Fayetteville, W. Va. - Hanging from a rock 30 feet above the ground with only a thin climbing rope and a trusty belayer determining her safety, Dawn Smith hears the slight murmur of the New River hundreds of feet below her and searches for the next minuscule crack or ledge to propel higher on the almost-flat rock face.

MSU Outing Club members on the ground called out advice to the deaf education junior, giving her advice as to where to go next.

“You’re going to want to bring your right foot up to that crack just above your right knee,” one member shouts.

From the ground, the cracks in the rock look enormous, but staring at them head-on, they only go a centimeter or two deep - and each hole’s circumference is tiny. But nonetheless, Smith tries to see if the suggestion will work from her point of view.

She is numb to all the intense work her legs, forearms and back muscles are going through, and after only about 15 minutes, Smith reaches the top of the cliff and touches the white flag at the top, then rappels down with the aid of the belayer.

Smith, who has climbed on numerous occasions since her first trip with the Outing Club to this same location in the fall of 2001, won’t feel the pain in her muscles until the following day.

“You know that you can do it (make it to the top), but once you start, you kind of have to get the first drop in,” she said. “You’re still kind of nervous at first when you begin to climb even though you know you’re not going to fall.”

Smith joined a group of more than 100 members of the Outing club from Oct. 3-6 in Fayetteville, W. Va., for a weekend of white-water rafting (with Extreme Expeditions rafting company) and rock climbing on one of the most popular sites for both hobbies in North America, the New River Gorge and the Gauley River.

Supply chain management senior Jeremy Yeates, the club’s co-president, said this year’s trip to West Virginia was a huge success. The Outing Club travels to the state to raft and climb twice a year - once in the fall and once in the spring.

Something new in this year’s gaunter was a hike in nearby Summersville to Summersville Lake, where many members dove from rocks as high as 30 feet. And while a majority of the members took to the rapids on the upper Gauley River, others opted to climb or mountain bike the entire weekend.

The group has traveled to places such as Jackson Hole, Wyo., to ski and ice climb, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area near Las Vegas, to rock climb and Moab, Utah to mountain bike.

“Usually we have one pretty big ski trip over Christmas break, and we always do something farther away during spring break,” Yeates said.

Telecommunication junior Lisa Paszkiewicz organizes the skydiving trips. She first jumped three years ago and is now certified, tallying four tandem jumps - jumps accompanied by a professional - and 11 solo jumps.

“We’ve taken at least four trips so far this year with plans for more in the spring,” she said. “We always go to the Napoleon Skydiving Center.”

The center is located about 50 miles south of Lansing.

Paszkiewicz said she generally has anywhere from 20 to 30 interested students join her on her skydiving adventures and said the experience of jumping out of a plane is unbelievable.

“There is a misconception that it’s a roller coaster feeling, but it’s nothing like that whatsoever,” she said. “It’s something everyone should try at least once in their life.”

Safety factor

But since the group is solely self-funded, Yeates said members have to sign safety waivers when they go on trips across the country. But he said he hasn’t seen any serious injuries; only scrapes and bruises since he’s been involved with the Outing Club.

“I take safety in the highest regard - that’s the only way I climb,” he said.

Most of the more dangerous trips, including the West Virginia trip, are guided trips, which significantly increases the safety, Yeates said.

“That really helps on a lot of our dangerous trips like ice climbing and skydiving,” he said.

Paszkiewicz said members who skydive have to do tandem jumps for the entire time.

“The jumpers we go with have at least 1,000 or more jumps experience,” she said. “It’s very safe - I think the worst injury we’ve had this year was one sprained ankle.”

History senior Jason Haas suffered an injury on a climbing trip to on Mount Washington, N.H., during a trip with the Outing Club in August.

“I was lead climbing on a roof, and I jumped for a hold, but didn’t quite make it,” he said. Haas fell 30 feet, and the rope clutched around his lower right knee, leaving a nasty laceration which forced him to halt his marathon training. He was on his ninth week of training at the time.

During the fall 2001 trip to Fayetteville, one member fell 20 feet during a routine lead climb.

“He was lead climbing, and he was ready to clip into a bolt,” Yeates said. “Just before be clipped in, he slipped, fell 20 feet and hit a tree, then slammed into the wall.

“He recovered fine, and he wasn’t seriously hurt at all, but it was a scary situation nonetheless.”

“The cost goes up more with guided trips, but you can’t compare - it’s better to have a member make a trip safely,” he said.

A solid core

Yeates said there is a group of 20 to 30 members who go on almost every trip, but he is constantly looking for a more diverse crowd of students.

“Most everyone that I know of is very accepting of new people coming in,” he said.

Yeates is working on putting together more local trips to get people more familiar with each other. He said he goes out of his way to talk to new members and make them feel welcome.

Members of the group often travel to Grand Ledge, Ann Arbor or Pontiac to climb, Yeates said. They also do a lot of local mountain biking, rock climbing and getting involved with campus events, such as aiding in the cleanup of the Red Cedar River.

“It’s easier to travel with a friend on the long trips than just going in a car by yourself with a carload of people you don’t know,” Yeates said.

When Smith traveled to West Virginia with the Outing Club in the fall of 2001, she didn’t know anyone in the group, but said the members accepted her openly and made her feel like she was part of the organization.

“Everybody was really friendly, which was nice,” she said.

Haas, who has been a member of the club since his freshman year, said the group as a whole is open and people are willing to teach others how to do anything from climbing rocks to proper caving techniques.

“As long as you pay membership dues, the group is really cool about letting you check out anything you want for free,” he said. “As far as the big excursions, the people you go out with will already have that gear as well - it’s a good organization.”

Yeates said his position gives him the opportunity to give back to younger outdoor enthusiasts.

“I just want to give back the same sort of help people gave me when I first started,” he said.

Getting involved

The MSU Outing Club meets at 8 p.m. every Tuesday at 208 IM Sports-West. All students are invited to attend.

During the meetings, members suggest outings and discuss if there is enough interest throughout the group to proceed with the plans.

For more information, including upcoming trips, visit www.msu.edu/~outing/.