MOAB 2025: THE RETURN OF THE GNAR TRAIN

OVERVIEW

Ski bums, dirtbag climbers, river rats, and trail blazers: this is what you’ve been waiting for all semester. Behold, the most EPIC, only ONCE-in-a-trip-around-the-sun GNAR JOURNEY. We’re awakening from our East Coast slumber, overstuffing cars with loose bagels, and migrating to the ultimate desert mecca: MOAB, UTAH. It’s time to venture into bottomless canyons, conquer slickrock playgrounds, and become one with the cryptobiotic crust.
Approximately 40 of us will drive out to Moab for spring break to spend the week(ish) camping on the banks of the Colorado River and hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, climbing, canyoneering, trail running, snowshoeing, and who-knows-what-elseing our days away, then coming together each night to share a meal and regale each other with the day’s antics.

WHEN
Spring Break, March 7th(ish) – 15th(ish), 2024

WHERE
This year we’ll be staying in Goose Island Campground, around 10 minutes from the town of Moab, 5 minutes from Arches National Park, and under an hour from Canyonlands National Park. We’ll be right where the martian landscape of the Mojave desert intersects with the alpine meadows of the La Sal Mountains. All of these factors make Moab a quintessential outdoor playground, a mecca for X-Treme sports, and a garden of eden for rock/dirt/tree worshippers like us. Unlike most club trips, each day’s adventures will mostly be planned the night before, with offerings limited only by our imagination and areas of ability.

ABILITY LEVEL
Because the “get up and decide what to do today” nature of the trip distributes a bit of the activity planning responsibility onto everyone, being comfortable/experienced with a few of the activities offered is beneficial, but not necessarily required. There is plenty of time to pick up a little experience beforehand! A couple of times out mountain biking or climbing (indoors counts), or a weekend of backpacking will give you an introduction to build on once we’re out there, but there are lots of world-class challenges in Moab that require some more skills or experience, and it’s worth preparing some so that you’re able to take advantage of them. Basically, the plan is to send it pretty hard; whether you’re a beginner or an expert you should be ready to spend some quality time pushing your comfort zone. However, there will be plenty of hikes of various ability levels, so don’t feel deterred if your main outdoor experience is hiking! It is possible to hike every day and see something new each time! More advanced trip leaders will also be expected to lead a few beginner trips for their sport, as we want to foster an inclusive community that shares knowledge. So, don’t worry, you can get yourself pretty far on nothing but a little stoke, plus we have some beginner workshops in the weeks before the Moab trip so stay tuned for those!

TRAVEL
To get there, we’ll be driving, which is cheaper (monetarily and environmentally) and gives us the freedom to bring more gear and access more of Moab’s offerings. It usually takes around 30 hours to get there with bathroom breaks. The plan is for each car to have 4 people, at least 3 of whom are drivers, so we’ll rotate and SEND IT all in one push. Usually a few cars leave on Thursday (3/6) and the rest on Friday (3/7) and all the cars will start the return drive the following Friday. It’s also possible to stop off I-70 in Colorado on the way out to ski for a day, or swing North or South a little to hit National Parks; we’ll sort this out later if it seems plausible, after the lottery.
The club will reimburse all gas, tip drivers (car owners) $20, pay for a standard oil change (up to $80), and any leftover money will go first to reimbursing drivers up to the full trip fee. Last year, drivers (car owners) were repaid the full trip fee, and this is not unusual! The club won’t cover any mechanical failures during the trip, so make sure it’s ready to roll for several thousand miles.

GRUB
Most food will be communal. We’ll buy out the entire stock of a costco warehouse for this trip (last year we overflowed four costco shopping carts with the trip’s food, and that was just the non-perishable stuff). Breakfast and lunch will be casual and on-the-go for shred-maximization, and dinner will be our time to gather together for a meal and enjoy each other’s company. We can accommodate most dietary restrictions, allergies, vegetarianism, etc that are included in the sign-up survey form thing. More details on all this good stuff to come.

FEE
This fee for this trip is $360/person; that’s super low for a trip like this. This is only a bit higher than last year (GAHHHH inflation!!) It covers all transportation/gas, campsite, food (Saturday night dinner through Thursday night dinner – breakfast and lunches included).

***WE DO NOT WANT THE TRIP FEE TO PREVENT ANYONE FROM ATTENDING. IF THE TRIP FEE POSES A FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY FOR YOU, PLEASE LET US KNOW IN THE TRIP QUESTIONNAIRE OR EMAIL ANY OF US OR THE OFFICER LISTSERV (outdoors-officers@virginia.edu).***

LOTTERY
There are usually more people wanting to go on this trip than can be accommodated, so we’ve devised a lottery system to keep things fair. You can read more about it in our previous email and on the announcements tab, but basically: Everyone starts with 2 entries, plus one for each trip you’ve led this school year.. Affinity trips count for two entries and overnight trips count for the number of days the trip covers. Full-day beginner technical trips also count for 2 entries. We’ll count trips led through Dec 31 for the lottery, so if you’re looking to increase your lottery entries you still have a few weeks. The lottery will apply to everyone, but we’ll exercise discretion to ensure we have enough vehicles to get us there, enough drivers to drive them, and enough experienced people (mountain bikers/mechanics, climbing leaders, rafters etc.) to help us access Moab’s riches. Everyone will be waitlisted until the lottery is conducted, which we plan to do on January 12th and you will be notified of the results by January 14th.

In order to successfully carry us, our gear, and food across the country we need cars (especially big cars)!!! If you are willing to bring your car to Moab, you will likely receive priority – however please know that you will need to be okay with others driving your car, both on the way to and while in Moab.

SUPER IMPORTANT
You won’t be entered into the lottery unless, in addition to joining the waitlist on this trip, you fill out the form on this link!!!
https://forms.gle/AUkrGBvsefLTKFSU8
DO IT NOW!

Feel free to send any of us (Anusha, Susannah, Max or Max) an email if you have questions! Or hit up our handy officer listserv outdoors-officers@virginia.edu!
We literally could not be any more stoked to frolic and send and embody everything that it means to be a desert shred-ling with each one of you!!

Peace, desert dirt, and love from your guiding gnar stars,
Max, Anusha, Susannah, & Max

Emails
Anusha: ygn9bz@virginia.edu
Susannah: bay6nh@virginia.edu
Max T: uhg2nv@virginia.edu
Max S: mps9xs@virginia.edu