CARBONDALE, Colorado — Old pictures and film clips from the early days at Colorado Rocky Mountain School in the 1950s and '60s show students piled onto the back of flatbed trucks, or hiking from campus through town with large backpacks headed into the backcountry.

The independent, college preparatory school isn't a lot different in that respect from when CRMS founders John and Anne Holden would send students packing for their fall outdoor trips — a key aspect of the outdoor education-focused learning experience the school offers.

Sure, flatbed trucks have been replaced by mini buses and equipment trailers loaded with kayaks, canoes and mountain bikes, and the gear has graduated from metal-framed canvas backpacks and woollies to self-contained nylon packs and Gore-Tex.

But the hustle and bustle of activity on the school campus for Wednesday morning's fall trip deployment still looked much the way it has for the past 56 years, including a return to some of the old traditions.

Among the 14 different student trips for the three-day adventure was a backpacking expedition up 12,953-foot Mount Sopris — with an environmentally conscious twist.

A group of about eight students and two faculty members departed from campus on specially equipped bicycles loaded with camping and backpacking gear, headed up Prince Creek and Dinkle Lake roads to the Sopris trailhead. There, they planned to secure the bikes and pack up the rest of the way to base camp and to the summit on foot.

“We had a fully sustainable [no motor vehicles] trip up Sopris last year, hiking from campus,” said Dan Pittz, a Spanish teacher and soccer coach at CRMS and one of the Sopris expedition leaders.

“This year we thought we'd try something new and keep it sustainable by biking from campus with all of our gear,” he said. “It should add a little more adventure to the trip.”

The Sopris climb was freshman Reynis Vazquez's first choice among the various backpacking, climbing, biking and river trips that were offered to students.

“I live in the valley and I've never actually hiked up Sopris,” said Vazquez, who is from Basalt. “I thought it would be a new, exciting adventure to try. And I hope to get to know everyone in my group better.”

All together, 145 students and more than 20 faculty/staff members are involved in the CRMS fall outings. Another multi-group trip takes place every spring, and all new students go on a 10-day wilderness orientation into one of Colorado's wilderness areas at the start of each school year.

Other destinations this week included: kayaking and canoeing on the Colorado River through Westwater Canyon and through western Garfield County; rock climbing in different locations; mountain biking near Fruita and Rabbit Valley; and several backpacking packing trips along the 10th Mountain Division hut system.

Senior Caelina Eldred from Carbondale set out on her fourth fall expedition.

“It's a lot of fun, because you get to meet people you might not hang out with otherwise,” she said. “I hope to make stronger friendships, and work on my rock climbing skills.”

CRMS Outdoor Program Director Darryl Fuller said the mixing of students in different class levels on the trips is an important aspect of the outings, as a way for the entire student community to bond.

“It's a shorter trip [compared to the wilderness orientation], but it comes after a rather intensive month of school,” Fuller said. “These trips are designed to get all of the students mixed together and out into the wild; to places where they can learn about themselves and each other.”

Junior Luke Falcone from Boulder and freshman Mackenzie Small from Carbondale were adjusting to the new weather-driven plan to take their intermediate/advanced mountain biking trip through Rabbit Valley instead of in the Raggeds area of the Elk Mountains. Clouds were gathering and the wind blowing hard Wednesday, as a winter weather alert was issued for the central mountains through Thursday.

“I love riding in the desert more than the mountains, so I think it will be fun,” said Small. “I'm the only girl on the trip, so I'll be learning to deal with the guys to the best of my ability, and hope to become more confident in my riding abilities.”

Added Falcone, “It's a good opportunity to get to know my classmates better and make special connections with people I didn't know as well before.”

Most of the trips do require vehicle support. The western Garfield County canoe group had hoped to put in on the Crystal River next to the CRMS campus, headed for Parachute. But because they couldn't secure a camping spot located between Carbondale and New Castle, they decided within two days of the trip to depart from Glenwood Springs instead.

“We try to use public land where we can, but this trip meant finding places on private property where we could camp,” said group leader Drew Brennan, director of active curriculum at the school. “That required us to approach this on a much more personal level.

“But that's part of what it means to learn about living sustainably,” he said.

So the first night they camped in Ross Talbott's horse pasture near New Castle, and last night's camp was on Rifle city parkland along the Colorado River. They were to end with a picnic at Cottonwood Park in Parachute today before packing up and heading home.

“It's a good way for the kids to get to know the culture of the people along the way and relate to the corridor differently than they're used to,” Brennan said.

The trips are also an eye-opening experience for the school's many international students.

“I've never been on a trip like this,” said Yang Yang, who came to CRMS this year from Xi'an, China. She joined the beginning mountain biking trip to Fruita. “I want to get some skills, not just in mountain biking but wilderness skills.”

She admits she was pretty homesick for the first two days of the new student wilderness orientation in the Holy Cross Wilderness last month.

“I'd never been in the wilderness before, but I met some friends and so I was not as lonely anymore,” she said.

For students and faculty alike, witnessing the beauty of the outdoors along with the personal and communal benefits of traveling in small groups help to make the fall and spring wilderness trips a favored tradition, said CRMS Director of Communications Lisa Raleigh, who also joined one of the backpacking hut trips.

Added Fuller, “Our mission at CRMS is ‘Respect, Responsibility and Excellence.' Those are things that are applicable in the classroom and academics, but they also really come alive on these trips.”

jstroud@postindependent.com