‘Reel Rock 8’ helps fund outdoor leadership scholarship
More than 16 years after a trio of Cache Valley mountaineers were killed in an avalanche up Logan’s Dry Canyon, an outdoor leadership scholarship in memory of their legacy is still benefitting students at USU.
Max Lyon, Keith Mass and Carl Mueggler were avid outdoorsmen in life. Beyond their exceptional skills in skiing, kayaking and climbing, the three are remembered for their passion for sharing their knowledge of the outdoors with anyone they could, said Brian Shirley, the Outdoor Recreation Program director at USU.
“The three were pretty passionate outdoor enthusiasts and passionate about helping others learn in the outdoors and educating them,” Shirley said. “So, in honor of them, this scholarship was set up to keep a memory of them and to honor something they valued.”
The ORP, in conjunction with the local outdoor equipment retailer Campsaver, hosted a showing of “Reel Rock 8,” an award-winning rock climbing film tour with annual showings around the world, at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Taggart Student Center Ballroom. Most of the showing’s proceeds went toward funding the Lyon, Mass, Mueggler Outdoor Leadership Scholarship.
In January 1997, Lyon, Mass and Mueggler were in Logan to visit family for the holidays. While in the area, they met to go on an overnight ski trip in the the local Bear River Range.
On the night of Jan. 12, a snow storm blew through the area, dumping a heavy load of snow on a slope directly above their tent, pitched in the trees below. Shirley said the slope was not a typical avalanche hazard and would not have been an apparent threat.
Eventually the load of snow grew too great to be supported by the hillside and it broke free, sweeping the three men into the forest while they were still asleep in their sleeping bags.
The idea for an outdoor leadership scholarship was quickly spawned by then-ORP director Kevin Kobe, who had known the three men. In addition to initial funding put into the scholarship, it was determined the ORP would begin hosting the annual Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour – a compilation of mountain sports films – as a way of making money to keep the program sustainable from year to year, Shirley said.
“We, as a rec center, had been bringing Banff to campus for a couple years,” Shirley said. “At that point, when they set the scholarship, they decided the money would begin going to funding of the scholarship.”
To further grow the scholarship, the ORP began bringing the Reel Rock Tour to USU in 2012 to raise additional funding.
The scholarship is awarded each year, covering half the tuition for each of six students to take the 80-hour Wilderness First Responder course, which Shirley said is the “outdoor recreation industry standard” training to guide wilderness trips.
“Because it is the standard of training for taking others out, the point of this scholarship, what we’re trying to honor, is the ability to help others get out and recreate,” Shirley said. “That WFR is the first step.”
Josh Brundage, the retail store manager at Campsaver, said the business wanted to bring Reel Rock t
o Cache Valley even before finding out about the scholarship it was funding. When the booking fee for Reel Rock was increased for its tour this year, Campsaver decided to join forces with the ORP to bring the film to USU for its second year.
Shirley said Campsaver wanted to be a positive influence in the community and get their best foot in on this.
The film tour, which holds appeal to the local climbing community, is also something Shirley said he thinks non-climbers will find enjoyable as well.
“They’re really fun to see people challenging themselves in whatever medium they choose to challenge themselves,” Shirley said. “I find that pretty rewarding to partake in that, on the screen. It’s inspiring to to be able to see what humans are able to accomplish.”