Hiking Ecuador
The Wilderness Program gears up for a winter excursion

Carolyn Smith | staff writer

This January Todd Wright, Wilderness Program director, will be taking students and faculty on mountaineering and whitewater expeditions in Ecuador.

A new venture

The Wilderness Program is taking two trips to Ecuador the first week of January, one for mountaineering and the other for whitewater kayaking.

A student climbs at Joshua Tree National Park. Photo courtesy of the Wilderness Program.

The whitewater kayaking trip will last six to seven days while the mountaineering trip will last 12 days, Wilderness Program assistant director Eben Widlund says.

The Wilderness Program provides many of these trips during the spring, winter, and summer breaks, and during the weekends throughout the school year, Widlund says.

“Our job is to provide local programming during the semester,” Widlund says. “We’ve been providing students with opportunities over long breaks where they might not otherwise go to.”

Students enjoy taking these trips, because it gives them the opportunity to do things you cannot do in Vermont, Widlund says.

Students who go to Ecuador this winter will spend their trip either whitewater kayaking in the jungle, or climbing a series of five or six volcanic peaks, he says.

Past expereince

Last spring break, 10 students went to Joshua Tree National Park in southeastern California to rock climb for six days as part of the Wilderness Program.

Dan Sandberg, a junior and Wilderness Program leader, was impressed with the trip last spring.

“It’s the most amazing place to rock climb that I’ve been to,” he says.

For students who went to Joshua Tree there was no experience required. The Ecuador trip however, requires some experience.

Wilderness club members on a mountaineering excursion. Photo courtesy of the Wilderness Program

The students in the whitewater expedition prepare for the kayaking adventure by coming to school a few days early to participate in training clinics to increase their paddling skills, Sandberg says. Students on the mountaineering expedition must have a strong physical fitness, he says.

There are some people on the Ecuador trip who have not had much kayaking experience, Sandberg says. However, the trip is a reward for all the hard work students will do to prepare.

Sandberg says that the trip should also be fun because the Wilderness club knows each other so well.

“We have spent a lot of time together, so the group already is pretty close,” Sandberg says.

Sandberg is going to Ecuador as part of the whitewater expedition trip.

Junior Brittany Felgate says she is nervous around water, but is going on the Ecuador trip as a part of the whitewater expedition.

“This is going to test personally my boundaries that I’ve set for myself,” she says. “I am looking forward to doing something that is a little bit out of my comfort level.”

A cheap date

The Wilderness Program provides trips as an opportunity for students to experience what they normally would not be able to for a cheaper price, Widlund says.

An equivalent trip to Ecuador is $2,500 without airfare, Widlund says. The Ecuador trip through the Wilderness program costs $1,900, which includes airfare, food, permit and guiding fees. These trips also help to culture students, he says.

A Wilderness Program student climbs at Joshua Tree. Photo courtesy of the Wilderness Program

“In a lot of ways, it’s similar to the effects of students studying abroad,” Widlund says.

According to Widlund, these trips expose students to new places and activities that provide students with many cultural opportunities.

"Some people have not been out of the country," Sandberg says. "It is a cool experience to kayak in a different country."

Felgate agrees, saying that it's a great experience to see other cultures.

The Wilderness Program is planning trips for the future, which include an Idaho rafting trip, a paddling trip to Wales in summer 2009, and a backpacking trip through the Grand Canyon this spring break, Widlund says.

There will also continue to be many weekend trips including hiking, snowshoeing, ice climbing, whitewater kayaking and more.