Almost Annual Old Rag Mountain Hike
(From American Weekly, Nov. 7, 2006)

Oct. 21, 2006 Photo by Hannah Hanson

Joe Clapper, assistant dean of the School of International Service, perches triumphantly on a rock on the Old Rag hiking path at Shenandoah National Park. About 20 SIS students conquered the grueling hike, an annual SIS tradition founded in 1959 and resurrected in the late 1980s.

“It goes back to the name of the school, School of International Service,” Clapper said, explaining why the tradition endures. “This hike is very hard to do without someone helping you. It’s a practice and tradition that instills the idea that working together as a team you can get things accomplished.”

Under sunny skies and pleasant temperatures, the party set out in the morning and returned around dusk, seven hours later.

“The cool thing is seeing people of all ages and from different countries coming together to do this rather vicious climb up this mountain,” Clapper said. —MU