Hello adventurers,
Welcome to starting your outdoor journey
First things first, a welcome to the club for all our new members. Our club is known for a variety of outdoor activities, and similarly we also attract people from many different walks of life, and across all ages. We have made lifelong friends and lasting memories being in the club, and hope that new members share this same experience.
We hold a social climbing night at The Ledge Climbing Centre, USYD from 6pm to 8pm every Monday, and this Monday (20 Feb) will be our Welcome BBQ. You can eat, climb, and meet new friends – recently joined members, veteran club members, committee and trip leaders. You can check out more info about BBQ here.
New and Passionate Committee
This year, we have a passionate and diligent committee team:
- Megan Calder (President), and Sean Ealey (Vice-President)
- Niamh Craw (Treasurer & Memberships officer) is taking care of members
- Salomé Hussein (Safety & Training officer) coordinates with all the trip leaders for you to advance your skills
- James Millar (Quartermaster) is in charge of all the club gear
- Evan McMahon (Webmaster) takes care of our website
- Johann (Secretary & Promotion officer) maintains social media & public relations.
What’s been happening?
Over the past couple months, we have had so many great adventures into intermediate and advanced canyons thanks to Alex Motyka, Birger Wenner, Chris Augood, Dushy De Silva, Megan Calder, and Susan So. It has been such a blast this canyoning season because of the weather. Hopefully we can have more beginner and intermediate canyoning trips for the rest of the summer.
Inside the Committee, everyone has taken on roles to organise O’day events and coordinate with trip leaders to embrace new members into our family. We would like to thank Lucas Brown for leading the O’day team as well as Ehren Holgersson, Sean Ealey, Bowei Shi, and Kitty Hutchinson for introducing our club to everyone. Because of you, our club has become merrier.
We have also opened up access to all current skills notes for trip leaders and coordinated with different trip leaders from all specialties to enhance the quality of these notes.
What’s coming?
Spoiler – there are many exciting things on the way:
- Plenty of abseil skill and rock skill trips to introduce you to canyoning and climbing
- Many beginner hiking and rogaining trips
- Some trips for you to learn paddling
- Climbing Anchors Club Gear Night: a night for you to buy climbing shoes, harnesses, and carabiners at a discounted price at Climbing Anchors. More info about this event will be out soon.
- With Autumn around the corner, we are going for wild mushroom picking once again
Note these dates – events that cannot be missed:
- Minifest on 15-16 July: a smaller version of Megafest
- Megafest on 2-3 December: an annual major event where there are many trips, including canyoning, climbing, and hiking, with over 50 people involved camping at Cathedral Campground, Mt Wilson
If you are interested in what’s going on in the background of our amazing club, you are more than welcome to attend Committee Meetings, occurring on Wednesdays (6 – 9pm): 8 March, 17 May, 12 July, 6 September, 8 November, and the next AGM on 17 January 2024. Please register via our website so that you can receive a zoom link.
How our club works
Visit our Activity page to check out what trips are happening, and choose which ones you would like to join. When signing up to a trip, there are a few things to be aware of;
Level of experience required: as our trips range from beginners to advanced levels. The vast majority of trip leaders will require you to write your experience level in the SIGN-UP information section. Do not leave it blank. Your chance of getting accepted onto the trip will be significantly increased.
Skills required: Most of our trips, especially rope-associated ones, will require you to be equipped with certain skills, but don’t worry as we have extensive training programs.
- Abseil skills 1 allows you to do beginner abseiling, canyoning, and caving trips
- Rock skills 1 allows you to go beginner climbing trips
With these two trips, they open up a large door for you to enjoy the outdoors, but if you want to advance your skills more, feel free to go to skills 2, talk to trip leaders, or contact Salomé, our Training officer (training@utsoac.org.au).
Car: if you can bring a car and provide lifts, your chance of getting accepted would be significantly increased.
Gear you need: if you don’t have anything listed in the trip, please write it down so that the trip leaders can organise club gear hire.
Medical information: our trip leaders need to know any pre-existing medical information you have, such as asthma, so that they can manage the risks (Disclaimer: medical information remains private among you, your trip leaders, and possibly Safety officer and will not be shared with other people)
After signing up for a trip, you need to wait for the confirmation email from the trip leader, confirming you are accepted to the trip. The trip leaders will then send out an email to organise the event and let you know exactly when and where to meet and what to bring.
In the coming weeks, there will be a lot of chances to go to Abseil skills 1 and Rock skills 1, but If you are still having trouble getting accepted onto a trip then please get in contact with Niamh, our Members officer (members@utsoac.org.au) who will be able to help you out.
To cancel a trip for whatever reasons, including if you are double booked on another trip, please go to MyOAC page and click My trips in the MEMBER column. There, you can find the trip you signed up to and press the red CANCEL button. Please note if you cancel too many trips, trip leaders will notice, and thus can affect your chances of being accepted onto future trips.
Trip leaders are an integral part of our club, and because of them we can run a wide range of activities. Our trip leaders excel at different types of activities and most have vastly different styles of how they run trips. Please be respectful towards them as we are all volunteers. We all just love to share our passions with you.
See you in the wild,
UTSOAC Committee
