What is the Equipment Room Anyways?

So you know that I'm the Equipment Room Manager, but what does that mean? On Monday, Cory and I went out the the Equipment Room (ER for short) and updated the inventory. When I'm not leading trips, I'm working on equipment-related needs. The inventory hasn't been updated since 2009 because they haven't had a full-time staff person to invest their time in the ER. The ER has changed and evolved a lot in the past few years as our team has continued to turn the old barn into an organized storage pace.  In November we ripped off the roof and put on a new one. Can you imagine me pulling nails and sawing wood... I know that might be difficult. Good thing we had a contractor to pull everyone together. Below are some pictures I took at the ER so you can understand more about what my job entails.

Pictured here are our internal frame packs that we bought from NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School). Stowed away are 40 ancient external frame packs. I'm in the process of fixing our packs and buying new ones

We hang our sleeping bags to protect the synthetic fill. Keeping the bags packed up damages the insulating fibers over time and will decrease the degree rating of the bag. I need to look into new sleeping bags as well.

Over here we have our cook gear, duffel bags full of PFDs and other paddling-related gear, and canisters of stuff sacks and other bags.

Tents and shelter-related gear. I need to do some work on patching our tents and buying some new ones.

Climbing gear!

In addition to the boats pictured here, we have a dozen kayaks stored in the barn. Notice the large fire ring that we just put in.  We are working on making the ER more user-friendly so that groups can come out here and train on gear use before their trip and stay the night.We have a composting toilet but no running water yet.

Hope these pictures give you a more tangible idea of what I'm up to!