PennOutdoors Organizes an All-Expenses-Paid Trek to SHS

This week, PennOutdoors announced an exciting and enriching hiking program available to undergraduates for the summer of 2018. Admitted participants will backpack to Student Health Services at 36th and Market, learning to cook their own food, dress their own wounds, and navigate by the stars along the way.

PennOutdoors created the program because they felt it would be a great way for students to get in touch with nature while exploring the mystique of faraway vistas. However, certain members of the club are worried that the program, though well-intentioned, has ableist overtones. Before embarking on the physically strenuous trip, students with respiratory illnesses, joint problems, or physical disabilities must be cleared by SHS before signing up.

Followed by a weeklong preparation course on wilderness survival and outback first aid, participants will meet at the 36th and Walnut base camp, where they will spend three weeks adjusting to the altitude. The trek itself will begin on June 1st, and weather permitting, PennOutdoors expects to summit within five to eight days.