Outdoor religious school - it's wild

Wyo. students grow in faith, adventure skills

Hannah Wiest, Casper Star-Tribune

Published September 19, 2007 at midnight

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VEDAUWOO RECREATION AREA, Wyo. - Mother Number One is not kind or nurturing.

She is wicked tough and can make a girl cry.

Olivia Barkley, 19, hoists herself to the crest of the off-width rock climb in Vedauwoo, east of Laramie. She sits on the ledge, shaky and exhausted. Triumphant tears streak rivers through the dirt on her cheeks.

Riley DeLong, 21, doesn't know why Mother is rated only 5.7.

(The grade means the climb up the crack - wider than a fist but too narrow for a body - is moderately difficult.) But, the challenge of Mother Number One - a wall of rock jutting straight up from a 30-foot boulder pile - continually draws rockclimbers who would like to conquer her.

Then she beats them up for even trying.

"It should be rated a 5.7 with possibility of death by small cuts," DeLong says to the circle of 10 other students and three instructors who have gathered to talk about the day of climbing. "God helped me today because I was scared out of my mind and bleeding and loved it. It was a good day."

The group goes silent, DeLong's sense of vulnerability and awe hangs in the air. Peach clouds ribbon around the piles of giant boulders, silhouetting Vedauwoo's unearthly formations. The rocky outcrops offer more than 900 routes for climbers who come from around the world.

The group erupts. They leap to their feet and yell so loud one feels compelled to make sure the boulders aren't rattling from their precarious positions.

And with that sense of raw energy this group of 15 young adults, who have withdrawn into Wyoming's wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, enter into prayer and praise.

It seems suddenly obvious that Solid Rock Outdoor Ministries' 4 0/40 program isn't really about rock climbing or mountaineering.

It is about encountering the wild that God created. It is about equipping young men and women to become servant-hearted leaders. It is about drawing wisdom from God before ever attempting to guide men.

"This is not a church. This is not a camp. This is definitely not a church camp. That's too conservative for us," says Jessie Cruickshank, program director for the outdoor leadership school based in Laramie.

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