ORONO – There are times when climbing the walls can be a good thing.

And certainly the Maine Bound Adventure Center, with its 32-foot-climbing tower and 12-foot- by 40-foot “bouldering” wall, has been thriving since moving to new digs next to the University of Maine’s Maine Center for the Arts last April. The center’s first year will be marked with a free day of climbing on April 4.

Some 50 to 60 people use the facility during the peak hours of 3 to 7 p.m., said outdoor program manager Paul Stern, adding that there is no minimum level of fitness required to use the facility.

“You can progress at your own rate completely,” he stated.

The center is open to the community as well as to UM employees and students, with several options and rates available. For example, a day pass to the gym is $10 for the community, and $3 for UMaine employees.

“All students climb free in the semester they’re registered,” Stern added.

Those who climb the tower typically are attached by ropes. On the bouldering wall, mats are used to catch any who may lose footing.

The floor around the wall and tower, which Stern said is rated for a 12-foot fall, is 4 inches of shredded tire, a recycled material.

“I like to think of ourselves as a very sustainable facility,” Stern said. Once an agricultural barn, the existing building was renovated to create the adventure center. The facility has a recycling program for bottles and cans. Photocopy paper is also recycled, which includes paper from other businesses, Stern said. “Green bikes,” a student initiative, offers free bikes for use on campus.

The center has green climbing shoes for rent at $3 a day. On a trial basis through the spring semester, gold climbing shoes funded by the student government are available to students free.

T-shirts, chalk bags, chalk balls and water bottles are sold at the center “to either promote or facilitate the program,” Stern said.

There are several maps, books and videos available at the facility for people interested in finding places to pursue a specific outdoor recreational activity, or finding jobs in outdoor recreation. Stern is working to get more of these informational resources.

“I can help create an outdoor resume,” Stern pointed out. Such a resume, incorporating a variety of experiences, might be a number of pages long.

The center itself employs some outside people, including UM graduates who return to offer specific instruction, but the staff is mostly students. Some 30-40 students work at Maine Bound as wall monitors, ski instructors and equipment repairers, for example.

“We’re very, very student-driven,” Stern said.

Some students work for the center the entire four to five years of their education, he pointed out, adding that they come from a diversity of majors.

“It’s very typical to have a student there three, four, five years,” Stern said.

One student who works at Maine Bound is Wesley Pinkham, a business management major.

Working at the facility has given him “the chance to experience the outside,” Pinkham said. He has had the opportunity to do a lot of things he has never done before, such as indoor rock climbing, downhill skiing and snowshoeing. He said that because of being around such activities, “you want to go out there and experience it for yourself.”

Parks and recreation major Mike Thibault started working at the center in the fall of 2001, and he expects to continue his job “at least two more years.” Thibault has been involved in scouting since age 5 and is currently working toward becoming an instructor in the regular white-water paddling portion of the kayaking program.

Maine Bound also has an “adaptive” paddling program. Stern said that the program includes both instructors and disabled people, but that the emphasis is to teach those who want to work with the disabled. Typically, there are only four of these courses taught in the nation per year, he said, and Maine Bound is offering one of the four this year.

In addition to Stern, there will be a head instructor from Washington, D.C., another instructor from Florida, and an instructor and owner of a kayak company from New York, who will bring five of his instructors to the program, scheduled for May 22-25.

“I’ll have up to 20 participants in this program,” Stern said of instructors who will take the Adaptive Paddling Workshop. There also will be five to six disabled people participating, Stern said, adding that they do not need to pay to take part.

In another Maine Bound program, some UMaine students went to Joshua Tree, Calif., over spring break to earn American Mountain Guide Top Rope Manager certification.

“That certification is recognized around the world,” Stern said. With it, climbers can “safely set a top rope climbing site.”

Setting a top rope involves placing three anchors at the top of a climb, so that people can climb safely. If one anchor fails, there are backups. Anchors include natural resources such as trees and boulders, and manufactured ones such as a metal device known as a “rock pro,” which can be placed in a rock crack. Stern said the ropes are taken down after the climb.

The center also rents a variety of outdoor equipment such as sleeping bags, backpacks, snowshoes, downhill and cross- country skis, canoes and kayaks. Mountain bikes, which are new to the program, Stern said, are also available.

“We’re adding equipment all the time,” he said.

Stern tries to get the Maine Bound Adventure Guide, which includes programs, courses and rates, distributed to “as many public places as I can get to.”

He mails the guide to all departments and employees at the UM campus, and distributes it to city halls, libraries and sports businesses, to mention a few. Stern said that people also may ask to get on a mailing list at no cost.

The facility opened April 12 last year, and on April 4 there will be free climbing 10:30 a.m.-midnight. Water and Coca-Cola will be available 11 a.m.-1 p.m. that day.

“That’s our celebration of our one-year activity,” Stern said.

To obtain information on the Maine Bound Adventure Center and its programs, or to rent equipment, call the center at 581-1794 or visit the Web site at www.umaine.edu/campusrecreation/mainebound.htm.