The CWU Challenge Course came to fruition in 2008, and is now celebrating 10 years of being a part of the CWU community.

Challenge Course team leader Ann Baker said they still haven’t made any announcements on what the festivities will be for the 10th year anniversary, although she claims there are plans being created.

There are many different forms and structures on the Challenge Course.

The alpine course requires you to try and reach the top of the structure. There’s hundreds of different ways to reach the summit of the alpine course, as each side of the structure has a different design to it.

There’s also an odyssey, where a group tries to make it from one structure to another structure while high up the in the air.

The giant swing throws the participant 35 feet in the air and sways back and forth.

“The most challenging course for me would be the odyssey course,” Baker said. “Because of the time restraints and the number of people we’re allowed to take up on the odyssey, which is only eight people at a time, it becomes very challenging to facilitate.”

The Challenge Course hasn’t had any upgrades since it’s construction. Challenge course leader Melissa Robertson said it’s because it is a standard model, so there isn’t a need for an upgrade. Except for regular maintenance checks, the course isn’t touched for modifications.

A common scenario at these course events is a person or a group claiming that there’s no way they can accomplish a task.

“We hear that every single time we come to the Challenge Course,” team leader Aubrey Edwards said. “We have so many people think they can’t do that, and you give them the slightest motivation to try it out, and before you know it they’re doing what they didn’t think was possible.”

Being a team is an effective way to reach goals. A common practice for the Challenge Course team is to set a low goal at first, and then progressively reach for a higher goal.

Through the support of the group, teammates can push each other to help reach those goals.

The Challenge Course team now looks ahead at what they hope to accomplish in the following ten years.

A big goal would be to grow awareness of the course. The more people that utilize the course, whether they are CWU students, corporate groups, or community groups, the more people that can benefit from it.

Robertson said the Challenge Course is hoping to partner with community groups and organization groups this summer to get people out there, and understand they can utilize the course.

If you don’t have a group but want to try the Challenge Course, the cheapest way to do it according to Robertson is the weekly sessions the challenge course has for individual CWU students.

The session take place every Wednesday night from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Challenge Course. The cost is $5 for students and $10 for non-students.