The Purdue Outing Club is pretty much involved with almost any activity that takes place in the outdoors. Rock climbing, whitewater kayaking, backpacking, hiking, mountaineering, and caving are our main activities, but trips are certainly not limited to that. The Outing Club functions as a place for people who enjoy the outdoors to meet each other and have fun. The club is very informal and anyone is welcome at anytime. At our meetings, we go over any business we need to take care of, then talk about past trips - usually ones that went out the previous weekend. We talk about new trips that are going to be going out during the coming weekend, or anytime in the future.

Nope! The Purdue Outing Club is geared towards beginners discovering the outdoor world and learning from others along the way.

Besides personal clothing and footwear, the club owns almost all of the gear that you would need for any club trip. See the gear closet page for more information.

The club dues are $25 for one semester or $30 for the entire year. With a paid membership, you can join any official Outing Club trip with gear rental included! The only additional costs are for gas and sometimes park fees, as well as any food you may choose to purchase on the trip.

Meetings are held Mondays at 7:00 PM in the Howard Taylor Conference Room of the CoRec. From the front entrace, instead of swiping in at the front desk, turn left directly before the front desk and walk down the hallway. The room will be on your left. Any changes to meeting times will be announced through Slack. There are no meetings during the summer.

Backpacking is an outdoor activity wherein a participant packs all of his or her gear into a backpack. This gear may include food, water, and shelter, or the means to obtain them, and often little else. Since each item must be carried, weight is a very important factor in equipment and supply choices and options.Backpacking trips may consist of just an overnight stay, a weekend (one or two nights), or an extended length, as in long-distance expeditions of a weeks or months, sometimes aided by planned food and supply drops. A backpacking trip without an overnight stay is considered a day hike.

Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. A few of the recreational forms of canoeing are canoe camping and canoe racing. Other forms include a wide range of canoeing on lakes, rivers, oceans, ponds and streams. The Purdue Outing Club offers canoeing day trips and multi-day canoepacking trips.

Caving is the exploration of underground caverns. It can include walking, crawling, rappelling, and climbing. The enjoyment comes from getting away from this wonder of concrete and red brick, challenging yourself physically and mentally, seeing the beauty of the formations, and generally getting really dirty. You may have heard caving referred to as spelunking. Many cavers prefer to say 'caving' instead of 'spelunking'; however, it's the same thing.

Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and mentally demanding sport, one that often tests a climber's strength, endurance, agility and balance along with his mental control. It can be a dangerous sport and knowledge of proper climbing techniques and usage of specialized climbing equipment is crucial for the safe completion of routes.

Mountain biking (abbr. MTB) is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain, such as air or coil-sprung shocks used as suspension, larger and wider wheels and tires, stronger frame materials, and mechanically or hydraulically actuated disc brakes. The Purdue Outing Club offers indoor mountain biking trips during the winter.

This is the sport of paddling a kayak on a river with a good degree of water running through it. Whitewater kayaking can range from simple, gently moving water, to demanding, dangerous whitewater. River rapids are graded like ski runs according to the difficulty, danger, or severity of the rapid.

Winter sports can involve many of the above sports, but performed during the winter. This can present unique challenges that are not present during the rest of the year, like dealing with freezing water, heavy snow, or otherwise inclement weather. The Purdue Outing Club generally offers snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and winter backpacking.