Nestled at the doorstep of the Rocky Mountains, the outdoors have always been a key part of the student experience at the University of Denver. 

Accordingly, DU has continually tried to enhance this experience. In the last few years, they introduced the James C. Kennedy Mountain Campus (KMC), which, despite its huge advertising push, especially through admissions, most students rarely visit except during First Ascent. 

But now, behind Assistant Director of DU Outdoors Nathan Page and newly hired Field Programs Manager of DU Outdoors Jaylen Bazile, they are looking to take new strides to increase the impact of the DU Outdoors Program. 

One of the main expansions that will be coming into effect as soon as Fall Quarter is the launch of a ‘Base Camp’ on campus. At Base Camp, there will be a gear garage as well as a bike and ski shop. 

The gear garage aims to offer students outdoor gear rentals at a discounted rate. There will be rental skis and snowboards, bikes, backpacking gear, avalanche safety equipment and camping gear. Base Camp will be offering rentals upwards of 70% off the commercial price, ranging from $15 to $30 per rental period. 

Additionally, Base Camp will offer a ski and bike shop. They will provide ski tuning and bike maintenance, with services alongside clinics that teach students how to do the maintenance themselves. 

Page and Bazile have received a one-time grant from the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) for $90,000. This money will be used to buy all the initial gear and shop supplies. The rest of the Base Camp program will be entirely self-sustaining and will be run by student employees. 

To accompany the new equipment opportunities, Base Camp will offer a variety of student-run educational programs, including introductions to climbing, car camping and backpacking. 

Page and Bazile are looking to work alongside current outdoor clubs, such as the Alpine Club, in order to better student experiences on outdoor trips. 

“Our goal is to complement and not compete,” said Page. “There are so many things that student-run organizations do incredibly well that we can never replicate.”

Alongside the benefits that students will be receiving from the new services, Page and Bazile also want student employees of the program to receive a repertoire of outdoor certifications and leadership experience. 

“A big part of our training is to help give them worthwhile certifications they can use in future employment,” Page said.

They currently offer some entry-level certifications for students, such as Wilderness First Aid (WFA) training, but they are looking to increase their offerings to include more specific mountain biking and climbing certifications. In the long run, they want their student employees to obtain American Mountain Guide Association guiding certifications during their time working for Base Camp. 

Page and Bazile are currently working to get students class credit for the certifications that they are receiving. They are in contact with the Noles program to create a system where students can receive baseline training, then go on a Noles expedition as a study abroad program. 

With outdoor services on campus rapidly growing through Base Camp, Page and Bazile want KMC to be a bigger part of the student experience. 

As of now, most students only visit the KMC for their First Ascent in their first quarter, but there are also opportunities for seniors to visit the KMC as a farewell. They want to offer more open-ended experiences at KMC by introducing campgrounds and gear rentals that can be used at any time. 

“There’s also a lot of intention going into our partnerships across campus, leveraging other departments or programs at DU to invite their cohort of students to come up,” Bazile said. 

Despite the huge progress that Page and Bazile have made in their early days at DU, both have big goals for the future of the program. 

“There’s this philosophy of you build it and they’ll come. I feel like right now we’re building this dual campus environment within DU. Right now, it feels very early on, but in five to ten years, I really see people landing at DU and having this really high-impact kind of mountain campus,” says Bazile. 

With this pair just getting started, students can look for more big changes coming to the Outdoors Program, changing the entire student experience at DU.