Emanuels ’16.

The Hamilton Outing Club (HOC) recently collaborated with WHCL, the college’s radio station, to present Hamilton Hum-The Great Outdoors a student storytelling event.

Author Joseph Taylor, professor of history at Simon Fraser University, visited Hamilton on Nov. 10 to deliver a lecture on “The Dawn Wall and the Golden Ages of Yosemite.”

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.