Gear rental
The outdoor rental center rents the whole kit at student prices: kayaks, canoes, and paddleboards for the river; tents, packs, sleeping bags, and stoves for camping; snowshoes and cross-country skis all winter; climbing shoes and harnesses; and winter clothing. You do not need to own anything to get outside here.
Guided trips
Outdoor Adventures runs weekend and break trips — paddling, backpacking, rock climbing, winter camping, ski trips, a fall-colors hike — at a low cost that includes gear, transport, food, and trained student trip leaders. You can sign up solo; most people do, and the trips are built for mixed experience levels including none.
The climbing wall
The wall in the recreation center is open to all students with a short orientation (belay certification for the taller routes). It runs intro clinics, a bouldering league, and open climbs, and it is a low-commitment way to try climbing before a trip.
Skills clinics
Short courses in things worth knowing: wilderness first aid, map and compass, paddling technique, avalanche awareness, Leave No Trace, and basic bike maintenance. Some are prerequisites for leading trips; all are useful on your own.
Becoming a trip leader
Trip leaders are trained students — a progression of skills courses, first aid or wilderness first aid, co-leading, and then leading. It is a strong campus job, a serious résumé line for outdoor and education careers, and how a lot of students build a community here.
Why it matters here
Porter Falls is surrounded by rivers, trails, and public land, and a northern-Wesconsin winter is long. Students who use the outdoor program — even just borrowing snowshoes for an afternoon — consistently report a better relationship with the place and the season than students who wait indoors for spring.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.