Outdoor Athletics
Finding Strength in Nature
Blue Ridge School makes extracurricular time interesting with supervised nontraditional sporting activities where boys can build strength, work as teams, and compete with themselves and others. The activities are diverse, ranging from rock climbing, hiking, and mountain biking to deer tracking, archery, and ultimate frisbee. Some activities even offer a chance to compete in annual events. Our vast campus and our location in the Blue Ridge foothills provide the unique opportunity to explore outdoor adventures of every type, year round.
Outdoor Adventures
Offered afternoons during the fall, winter, and spring trimesters, this program features on-campus and off-campus activities that emphasize team building and respect for the environment. Activities include low- and high- ropes challenges, hiking, mountain biking, trail building and maintenance, rock climbing (indoor and outdoor), rappelling, canoeing, caving, ultimate frisbee, and more. In fall, the boys focus on training for a variety of adventure races, such as the annual Brokenback Challenge, Bacon Holler Hustle Duathlon, and the esteemed Michaux Team Challenge in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. In winter, the boys have access to local resorts for skiing and snowboarding. When spring arrives, you’ll find boys paddling local rivers and fly fishing for native trout.
Outdoorsmen
In the Outdoorsman program, boys gain the skills it takes to survive in the outdoors, from building a fire to learning to shoot arrows and rifles. They also learn to navigate in the woods and to hunt correctly and safely. Along the way, boys gain lifelong lessons about the natural environment and our place in nature.
Mountain Biking
The Mountain Biking program gives boys the opportunity for individual exploration of our 15 miles of biking trails, hone their cycling skills with our faculty and coaches, and prepare for team competitions. For those preparing for competition, they will also participate in training climbs on nearby gravel roads and trail maintenance days. Each season the boys compete in several races including the NICA series in the fall and the Virginia Race (VAHS) series in the spring. And don’t worry about packing a mountain bike—we provide bikes for use by all Blue Ridge students.
