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University Communications

University of Richmond and Challenge Discovery open high ropes course for campus, corporate and community use

July 3, 2008

Campus, corporate and community groups can have fun while taking their teamwork skills to greater heights by completing a new high ropes course on the University of Richmond campus.

Available for groups from eight to as many as 70 people, the Odyssey III high ropes course is designed to produce a team experience, so in addition to relying on themselves to move through the course, participants help each other get from one end to the other.

Safety is a prime feature of the course, which has 25-foot and 40-foot levels, and participants are secured by cables at all times. To start the course, participants climb a mesh, rope "ladder" to a platform and move across the lower level in groups, each person in a team helping the others across. At the end, they move to the upper level and cross back to where they began.

Scout troops, church groups, corporate teams, school groups and family reunions are among the groups that can schedule time on the course, said Breana Field of Challenge Discovery, which partnered with the university to build and manage the course. The university has used Challenge Discovery's main facility in Doswell, Va., for many years to develop team-building skills for a variety of student groups.

The Richmond course's "innovative apparatus is unlike anything else that Challenge Discovery has been using," said Greg Huber, who founded Challenge Discovery in 1980. He said the campus location will be more convenient for corporate groups, especially with the rising price of gas.

"Everyone who tries the new course absolutely loves it and comes away feeling invigorated and challenged," said Tom Roberts, Richmond's director of recreation and wellness. He said Challenge Discovery is committed to "providing participants with programs that are meaningful and purposeful."

For more information about scheduling the course, visit the Challenge Discovery Web site at www.challengediscoverycompanies.com.