All News

This is part II of the story of the Hamilton Outing Club's adventure in Ecuador over winter break.  The group hikes across the paramo (high altitude Andean grasslands)  and visits Piñan, a secluded village.

The Hamilton Outing Club spent three weeks of winter break making their sixth trip to the mountains of Ecuador. Ecuador has more ecosystems than any other country in the world, and the nine members of the group visited many of them, from the Amazon rainforest all the way up to glaciated, volcanic peaks. Dani Forshay ’11 was among the students on the trip, and over the course of four entries will share her impressions and memories.

Editor's Note:  As four students prepare to head out on this year’s winter camping seminar in the Adirondacks, we share Hamilton Outing Club officer Kathryn Steck’s ’12 recollection of last year’s trip. This originally appeared in Adirondack Adventurer, Hamilton Outdoor Leadership Program, a Year in Review.

On Oct. 8, HOC leader James Otey '11 did the first ascent of a longstanding rock climbing project in the town of Little Falls, which he named "Arete Style Dysfunction." The route, which is now the most difficult rock climb in central New York (5.13a), took Otey about  five days of effort.

On Oct. 8-10 members of the Hamilton Outing Club (HOC) attempted their annual goal of having at least one member of the Hamilton community atop each of the Adirondack 46 peaks. The High Peaks, in Essex and Franklin counties, are the 46 Adirondack Mountains that were traditionally believed to be higher than 4,000 feet, though surveying ultimately showed that four did not reach that height.

Four Hamilton students recently went on a “graduation” trip to the Adirondacks to complete the last step in their process to become a Hamilton Outing Club (HOC) Trip leader.

With the help of 18 metal spikes sticking out of their hands and feet, Hamilton students scaled 30-foot frozen waterfalls last weekend.

The Banff Mountain Film Festival will take place at Hamilton on Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 7 p.m., in the KJ Aud. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The Banff Festival is a collection of outdoor adventure and mountain culture films. Watch everything from skiing, rock climbing and canoeing to ice climbing, unicycling, and sliding. Tickets are $8 for the Hamilton community, $12 for the public.

Over the past month more than 40 Hamilton students participated in a Wilderness First Aid Certification course offered through the Hamilton Outing Club (HOC) with the outdoor leadership and safety school SOLO, Stonehearth Open Learning Opportunities. HOC offered students the opportunity to take the class, a two-day, 16-hour course, over two weekends in October in the Glen House.

A week after an impressive attempt at conquering the Adirondack High Peaks during the annual 46 Peaks Weekend, Hamilton Outing Club (HOC) members have not tired. Over this recent fall break six tenacious students braved icy slopes and sore feet during a four-day assault of some of the highest mountains in New York State.