Outdoor Pursuits at Tarleton State is climbing to new heights

BY HELENA KNUTSON

Marketing Executive

With its fresh air and sunshine, the outdoors can be a calm place, but for others, it's a hard environment to navigate. 

Outdoor Pursuits is an organization dedicated to helping everyone, no matter their skill level, embrace the outdoors. 

James Bessler is the assistant director of Outdoor Pursuits and Marketing at the Tarleton Recreation Center.

“Our program is a chance for students to have new experiences. We take students from all different skill levels in all different outdoor disciplines, and we give them the opportunity to get outside and grow,” Bessler said. “We kind of do everything outdoorsy, and we let anyone join us on our trips.”

Outdoor Pursuits has held several activities on campus to help students embrace the outdoors. Some of these include zip line socials, fishing trips and, most popular, their outdoor excursion trips. 

“It just kind of depends where we're going,” Bessler said. “We'll go rock climbing at some places. We've done kayaking trips in the past. Zip lining is our upcoming trip in about a week.”

These trips hold great meaning for the students. One of their most recent trips was to Virginia for an Alternative Spring Break.

“We just got back from getting a chance to take a bunch of students who didn't know each other to a wildly different place and get to give them the opportunity to give back to a community,” Bessler said. “We rebuilt a walkway in that park, and we walked away with the knowledge that, for at least 30 years, people are going to enjoy that park and enjoy the impact that we made.”

Outdoor Pursuits trips are very versatile for everyone, and they thrive on ensuring that everyone returns from the trip with new knowledge and a new sense of empowerment.

“One of my colleagues at Southwestern [State University] took students to Kilimanjaro, which is awesome, but I think our specialty is taking those students who aren't ready for Kilimanjaro and just taking them to a local state park and having them learn about the park programs, what these resources are and how to be good stewards of these resources,” Bessler said. “Investing in them on a more personal level, not giving them a literal mountain to climb — maybe their mountain is a weekend away with people they don't necessarily know and getting to learn more about themselves through that process.”

Bessler has been on several of these trips during his time with Outdoor Pursuits and can recall a time when he saw how this program can change a student.

“On Alternative Spring Break, there was one young lady (in particular) who went with us,” Bessler said. “We ended up talking and both ended up in tears because that trip was so impactful for her. She was so nervous to get on an airplane and travel across the country with people she didn't know, and by the end of it, she was signing up for more trips… Her biggest takeaway was the whole time she's been in college, she had never found her people, and through that trip, she found those people.”

These outdoor excursions are a big part of Outdoor Pursuits, but this program also has so much more to offer — such as the rock wall at the Recreation Center. 

“In Outdoor Pursuits, we also have our 30-foot climbing wall inside the recreational center,” Bessler said. "We have seven different ropes, so we can have up to seven climbers at a time. We have bouldering on our wall, where you don't have to be hooked in; you just don't go very high. We have routes at all different levels, from entry-level beginners to advanced climbing.”

Sage Barmettler, a senior wildlife sustainability and ecosystems sciences major, has been working with Outdoor Pursuits for roughly six months now. Now, Barmettler spends her time helping at the rock wall.

“I love getting involved in the outdoors (through) kayaking, hunting and bouldering, so I feel like I am already outside,” Barmettler said. “By being involved in Outdoor Pursuits, I get to help other people love being outside and make it fun for them.”

One student, Haley Marshall, a sophomore animal science major, has been so active with the rock wall that she is now belay certified.

“I heard about Outdoor Pursuits through my friends that worked at the wall,” Marshall said. “I go to the recreational center a lot to work out. I had always seen the rock wall in there, but I had never actually really gone climbing until Sage invited me to go and hang out with her. Outdoor Pursuits and rock climbing all together are just really inclusive toward the student body.”

Outdoor Pursuits constantly plans trips and social activities to help students learn more about their organization and the outdoors. You can follow Outdoor Pursuits on Instagram at @tarletonoutdoorpursuits or check them out on the Tarleton Recreation Center page.