SEGOVIA – Due to popular demand, IEU Athletics Segovia announced their first hiking activity on Saturday, October 12th, which will be done in Seven Peaks in the Guadarrama mountain range on November 9th. The hike will be 12.1 kilometres long with a 596 meters elevation gain and it will be a looped route with medium difficulty. The event will cost 5 euros and it will provide a bus that will depart from Via Roma at 9:00 am and return around 5:00 PM. The organizers recommend that hikers wear comfortable clothes, bring sunscreen, plenty of water and lunch.

The hiking activity was initially going to take place on Saturday, October 19th, but due to weather conditions, coordinators moved the hike to the Saturday, November 9th. They explained that with bad weather there was a higher probability of injury and they didn’t want to risk it.

“There was a lot of interest in this type of activity at the Athletics Fair, so we are launching this activity based on demand,” said Sara Gorriz, IEU Athletics Coordinator.

IEU Athletics has offered this activity as there is no Exploration Club in Segovia. The activity will be a test to examine if there is enough interest to create a new club led by students.

There are several reasons why some students have signed up, “I want to do exercise and I have always liked hiking,” said Mariana Castañeda. “It just looked like fun and I like exploring and climbing,” said Isobel Smith, both exchange students in Segovia.

Although there is an Exploration Club in Madrid, there is no branch in Segovia.

“We planned to expand the club to Segovia, but we would need coordinators on the Segovia campus,” said Clara Dubois, the President of Madrid’s Exploration Club. “It would be beneficial,” said Dubois “we could have a bus leaving from Segovia and another one from Madrid and join the two campuses in the same destination and be able to socialize.”

She also said that although the club is in Madrid, students from Segovia are welcome to take part in its activities as some Segovia students have already done it.