[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/alpine_tower_opt.jpg” caption=”Alpine Tower”]For an opportunity to improve confidence, trust, support, and co-operation among your staff or team members, look up, way up. You'll see a 50-foot climbing structure complete with ladders, ropes, and harnesses that presents the same challenges of rock climbing and high ropes course elements, designed to help groups set goals and solve problems.

Construction of McMaster's Alpine Tower  the first outdoor high challenge leadership course of its kind in Canada  was completed last month on the north-west corner of the 10-acre' playfield. It officially opened for business Wednesday with a grand opening ceremony and open climb.

“The Alpine Tower is a unique recreation and teambuilding tool, and it's exciting that McMaster has been the first location in Canada to move it across the border,” says Jeff Sephton, operations co-ordinator of the department of athletics and recreation's ALTITUDE program, (achieving leadership through integrating teamwork unity dedication and empowerment).

The tower, with similar structures located in hundreds of locations throughout the United States, hails from the concept of “adventure learning,” an industry Sephton says is still relatively young in Canada.

While the tower has the capability to provide the most demanding of physical challenges, participants can choose their level of difficulty. A wheelchair ramp that provides access to the tower's base enforces its claims of universal access for participants of all levels of fitness and mobility.

A total of 14 full- and part-time highly trained students will be certified to run the tower, which will host groups of various sizes for two- to eight-hour sessions.

“Our first priority are McMaster students, but other campus groups, youth groups and teams within the community are certainly welcome to book sessions on the tower,” says Wayne Terryberry, ALTITUDE co-ordinator.

The tower will be open year-round, and prices vary based on time and group requirements.

Photo caption: Left, Phil Wood, associate vice-president student affairs, and right, Neville Boney, president of the McMaster Students Union, climbed the tower for an official ribbon-cutting ceremony. Photo credit: Chantall Van Raay