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Readers Pick Region’s Best Adventure Colleges

BY ELLEN KANZINGER

Earlier this year Blue Ridge Outdoors asked readers to help pick the region’s top adventure college. In our annual contest we placed 32 schools against each other in a bracket-style competition and received a flood of online voting from fans of their favorite schools. The colleges were chosen based on academic curricula, outdoor clubs, commitment to environmental initiatives, and, of course, access to adventure. Ultimately two winners— West Virginia University and WVU Institute of Technology—tied for the top prize. Read on to learn about what makes these two Mountain State schools perfect for students ready to explore the outdoors.

West Virginia University

Morgantown, W.Va.

UNDERGRADUATE ENROLLMENT: 26,269 students

RELEVANT MAJORS/MINORS: Sports and Adventure Media; Wildlife and Fisheries Resources; Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Resources

RECREATION HIGHLIGHTS: 500 established climbing routes within a 10-mile radius; 605 miles of whitewater and seven downhill and cross-country ski areas within an hour and a half drive; Monongahela River; Coopers Rock State Forest

ALTHOUGH ISSABELLA COLEGRANDE

has lived in Morgantown for most of her life, she said it took attending WVU to truly appreciate all that was around her. She and a friend signed up for one of Adventure WV’s First Year Trips as a way to meet people before starting classes. “I absolutely loved it,” Colegrande said. “That trip actually helped me realize some of the true beauty of the state because it took me to different parts I hadn’t traveled to before.” An initial favorite was Seneca Rocks, due to its secluded location.

Now the rising junior is a trip leader herself, sharing her love of the area’s outdoor spaces and welcoming other students to the university. Outside of her engineering and Spanish classes, Colegrande also works in the university’s Outdoor Education Center, leading team building and day programs.

The debrief at the end of the activity demonstrates the programming’s importance as students share reflections on the experience. “You get comments sometimes that really make you feel good about what you’re doing and push you to keep doing this because you know you really are having an effect on people,” Colegrande said.

In addition to an on-campus climbing wall and aerial adventure course, the school offers a number of majors for the outdoor-minded student, including a new sustainable trails curriculum as an undergraduate minor and graduate certificate program launching this fall.

The university’s reach also extends beyond the students on campus. The Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative at WVU is an emerging program working to promote the state’s outdoor recreation opportunities. “What we’re trying to do is leverage institutional, intellectual, social capital, and outdoor assets to transform the state,” said Danny Twilley, assistant dean of the collaborative. “We’re working on building and developing high quality outdoor recreation infrastructure and elevating

LEFT: CLIMBING SENECA ROCKS. PHOTO COURTESY OF WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY | RIGHT: CLIMBING VIA FERRATA. PHOTO COURTESY OF WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

the state in that area.”

Initiatives include Science Adventure School, outdoor programming for middle schoolers in the state, and Ascend WV, a remote worker program designed to bring working professionals to the area. “All of these things are focusing on community and belongingness,” said Greg Corio, assistant vice president of the collaborative.

WVU Institute of Technology

Beckley, W.Va.

UNDERGRADUATE ENROLLMENT: 1,645 students

RELEVANT MAJORS/MINORS: Adventure Recreation Management

RECREATION HIGHLIGHTS: 3,500 climbing routes, 500 bouldering spots, and 890 miles of whitewater within an hour’s drive; New River Gorge National Park; Little Beaver State Park

DESPITE BEING A LONG WAY FROM HIS

home in Georgia, Larry Orsini found his dream school in WVU Tech, when he learned about the college’s adventure recreation management program and the accessibility to the outdoors in the area. The rising sophomore was an avid indoor climber in high school but never

DEEP WATER SOLO CLIMBING AT SUMMERSVILLE LAKE. PHOTO BY GABE DEWITT

had the opportunity to explore real rock. That all changed with his first trip to the nearby New River Gorge. “Because I love indoor climbing, I thought it probably would translate,” Orsini said. “Now I’ve been spoiled with West Virginia climbing. I’ve never lived in a place where you can bike down the road to go rock climbing. It’s never been that close for me.”

As an adventure recreation management major, Orsini said it’s not a cookie cutter program that treats every student the same. “They try to really work with you on what you want to do,” he said. In addition to skills and guiding classes like climbing, mountain biking, and whitewater paddling, students take classes in legal and ethical issues and are encouraged to take business and management classes outside of the program.

“We are grounded in management, and adventure recreation is the vehicle to get there,” said Dr. T. Grant Lewis, director and teaching assistant professor of adventure recreation management. “We are also preparing our students so if they decide that adventure recreation is not what they want to do, they still have the skill sets to be able to be managers in other capacities.”

Although the program is less than five years old, Lewis says he sees a lot of potential as more people turn to the outdoors in their down time. “What we’ve experienced for the last year with COVID is that more people want to be outside because that’s where we know we can be with our family and friends,” Lewis said. “I think we’ll continue to see growth in this area, particularly when we look at the state of West Virginia, but even on the East Coast.”

With the New River Gorge National Park just minutes from campus, students don’t have to be on the major track to take advantage of all the area has to offer. “Adventure is in the eye of the beholder,” Lewis said. “It doesn’t mean you have to try to do 5.10-5.12 climbs or constantly be running class IV and V rapids.”

Runners Up

Appalachian State University

(Boone, N.C.)

Lees-McRae College

(Banner Elk, N.C.)

Special thanks to NROCKS Outdoor Adventures for sponsoring the 2021 Top Adventure College Contest.

GOING FOR OLYMPIC GOLD

A 17-Year-Old North Carolina Slalom Canoeist is Headed to Tokyo

BY SHANNON MCGOWAN

EVY LEIBFARTH, A 17-YEAR-OLD

slalom canoeist and kayaker from Bryson City, N.C., will be competing in the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo, among the youngest athletes representing the United States. The up-and-coming paddler claimed her spot in April when “IT'S THE she won the women’s canoe single (C-1) at FIRST TIME WOMEN'S CANOE WILL the U.S. Olympic Team BE CONTESTED Trials in Charlotte. Leibfarth will have IN THE OLYMPICS, AND IT a chance to become WOULD BE the first female Olympic A GREAT HONOR TO champion for the slalom REPRESENT C-1, as the event is THE U.S.” making its debut on the women’s side this year— the first time men and women will have the same number of slalom events at the games. The event will be replacing the men’s canoe double (C-2).

“It's the first time women's canoe will be contested in the Olympics, and it would be a great honor to represent the U.S.,” Leibfarth stated last year on a GoFundMe page set up to assist with her training efforts.

Those efforts have paid off; Leibfarth will get the opportunity to be one of the first Americans to medal in canoe/kayak slalom or sprint since 2004, when Rebecca Giddens earned K-1 silver at the Athens Olympics.

At her first canoe slalom world championships back in 2019, Leibfarth secured Team USA’s C-1 quota spot with a fourth-place finish in Spain, which allows Leibfarth to compete in both the C-1 and K-1 events at the Tokyo Games. Postponed from last year, the Summer Olympics will run from July 23 to August 8. It will be the second time Japan’s capital city has hosted the games—the first being in 1964.

While the first of two slalom trials of the U.S. Olympic selection competitions in 2021 took place earlier in the spring, the second will take

EVY LEIBFARTH RUNS THE SAVA RIVER DURING THE WORLD CUP IN TACEN, SLOVENIA. PHOTO BY JEAN FOLGER

place during the International Canoe Federation Canoe Slalom World Cup (ICF CSL World Cup) in Prague, Czech Republic, this month from June 11-13.

According to Team USA, the Tokyo Olympic venue is similar to the Charlotte location—both man-made waters with tricky moves, which Leibfarth feels she does best on.

“For me racing is about what I can do, not about what other people do,” Leibfarth told Team USA. “I want to put down runs I’m really happy with. I want to have fun and cheer on all of my friends and be a part of this incredible experience, but when it comes down to it, I’m racing for me and I just want to have fun there."