Outdoor Recreation Program gears up for summer

The on-campus Outdoor Recreation Program (ORP) provides a number of services to help students to safely enjoy a variety of outdoor activities.

The three main categories of support for students provided by the ORP are trips or expeditions, the rental shop and the climbing wall located in North Dome.

“For trips, our main trips over the summer are usually raft trips.  We also do expeditions, which is our first-year, orientation backpacking trips that coincide with MSU’s orientation,” said Oakley Wurzweiler, the coordinator for the rental shop.  “We have trip leaders that go out four weeks out of the summer and take first year students that are new to MSU, or going to be new, into the backcountry for backpacking.”

The hiking trips can take students to a variety of locations around Bozeman, including Storm Castle, the Little and Big Belt mountain ranges and Drinking Horse. Clinics are also offered, with bear safety clinics available in May where students can learn how to properly deploy bear spray.

Students may be most familiar with the rental shop, which allows them to rent almost any kind of outdoor equipment you could ask for.

The rental shop will be open over summer break and is located on West Lincoln Street, near Yellowstone Hall.  They offer season-long rentals like bear spray, mountain bikes and commuter bikes. The shop also features areas for students to do bike maintenance as well as ski and snowboard maintenance. 

On top of the equipment, students can find a wealth of knowledge about where to explore around Bozeman.  “We have a whole library of books in our cafe that people can rent out and a bunch of ‘What To Do Around Bozeman?’ information,” Wurzweiler said.  If someone comes in and they are new to hiking, we have hiking boots, backpacks, fleeces, rain gear, puffy jackets – anything you would need to go outdoors.”

The climbing wall in the North Dome Gym will also be available for use this summer, giving students an opportunity to either dive into climbing or refine the skills they already have.  The difficulty of the wall ranges from VB, a beginner difficulty, to V7/8, a more moderate challenge.  Portions of the wall are also reset each week, allowing climbers to consistently enjoy varying challenges. For the climbing times, the north dome schedule can be found online through the MSU website.

Whether you are an experienced outdoors person or someone looking to more casually enjoy the scenery and outdoor opportunities around Bozeman, the ORP has something to help you.  

“All of our trips, unless they specify, are beginner based so anybody can come into this space knowing a whole lot or a whole little and feel welcomed.  Myself and all of our staff want to include people,” Wurzweiler said.  “I know the outdoor industry can be really intimidating, especially in a place like Bozeman where it is so prominent, so just really encouraging people to come in and try new things.”

To learn more about the ORP, you can visit them in the rental shop or online at https://www.montana.edu/outdoorrecreation/index.html.