Base Camp Cullowhee is moving to the Campus Recreational Center during spring break 2015, March 9 through 13. This will make Base Camp more accessible to students who live at the bottom of campus.
Currently based in the Brown building, Base Camp Cullowhee is a center on Western Carolina’s campus that allows people to rent outdoor equipment or plan adventurous trips with other students. These trips include everything from five day backpacking trips to snowboarding at Cataloochee Ski Area.
“With Base Camp in the CRC, we will be closer to the climbing wall and it will put us in the middle of campus,” said Josh Whitmore, assistant director of outdoor programs.
The CRC will become home to Base Camp after spring break.
Photo courtesy of WCU.
Base Camp will be taking over the “cage” area in the CRC where people can rent exercise equipment and will partially run the same way. They will have an area where people renting camping equipment will be able to be tested just like they always have.
There will also be more changes in the CRC over the summer to accommodate Base Camp Cullowhee. They will be creating a new entrance specifically for Base Camp so that people can rent exercise equipment with ease.
After spring break and Base Camp’s move, they are ending mountain bike and kayak rentals for the year so that students aren’t dragging dirty mountain bikes and wet kayaks through the CRC. Those rentals will begin again in fall of 2015 after the new entrance to Base Camp is created.
Though Base Camp is canceling rentals, they are not canceling their kayak trips.
“We get a lot more people with programs, so we will continue programs like roll clinic and our trips,” Whitmore said.
Even though kayak rentals are low, patrons of Base Camp felt upset and disappointed when told about the end of rentals for the year. Bikers and kayakers who use Base Camp’s equipment will have to find another place to rent their equipment for the remainder of the spring semester.
