The Kansas City Area Sierra Club Outings Program — a joint effort between Kansas and Missouri Sierra Club local outings groups — teaches a biannual beginner backpacking class and maintains a gear-lending library for use by Sierra Club members taking the class. By helping bring people of all backgrounds outdoors, backpacking classes and gear lending libraries can foster a sense of connection and responsibility to the natural world.
The beginner backpacking class provides a robust one-day classroom experience and a treasure-trove of curated online resources, before progressing outdoors. Then, several developmental outdoor activities - a practice backpacking day and campout - culminate in the capstone experience — the guided student backpacking weekend. The gear-lending library, “Provides equitable access to high-quality outdoor gear for experiential outdoors education, by providing essential big ticket gear such as backpacks, tents, and sleeping bags at no direct cost” says Matt Verhulst, the newly minted Outings Chair of the Kanza Group, Kansas Chapter. “These mainstays are a huge hurdle for people to go out and buy, and what’s the point in having sunk costs if you’re not sure you’ll use the gear more than once? Our mission is to get people outside. We want to make sure they’re adequately equipped and price doesn’t make it unattainable”.
“Individuals in the Midwest have limited access to comprehensive backpacking classes with experienced instructors. In addition, for those who don’t have financial access to buy what can be quite expensive gear for backpacking, we offer the gear-lending library. People can truly benefit from this helpful springboard which helps level-set learning the sport of backpacking,” offers Eileen McManus, Outings Chair of the Thomas Hart Benton Group, Missouri Chapter.
Lending libraries are about providing access, to be sure, but they’re also about sustainability, gear sharing, and keeping gear in good repair and rotation. “We look for the highest-quality durable gear to stock our lending library,” says McManus. “Otherwise, it wouldn’t stand up to frequent use.”
“Lending libraries provide an opportunity to reach people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford their own gear”, offers Verhulst. “This is not a revenue program for us. It’s a way of providing an opportunity for everyone to get outdoors.” Gear is purchased with donations from the Beginner Backpacking and Wilderness Navigation classes as well as weekend outings, and maintained through the effort of its custodian. All outings leaders are volunteers and are not compensated.
Though beginner backpacking classes and gear libraries have made an impact around pockets of the country, they have been more prevalent in places like Oregon and Washington. And while even commercial outfitters sometimes have gear rental services, not so in this area.
McManus and Verhulst are the organizers of the present day KC Area Outings Program, and together with new leaders Jack Goldstein and Ben Hendershot, aim to continue to deliver the beginning backpacking course series twice a year, in the spring and fall.