Ten students pile into a van on a cold November night, headed to the New Hampshire Outing Club's cabin in Jackson, N.H., and a hiking trip in the White Mountains. They are men and women, freshmen and upperclassmen, seasoned hikers and newcomers who have never been on an Outing Club trip before. But once they are packed together in the van, none of that matters, for it is what they have in common--a love for outdoor adventure--that has brought them here. Michelle Desrosiers, a freshman marine biology major and a novice hiker, feels perfectly comfortable right away. There's not much social tension, she says, when you know that the next day you'll be "getting all sweaty together."

New Hampshire Outing Club members have been getting sweaty together since 1911, when a group of undergraduate outdoor enthusiasts sought to reduce the pressures of academia by getting off campus and into the wild on weekends like this one, which happens to fall in the midst of midterm exams. One of the university's most popular organizations, the club provides all kinds of outdoor adventures, from hiking, mountaineering, technical climbing and caving to snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, canoeing, kayaking and sailing.

Affiliated with, but not funded by, the university, the club is one of 12 volunteer-run chapters of the Appalachian Mountain Club. Membership is open to everyone in the university community--undergraduates, graduate students, continuing-education students, faculty, staff and alumni--and the price of a trip provides transportation to and from, food and unlimited access to the club's gear room. The club also owns and maintains two cabins, the one in Jackson and another at Franconia Notch, affectionately known as "Franky."

Arriving in Jackson, the students collect their gear and, with the light of a few headlamps and flashlights, make their way in the dark up the dirt road that leads to the club's small wooden cabin. They greet the cabin with the traditional club cheer, "Kah-ooh-wah!" and then hustle inside. Trip leader Corey Denton, a senior civil engineering major from Juneau, Alaska, and club president, says the origins of the cheer are obscure, but he suspects it evolved in part "to scare away any wild residents."

The cabin in Jackson is just 24 feet square, with an open first floor and a loft above with what Denton calls "ancient, derelict UNH mattresses" that serve both for sleeping and sometimes, in the winter, for sledding. The cabin is beloved by club members new and old, even though it is beginning to show its age: the foundation is weak, and the walls are supported by cables. Propane serves for lighting and cooking, and mice-proof cabinets keep food safely stored. And, of course, there is a supply of games: tonight the students play Scrabble, cards and "Big Booty," a group game that Desrosiers describes as "a good way to get to know each other by humiliating yourself."

Another good way to get to know each other is to sleep squished together on the porch, which is what the group opts to do. It's a clear night, and the appeal of stargazing outweighs the shock of the 20-degree air. Wrapped in sleeping bags and lined up, as Desrosiers says, "like a row of slugs," they watch for shooting stars, "steamroll" one another, tell scary stories of White Mountain legends and, finally, fall asleep.

The next morning they wake to the glare of the rising sun and the smell of egg sandwiches being cooked by Denton in the kitchen. The aroma lures most from their warm sleeping bags, but first-timer Lily Finnigan-Allen, a freshman studio arts major, is sent to roust out the lethargic with well-placed thumps. In the clear morning air, they don their boots, polypropylene clothing and daypacks, and set out for Mount Pierce.

The trail is a fairly easy grade, running along old horse trails built to bring travelers up to Mount Washington. They reach the summit by mid-day, and pause to take in the 360-degree vista of the Presidential Range.

Lunch, however, quickly becomes more important than admiring the view. Since they forgot to bring utensils, they eat gorp, peanut butter, hummus, pita bread and veggies with cold fingers. Nobody complains. Complaining is actually something in very short supply on club trips due to the No Discount Policy, which bans derogatory, hurtful, negative or insulting talk. The No Discount Policy, plus the No Drug and Alcohol Policy, define the attitude and philosophy of the club, and the attitude is upbeat, even when the going gets tough.

Which is just what lies ahead. Recent rain and snowfall have turned the trail to Mount Jackson into a sheet of ice, and the hikers grab trees, roots and rocks to pull themselves up the steep grade. By taking things slowly and helping each other along, they finally make it to the top. There's not much time to linger, however, as light is fading, and they have several miles to go to reach the base of the mountain before dark.

They arrive at the van just as darkness falls, feeling both exhausted and enlivened by the eight-mile hike. "Hiking makes me feel more awake than sitting in my dorm all day does," says Jan Boyer, a sophomore biology major. Trip co-leader Pat Smart '04 has been hinting about a "surprise" all day, and now he unveils it: an Oreo cake smuggled in his backpack. They dig into the cake with their bare hands, standing in the parking lot.

There are no complaints.

Shannan Goff '03 is an acquisitions editor at Arcadia Publishing in Portsmouth, N.H.

Road Map for Life

Alumni say the Outing Club taught them everything they need to know

Many UNH alumni who were members of the New Hampshire Outing Club will tell you they received two educations at UNH. One was an academic education, which was excellent, they will add. But with enthusiasm bordering on fanaticism, they will also say that everything they know about leadership, resourcefulness, self-reliance and teamwork, they learned from the Outing Club.

Deb Coles Lauman '90 distinctly remembers the first time she heard about the Appalachian Trail. She was a shy transfer student on her first trip with the club, and they were hiking along Franconia Ridge. Her trip leader said, "So, if you go that way, you can go all the way to Maine, and if you go that way, you can go all the way to Georgia.

"You're kidding," she said. "Has anyone ever hiked the whole thing?"

Ten years later, Lauman completed the entire 2,167.1 miles of the Appalachian Trail in 178 days, starting on Springer Mountain in Georgia and ending on the summit of Maine's Mount Katahdin. For Lauman, the journey led to the publication of her first novel, I. Joseph Kellerman.

"Writing and hiking for me are really companion activities," she explains. "I know where to start, I know where I'm going, but getting there is the fun part, and the challenge." While hiking, Lauman heard a story from another hiker that captured her imagination, and she began formulating a character. "I wrote at night in my tent, with my flashlight in my mouth," she says.

Although Lauman was working as a paralegal before she hiked the Appalachian Trail, she has since decided to write full-time. She credits the Outing Club with the direction her life has taken. "The Outing Club gave me a huge boost of confidence at a point in my life when I needed it most," she says. "Everything that I've learned about myself and everything I've become goes back to the Outing Club and the opportunity it gave me."

In his 40-year career as an artist and teacher, Erling Heistadt '63 can identify two questions that have been central to his professional life: what is the most effective model for the educational process, and how does one create an effective educational environment? Those questions, he says, were formed in his mind back in the days when he was a member of the Outing Club and lived for rock climbing.

Heistadt came to UNH at the age of 16. "I was younger than anyone else, and I hadn't developed any leadership skills," he explains. "The Outing Club is very, very good at helping people develop leadership skills, and it allowed me to step up." Heistadt started UNH as an engineering major, and because of his technical curiosity, he was drawn to rock climbing. He soon became a rock climbing instructor in the Outing Club.

A teacher by nature, he wanted to share his enthusiasm for rock climbing, and he became fascinated with all aspects of the educational process. How do you create interest, he wondered? He rappelled off the belfry of Thompson Hall to advertise his climbing trips. What's the best way to instruct? He managed to get 38 instructors and 150 beginners on a rock wall over a weekend. How do you prevent injuries? He built and tested rescue equipment as part of his engineering major, eventually doing workshops for the Appalachian Mountain Club.

As a junior, Heistadt changed his major from engineering to art. After graduation, he took a job at Dartmouth College, where they asked him to create an art program. Currently resident artist and craftsman at Dartmouth, he has built a studio for jewelry making and pottery, a foundry and a glass blowing shop. He was also instrumental in bringing art to schools in a program he called Project Arise.

"Over the years, whatever project I've taken on, I've used what I think of as the Outing Club model," he says. "For me, it started with the question, 'How do we get a bunch of kids on a rock effectively?' Later on, it was 'How do we effectively expose 16,000 students to art?' Once you get the right question, then it's just a matter of getting your hands dirty."

When Dean Moosavi '98G arrived at UNH in the fall of 1991, he looked for an activity that would help alleviate the stress of being a graduate student and that would help him to enjoy his new environment. Although he had never hiked before, he showed up at the MUB on trip sign-up night.

"I was completely intimidated," he remembers. "There were about 500 people there and they all looked like they knew what they were doing. I had a sinking feeling that I was in way over my head."

Nevertheless, he signed up for a hiking and camping trip. "And I had a great time," he says. "The trip leaders were really good—they didn't seem to mind that I was a graduate student, or that I had no skills to speak of." Moosavi eventually became a trip leader, a senior leader and finally, in 1998, an alumni advisor.

Now at Minnesota State University in Mankato preparing undergraduates who want to become earth science teachers, Moosavi jokes that he "rose from being a private first class to a five-star general." But he adds, "That's what is unique about the Outing Club. The only limits that are placed on your growth are your own limits."

Anne Downey '95G is a freelance writer who lives in Eliot, Maine.