Cornell opens state’s first indoor adaptive challenge course

University leaders, members of the Cornell community and the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce came together Feb. 10 to celebrate the opening of a new indoor adaptive challenge course at the Noyes Community Recreation Center.

Made possible by an endowment created by the Noyes family in the 1970s and a grant from New York state, the course replaces the decommissioned indoor course in Barton Hall. The first of its kind in New York, the new course includes equipment to allow use for people with limited mobility, including those who use a wheelchair.

"Noyes has long served as a hub for students and we're excited to have something new and different," Jen Gudaz, senior associate director of athletics, the Robert E. Browning '56 Director of Physical Education and the Helen Newman Director of Recreational Services, said in her opening remarks. "Noyes is a fantastic and welcoming place where students can come together and congregate, and I know the addition of this course will provide more opportunities for students to grow and challenge themselves."

The course at Noyes is now one of two challenge courses at Cornell. Open from March through mid-November, the Hoffman Challenge Course hosts Cornell Outdoor Education's (COE) outdoor challenge programming, while Noyes' new course includes four team-based elements.

Using funds from the state's Enhancing Supports and Services for Students With Disabilities for Postsecondary Success program, Student Disability Services, COE and other campus units worked together to purchase different types of equipment. Those purchases included a pair of harnesses that allow people with limited mobility to be seated and supported as they navigate course elements.

"Every element is built so that someone could be in one of these harnesses and get elevated up to as high as they feel comfortable going," said Sylvie Froncek, the Tillemans Director of the Cornell Team and Leadership Center and associate director of outdoor education. "We also have a system with pulleys that allows you to be seated in the harness and pull yourself up in a way that it's not going to feel like you're lifting your full body weight."

The adaptive challenge course adds to accessible resources already available through Cornell's fitness and recreation offerings. COE regularly hosts adaptive climbing classes at the Lindseth Climbing Center in Bartels Hall, utilizing specialized equipment such as an "easy seat" and expanded harness options to accommodate people who use wheelchairs, specialized gloves and shoes that work with prosthetic limbs, and a rope and pulley system offering more support and leverage than a traditional roped belay system.

Other resources across campus include paddling gear for physical education courses, adaptive bicycles and all-terrain wheelchairs for use in COE physical education courses and special programs.

Unlike the Hoffman Challenge Course, which offers a more individualized experience, Noyes' indoor course was designed to be team-oriented.

"Each one of these elements involves a staff member and requires you to have anywhere from four to 12 people working together to succeed," Froncek said. "Instead of just one individual getting to climb up an element, pushing past their perceived limits and doing something amazing, you now also have to set a goal with a whole team that's going to hold you accountable."

Student organizations and staff members can make reservations to use the course. Froncek said she also expects to hold special sessions at upcoming university events like Reunion, as part of a broader effort to help Cornellians and the greater campus community learn the value of teamwork and developing trust.

"In the context of community building and building a sense of belonging at Cornell, the challenge course is the perfect way to do that," said Froncek. "It's really amazing what a difference it makes to do these things with a group of people who might come in as strangers, but in two hours have built trust and friendship and have done things you might have never thought possible."

Ben Badua is a creative content manager for Student and Campus Life.