The University of New Mexico’s Mountaineering Club arranges excursions throughout each semester and provides gear for trips to go camping, skiing, snowboarding and hiking, and creates a community for individuals to come together and explore shared interests, even aside from the club’s mountaineering focus.
The club meets weekly on Wednesdays, at 7 p.m. at UNM’s Duck Pond, where they discuss upcoming trips and take suggestions, but some members meet on different days for varying activities like slacklining, volleyball, kickball and more hobbies that could fall outside the camp of of “outdoor activities.”
Dade Maccurdy, a council member of the club, said most people join to find other people to go on trips with, or because they don’t have access to gear, so the club seeks to provide a space for each of those archetypes.
“We just kind of facilitate getting the people together and then getting them out there, so we’ll work with UNM to get peoples’ gas paid, to get people cheaper discounts for the Outdoor Adventure Center; all of our members get half-off there,” Maccurdy said.
The club is free to join and receives funding from UNM for some portions of the club’s trips and accommodations, which can be provided to those who require it. A majority of the gear and some other costs are also covered by the university, so the club to provide the gear to members to make it accessible for anyone interested. Maccurdy said the club is currently working on replenishing and expanding their gear collection.
“This year we got a whole new set of harnesses, helmets, crash pads, ropes and Garmin GPS locators so people don’t get lost forever out in the forest,” he said.
Maccurdy shared that the club has grown to around 380 members and most people who joined have stayed until the end of their time at UNM, but leave with long-lasting relationships and frequently join on trips, even after graduating.
Some of the group’s activities even fall outside of outdoor adventuring, like movie nights, concerts, roommate listings, clothing and book swaps, art shows and other shared hobbies.
Tera Dailey, a council member of the Mountaineering Club, said she joined with a friend during her sophomore year after keeping up the club’s Instagram account, which she now runs.
“We joined the WhatsApp and from then on it’s [been] my entire college experience, like all of my community has been built through this club, like my boyfriend. I met him two months into coming to Mountaineering and we’ve been dating for two years now,” Dailey said.
The club stays connected through WhatsApp and has different chats for each of the many activities that the members like to do together.
Anyone who has an idea or suggestion for a trip or activity are also encouraged to share it at the weekly meetings, and organizers will try to arrange a trip and include everyone’s ideas.
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Members previously suggested an overnight camping and skiing trip to Pagosa Springs, full moon hikes, and a trip to Winslow, Arizona, which Dailey shared was her favorite trip she’s been on.
“It was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to, the stars – it was insane– you felt like you were part of the universe,” Dailey said. “Some people were trying to talk to me and I was like ‘No, give me a minute, I have to sit with the stars.’”
Maccurdy said that although the size of the group can be somewhat intimidating, everyone had once experienced that feeling and welcomes new members.
“I still sit around the edge sometimes because it’s very intimidating (with) this many people, but I mean, you can just go up and say hi to someone and they’re all in the exact same spot,” Maccurdy said. “They all experience that same kind of anxiety coming into the club and everyone here is very nice. It’s a very welcoming community, that’s kinda the biggest thing.”
Lexis Lovato is a beat reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on X @lovatolexis
