The end of spring break signaled the beginning of a new challenge for the UA Student Recreation Center.

The University of Arizona calls it the Challenge Course.

In the distance, tribal drums are pounding. The only path to safety is across a narrow wire spanning a deep chasm.

This is one of the many scenarios people will face when they take on the UA Challenge Course.

The Challenge Course moves groups through obstacles designed to force team members to rely on each other, creating a sense of trust and teamwork, said Richard Romero, assistant director of sports clubs and outdoor recreation.

Obstacles are made up of 1/4-inch cables people must walk and balance on, catwalks that must be crossed and walls the group must climb without assistance.

Set up at Wildcat Field, on 15th and Plumer Streets, is an odd assortment of ropes, cables and poles.

Green-tinted posts resembling telephone poles with U-shaped staples projecting from the sides, along with pieces of molded rock bolted to a wall of two-by-six-inch wooden boards, make up part of the obstacle course used by students and administrators.

The course is designed to get groups working together as teams. Administrators, military groups, troubled youths and residence hall staffs are a few of the groups that benefit from the obstacle course, Romero said.

Workers from Rope Works Inc. in Texas came to Tucson last November to build a daunting ropes course in Tucson.

The approximately $60,000 project met all the standards of Challenge Course Technology and was built in only seven days, Romero said.

Challenge Course Technology is the national group that ensures challenge courses in the United States meet safety requirements.

But before any groups can traverse the Challenge Course, there must be trained personnel present.

Staff members from the Student Recreation Center went through 40 hours of training conducted by Peak Experiences Inc. over winter break, and completed another 40 hours during spring break, Romero said.

Groups who want to go through the course schedule either four or eight hour sessions. The first activities are ice-breakers.

After the group has loosened up, its members define their objectives for the day, often concentrating on goals like trust, teamwork and communication.

The course is comprised of a series of obstacles utilizing ropes and aluminum aircraft cables with names like "Mohawk Walk" and "Small Wall."

For instance, on the small wall, participants must decide among themselves how to get each member up an 11 1/2 foot wall without hand or foot holds.

Many times, Rec Center staff members, who work as facilitators, will create scenarios for the groups that add a dash of excitement to the course.

"Many times, people have to do things, have to be at work," Romero said. "There are frictions and jealousies."

He said that an aspect of the course is to encourage members to meet and exceed their own expectations.

"We move people out of their comfort zones and work through problem situations with a hands-on approach where they can actually see the results."

Chris Dundy, interdisciplinary studies senior and Marine, took members of his Naval ROTC group through the course.

"It really helped us work on creative thinking, trust and teamwork," Dundy said.

He said the climbing wall, a 32-foot structure that ascends straight up with molded rock hand-holds, was a favorite of the group.

But more than that, the group enjoyed the "pamper pole," a tall pole about 12 inches in diameter which the participants climb. Once they have reached the top, they stand up and launch themselves toward a trapeze hanging a few feet away, approximately 32 feet above the ground.

"The jump to the trapeze is actually the least scary part," Dundy said. "Going from the top of the pole to standing on it is the scariest."

Bruce Osborne, one of the ROTC members and a political science senior, said that the course "definitely challenged my abilities throughout the various obstacles."

The student rate for the course is $15 for a four-hour session and $25 for an eight-hour session.

Anyone can go through the course - just call the Student Recreation Center and make a reservation.

Dundy said the most important aspect of the course for his group was the new knowledge of each other.

"We know now which people are willing to stretch beyond their limits and go outside their comfort zone for the group."