Outdoors

Woman on a paddleboard riding the Snake River

Fall 2021

Outdoor Recreation Center timeline

Highlights from the history of the Outdoor Recreation Center

1969—Christopher Tapfer (’73 Rec.) enters WSU and works as a ski instructor for a physical education class at Tamarack Mountain. The same year, WSU buys the North South Ski Bowl, now known as Palouse Divide. It will be managed by the Outdoor Activities Program until 1980. It’s sold in 1984.

1971—The Outdoor Activities Program (OAP) is established as part of ASWSU. Tapfer and a graduate assistant teach winter survival, mountaineering, and canoeing.

1972—Tapfer takes over management of the OAP, which moves into Compton Union Building for the next 29 years. During this era, the … » More …

Spring 2019

Inside outside

As children have more access to smartphones and other devices, it's imperative that we expose them to more time in the natural world. The movement known as biophilia and policies like Washington state's No Child Left Inside can increase the opportunities to see and play in nature. » More ...

Spring 2017

One More Last Cast

On the addictive nature of fishing

Dennis D. Dauble ’78 MS

FishHead Press: 2016

Fishing is serious business for anglers, and absurdly funny for everyone, a truth understood fully by author Dauble. His misadventures, fishing treks, and philosophical musings fuel this amusing and thoughtful series of short true-life stories by the retired fish biologist and WSU Tri-Cities instructor.

Whether he’s griping about his buddy Leroy’s vintage—and only marginally functional—outboard motor, … » More …

Spring 2017

Briefly noted

No Barriers: A Blind Man’s Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon

Erik Weihenmayer and Buddy Levy

Thomas Dunne Books: 2017

After Weihenmayer became the first and only blind man to reach the top of Mount Everest, he decided his next adventure would be to traverse the treacherous Grand Canyon by kayak. He and Levy, a Washington State University instructor, chronicle the turbulent whitewater journey, and the insights gained by Weihenmayer and other trailblazers he has met.

Unusual Punishment: Inside the Walla Walla Prison, 1970–1985

Christopher Murray

WSU Press: 2016

Murray was an employee of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services … » More …

Spring 2017

From the top

It’s sunrise somewhere on the Appalachian Trail. Ruth Boden is sitting on top of a mountain, playing her cello as she gazes out at a sea of trees. A hiker approaches. “So that’s what I’ve been hearing for the past six miles!” he calls out to her, grinning from ear to ear.

Boden is the cello professor at Washington State University and the founder of Music Outside Four Walls. She is challenging the received wisdom that classical music is played in tuxedos in concert halls with whisper-quiet audiences who’ve paid big bucks for a seat. So she backpacks, with cello, … » More …

Summer 2014

State of wonder

A childhood spent in Washington has never been better. » More ...

Summer 2011

The Perfect Hunt

Nearing total exhaustion from my janitorial labors, I plopped my 19-year-old bones down in the cushy leather office chair of Dr. Seymour Slick, Dean of Science. Had I been of a thoughtful nature, I might at that moment have reflected that the way of life I so desperately clung to no longer existed for me. I was now a student and a janitor at a university. That other life was gone. Vanished. Evaporated. Had being in denial existed back then, I would have been a classic case. I simply couldn’t believe that my former life had slipped away like a thief in the night, taking … » More …

Summer 2011

The Storyteller—Patrick McManus ’56, ’59 MA

Patrick McManus’s comic formula depends on his creation of a world of oddly named characters with generous and adventurous souls. And a markedly different perspective. “As far back as I can remember,” he writes, “I have seen funny. What may horrify normal people may strike me as hilarious.”

» More ...