Howie's Last Stand
- PZ
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
The climbing wall at Camp Wakonda was originally built for the 1999 season of Summer Camp, and it has been a favorite activity of staff and campers ever since. Affectionately, the staff at one point named the wall "Howie." The reasoning explained to me for this nickname is that the staff, while explaining the rules of climbing wall safety, would tell the campers, "This is Howie Climb"--a play on words, sounding like, "This is how we climb." This nickname has stuck for the duration of the climbing wall's tenure at Camp Wakonda.
Which brings me to the point of this article: we are saying goodbye to Howie. When I became the Camp Director back in 2021, inspectors were already telling me the wall was past its prime and that they were concerned about its age and the safety complications of a wall that old. In the years since, we've done everything experts suggested to keep it a safe and continuing activity--from patching and covering woodpecker damage, to putting chemical wraps on the base of the poles, to spraying the wall down with sealant, to replacing boards and holds, to tightening wires, and so on. However, after several years of doing everything we can to preserve the life of our climbing wall--it is finally time to retire the activity. Not for good, as we have some hopes for the future of climbing activities at Camp Wakonda, but Howie has hit the point of diminishing returns where we're finding it is more expensive than it's worth each year, with the possibility that it likely won't pass safety certification in the spring.
"Why not build a new rock wall?" That was my first thought, back in 2021, when we first encountered pushback from our certifiers about the viability of the wall. We looked at what other camps had built, to get recent pricing. We talked with builders to get quotes. It turned out that it would take about $100,000 - $120,000 to build either the exact same structure or something similar. We talked with our conference committees about it and there just wasn't the money for that, which is why we stretched out the life of Howie in the first place. In the meantime, we've talked about launching a fundraising campaign for Summer Camp (which we still intend to do), but the question has been asked: is the best use of $120,000 (or more, accounting for recent inflation) a structure that we realistically will only use a couple of months every given year? Is there a better use of that kind of money, if we were to raise the funds? Is there a different kind of climbing solution that costs less and is usable year-round?
So here is some of the brainstorming we've done so far...
Could we use an existing structure?
Timber Ridge Camp, in Indiana, as well as many other camps, has built a climbing wall on the inside wall of an existing pavilion. This means the construction is cheaper, because it doesn't need to be self-supporting, and the activity is indoors, so it could be used year-round. We've also seen several camps bring in an arborist to check tree health and put holds and climbing features onto existing healthy trees, which would have very low building cost, but would still allow for a fun activity. If trees were used, there could also be the possibility of a low- or high-ropes component, again with less cost than building a new structure.
Could we invest in a movable wall?
Another less expensive option would be purchasing a synthetic climbing wall that can be collapsed and towed behind a truck. The cost is still substantial, though still significantly less than building our own, at between $40,000 and $70,000. This would allow us to use the climbing wall at Summer Camp, but it would also allow us to move it into a pavilion for climbing in the off-season, and it could even be brought from the camp to local churches or schools for year-round youth events.
Could we go off-campus for rock climbing in nature?
A little-known fact about Central Wisconsin is that it has the highest concentration of buttes and mesas east of the Mississippi (although in this part of the country, they typically call them "castellated mounds"). Everyone knows there is outdoor rock climbing at Devil's Lake (a little under an hour from camp), but fewer people know that there are great places for outdoor climbing only 20-25 minutes from the camp. Ship Rock is a 20 minute drive north from Camp Wakonda, Rattlesnake Mound and Lone Rock are 25 minutes west, and Hillbilly Hollow is 25 minutes northeast. These are all recognized by avid climbers as good places to get a climb in, and they're close enough that we could easily drive campers there for an activity. We already drive 20 minutes to get campers to Jordan Lake for Banana Boating and tubing, so we know it would be doable.
These are all options we are researching and exploring right now. Maybe you have another suggestion that we haven't thought of yet? Or maybe you know someone who would be happy to donate time or resources to make one of these options happen? If so, please don't hesitate to reach out. We don't need to rush and try to have a solution by next summer, but the sooner we can pick a goal and start moving toward it, the better.
In the meantime, we are planning to say goodbye to Howie the climbing wall at an official "farewell service," the morning of Sunday, November 23, between 10:00 am and Noon. If Howie has a special place in your heart as a former camper or staff (or both), and you'd like to come by the camp to give a few words, we welcome you to do so. We'll have a group of our most recent staff there, and we'll expect a few staff alumni to join us.
A couple of things to note before we close out this article...
Caden Minett will hold the record for climbing wall staff at Camp Wakonda (according to the records kept inside the climbing wall storage closet. He was a climbing wall staff for five summers, four of which he was the director of the department. We are thankful for Caden's leadership and ministry in this department over the past five summers!
Nathan Crownover, as a teen camper, not knowing that this would be the last year we'd be using this climbing wall, broke the long-held speed record. This means he will hold the all-time record for climbing Howie at Camp Wakonda. We made sure to give him a special prize, commemorating this achievement, at the awards ceremony at the end of his week at Teen Camp.
We'd love to hear from you about what you think the future of climbing should look like at Camp Wakonda. We'd love to see you at our Howie goodbye service. In the meantime, enjoy these Howie pictures from Summer Camp 2025.
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