Outdoor Pursuits: 40 years of getting out there

When Professor Emeritus Dolph Kuss first arrived in Durango in 1953, he says he was "one of the few people other than cattle people who'd ever go into what is now the Weminuche Wilderness Area. I'd come back and people would ask me, 'What did it look like up there?'" Kuss says.

By the mid-1970s, though, Kuss, then a Physical Education professor, could see outdoor recreation booming. So in 1976, he and one of his students at the time, John Byrd (Mathematics, ’77), persuaded the Associated Students of Fort Lewis College to fund the Outdoor Pursuits program to run trips, offer training, and loan outdoor equipment to students, faculty, and staff.

At its birth in 1977, Outdoor Pursuits was located in a small room in the College Union Building, says Walt Walker (Physical Education, ‘78), another of Kuss' students, who after graduating returned to run Outdoor Pursuits from 1980 to 2000 and today is the Risk Manager for La Plata County. "When I showed up there were ten backpacks, ten sleeping bags, and ten tents. And that was it."

In spite of its humble beginnings, Outdoor Pursuits boomed along with the popularity of outdoor recreation. Today OP is housed in the Student Life Center and warehouses an expansive variety of outdoor gear, including skiing, backpacking, boating, and bicycling equipment. The program has some 800 members, making it one of the most popular activities on campus, and offers up to 35 trips per year, as well as frequent clinics, movies, service projects, and outings for all skill levels.

“We have a saying, ‘Let the mountains, deserts, and rivers speak for themselves,’” says OP Coordinator Brett Davis. “I think we are able to, through this program, get students out there and facilitate experiences that are physically and emotionally safe, but that expand their worlds. And that's why I, and all of us here at OP, do this work -- to be out there with the students, using the natural world as opportunities for learning to happen on a bigger scale, on a life scale.”