GOLDEN —Shelton Elementary’s after-school mountain club members thought they were going to the American Mountaineering Center to learn about avalanches.
But in addition, they got some surprise climbing lessons inside ‘s brand new bouldering bus.
In November, the gave the club the bus, a brightly painted 1986 school bus that is cleared of its seats and outfitted with climbing handholds along its interior walls and ceiling.
Colorado Mountain Club’s youth education director Holly Barrass said the bus primarily will be used for the club’s youth education programs.
“This is for groups for which getting to us is really hard,” she said. “We definitely have a bunch of schools we work with a lot that have never been able to do our climbing program.”
Colorado Mountain Club runs after-school programs — like the one Shelton Elementary’s students are in — and hosts field trips at . Its climbing science program includes education that fits in with Colorado’s academic standards, covering the geology of landforms used for climbing, the physics of friction, gravity and anchoring, and the biology of animals that climb.
Shelton’s mountain club is recreational, but when asked if they learned anything during their surprise introduction to the bus, the six members of the club shouted enthusiastically about how to spot (assist) a climbing buddy, bouldering safety and erosion, which they are currently studying in school.
“All I’ve heard is rave reviews about it,” said Helen Rhodes, who coordinates Shelton’s after-school enrichment program, including the mountain club. “It gets them out to do something completely different than normal kids would do.”
Barrass said that along with that healthy dose of fun and education, many kids learn how to “be in their body” and get a new understanding of physical movement.
“It’s a ton of exposure to new experiences,” she said.
While Colorado Mountain Club looks forward to forging partnerships with all schools, it is focused particularly on continuing outreach to disadvantaged students in the Denver and Boulder metro areas.
This fall, the club got some practice using the bus as a rolling classroom when it went to Title I schools in Boulder — schools with a high percentage of students from low-income families — thanks to a grant and the partnership with the Women’s Wilderness Institute.
“Reaching Title I schools is one of the key ideas for us and having really good school partnerships where kids are getting that opportunity to climb for the first time,” Barrass said.
Colorado Mountain Club will also use the bus to reach schools beyond the Front Range and it gives the club .
“It is another one of those things that keeps those wheels running in our heads about what else we can do,” she said.
Josie Klemaier: 303-954-2465, jklemaier@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JosieKlemaier
