VOC Longhike

Unlike the name suggests, UBC Varsity Outdoor Club Longhike has nothing to do with a long hike. I think back in the days it used to be a trip involving some sort of hike. In the modern day it’s THE club kickoff event that involves a day of rock climbing school and an evening of wicked partying.

In the past few years I’ve always taught complete beginners how to rock climb by showing them how to put on their harnesses and how to belay. This year though, I ended up teaching Rock 2, a more advanced course which involved teaching people how to set up top rope anchor system, how to rappel, and how to clean the route after you finish. Colin and I finished up our “mandatory” teaching materials early so we taught the students how to lead climb as well. Surprisingly all of the students learned a lot from the two dummy instructors and had a really good time.

The real fun of longhike comes in at the party aspect. We had 2 DJ’s with full on record turn-table and lots booze. Of course VOC longhike wouldn’t be longhike without all the stupid games.

Couple of my students enjoying Squamish slabby granite.

I thought this is called human horse but apparently it’s called Buck Buck

Candy necklace eating, you can’t eat your own, someone has to eat them off your necklace, without hands of course.

Table bouldering, basically climb underneath the table and come backup using different variations

Me tabling and pulling a Verizon Wireless “Can You Hear Me” imitation

Reaching/Penny placing game

I swear to gold I don’t know these guys lol

The party lasted over 7 hours. At the end of the night a large number of people even went for some skinny dipping and then danced around the fire naked. Some of the new members, especially female members, were completely shocked about the amount of nakedness in the club. Well that’s the VOC for you!

Needless to say the next morning I was quite sore. Bunch of us did go climbing but not on anything hard.

More pictures can be found on my Flickr stream