Reel Rock 9
Utah State’s Outdoor Recreation Program (ORP) hosted the Reel Rock film tour for the third year running on Thursday in the Taggart Student Center Auditorium. This year, Reel Rock 9 presented a documentary called “Valley Uprising”. The film treats the history of rock climbing in Yosemite Valley, California and the path that climbing in the valley takes today. The Reel Rock film series presents outdoor films to a wide audience and educates, motivates, and inspires locals towards adventuring.
Sponsors for the event included RockHaus Climbing Gym and Campsaver. RockHaus is a local climbing gym and provides support to local climbers and outdoor events. This year they donated climbing passes for a raffle that followed the showing of “Valley Uprising”. Trevor Kinberry, the owner of RockHaus, was in attendance at the event.
“It’s a kick-ass climbing film that I think shows a lot of cool history and explains much more about the reality of climbing instead of the superficial things that we seem to think about it,” said Kinberry about why he sponsors it.
Aside from a film full of spectacular shots and mind boggling climbing, the Reel Rock 9 tour stop at USU had a little bit more to offer than adrenaline-inducing entertainment. The event was paid for in its entirety by Campsaver, which allowed the proceeds for the tickets to be used for the Lyon, Maas, Mueggler Outdoor Leadership Scholarship (LMMOLS). The friends and families of misters Lyon, Maas and Mueggler established the scholarship, according to Brian Shirley, ORP Program Director.
“It’s named for three guys that died in an avalanche about 18 years ago, up Logan Canyon […] they were all outdoor educators themselves and so they were pretty passionate about getting other people outdoors doing things,” Shirley said.
The scholarship is used to help students pay for a Wilderness First Responder course.
Becky Fuys and Casey Brucker, previous winners of the LMMOLS, also attended the event.
“The Lyon, Mass and Mueggler Outdoor Leadership scholarship is kind of geared towards the Wilderness First Responder Course,” Bruker said. “We’re trying to use the scholarship funds to get people into the outdoors, but be able to pay for wilderness medicine that will make them safer when they’re out in the back country.”
Fuys felt that Reel Rock films can raise awareness about the dangers of extreme outdoor sports.
“Rock climbing can be a really dangerous sport if it’s not done right and I think that knowing the risks of what you’re doing makes you smarter about how you go about doing that and makes you take more time in your education,” Fuys said. “So, it makes you more likely to actually go find somebody who is going to teach you how to do these things right. A lot of things in Reel Rock talk about the dangers of climbing.”
The ORP will also be hosting the showing of a new Powderwhore Productions film “Some Thing Else” on Tuesday, October 28 at 8 P.M. in the TSC Auditorium.