Luke Holmes, left, and Drew Bailey have a blast while showing off their rock-climbing skills at Synergy Climbing and Ninja on Main Street.
Chattanooga’s natural wonders are epic.
The mountains and the rivers that define the city and the surrounding area will once again serve as an outdoor classroom (and playground) for students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Activity courses are back after a pandemic hiatus and begin March 1, the start of the second part of the semester and include:
- HHP 0049 Beginning SCUBA
- HHP 0054 Rock Climbing
- HHP 0062 Beginning Kayaking (whitewater)
- HHP 1999R Whitewater Raft Guiding
Twice named by “Outside” magazine as one of the best places to live in America, Chattanooga inspires adventure and increasingly draws new visitors and residents who can’t seem to get enough.
Professional rock climbers Wills Young and Lisa Rand opened Synergy Climbing and Ninja on Main Street eight years ago, moving to the Scenic City from their home at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.
“We were looking for a place to open a climbing school and there are very few places like this in the U.S. where it’s a good-size city with climbing on the doorstep,” said Wills, who will teach the upcoming rock-climbing course.
The class could culminate with a field trip, Young said, but students will stick to the gym at Synergy to learn fundamentals for the most part.
“Rock climbing is very popular in Chattanooga, so getting a foundation and learning the basics is good,” Young said. People will enjoy it because it’s a fun thing to do.”
Rock climbing, like all of the outdoors courses, is a hands-on learning experience.
“We’re not going to study rock climbing out of a book, we’re going to climb,” he said.
UTC students who take the whitewater raft-guiding course will be training in the same manner and at the same place as summer raft guides at RaftOne in Ducktown, Tennessee, near the iconic Ocoee River in the Cherokee National Forest.
The 1996 Olympic summer games put the river on the map, so to speak, when the Ocoee Whitewater Center was built to host the world’s first Olympic canoe and kayak slalom events on a natural river. Marrying the natural and artificial worlds, boulders and artificial rocks were placed in a quarter-mile section of the river to create a challenging and internationally acclaimed whitewater course.
The upper part of the riverbed was narrowed from 200 feet to 70 feet in width. The constricted channel causes the water to increase in speed and power.
RaftOne owner and manager Brent Rogers, a long-time tour provider, will teach students how to navigate a commercial raft through whitewater up to Class IV whitewater; Class VI is the highest and most dangerous. All equipment is provided by RaftOne, and all but the first class will be taught at the Ocoee.
“They literally dive right in,” said Associate Professor Andrew Bailey, who coordinates all the outdoor classes and the University’s Sport, Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Management program.
“If you’re interested in doing any of these outdoor things on your own, this is the perfect introduction. It will provide you with way more than you would get in a one-day trip in terms of actually learning skills,” said Bailey, who’s also teaching the kayaking class.
His course will introduce participants to the basics of whitewater kayaking, including basic paddle techniques, self-rescue, wet exits and rolls, as well as reading rapids and navigating Class II-III whitewater. Sessions will be conducted in the Aquatic and Recreation Center pool until the skills have been acquired to safely navigate whitewater. The class will culminate with a full-day trip down the Hiawassee River in Reliance, Tennessee.
All one-credit outdoor classes are all geared for beginners, Bailey said. The pause in outdoor course offerings during the pandemic allowed him to tweak the program and bring in more community experts to teach the classes rather than traditional adjunct faculty.
“We really wanted the students to learn from the best experts in the field and we also know they’re going to be here in a few years,” Bailey said. “It’s not just good for our students but also for deepening the University’s community partnerships.”
What’s more, these classes epitomize Chattanooga, and, Bailey said, when in Rome …
“While you’re here, go for it. You’re not going to be pushed beyond your level, but you will be challenged.”
