By Sara Gilbert Frederick

Before going to LaCrosse, Wis., for college, Ben Ingman had never been rock climbing.

The 24-year-old Mankato native had always been the outdoorsy sort. He had camped, hiked and biked as he was growing up. He had explored the falls at Minneopa State Park and the open spaces at Kasota Prairie. Being outside was just what he did. But he didn’t find his real passion until he found the bluffs of southwest Wisconsin.

“That was where it all started,” says Ingman, who is now back living in Mankato and studying experiential education at Minnesota State University. “I just went with some buddies and learned from them.”

It was in LaCrosse that he also found Becky Gibbs, 24, with whom he now shares a home and a laundry basket full of climbing gear. Like Ingman, Gibbs had grown up enjoying the great outdoors with her family. But, like Ingman, she had never tried rock climbing until she went to college and met Ben.

“Ben introduced me to it,” she says. “He taught me how to climb, which was a lot of fun. He’s a great teacher.”

Of course, there aren’t many rocks worth climbing in Mankato. So the young couple will often throw their gear in the back of Ben’s blue Chevrolet Cavalier and just start driving. There are stones to scale at Blue Mound State Park, which is just two hours away. But there are also rocks further west, in Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and California. There isn’t much to stop them from driving that far. “There’s a fine line between going two hours and 24 hours,” Gibbs says. “Once we get in the car, we might as well just keep going.”

But Ingman is finishing his master’s degree (he’ll graduate in May) and Gibbs is committed to a full-time nanny job — which means that as much as they want to, they can’t always take off at the drop of a hat anymore. They’ve taken several adventure trips during the past year (including a month-long backpacking trip in Alaska last summer) but they’ve also learned to love the landscape they live in.

“You have to embrace what you have,” Ingman says. “That’s why we bought cross-country skis this winter; Mankato has awesome cross-country ski trails.”

Now those trails aren’t snow covered. And now Ingman and Gibbs are out hiking and running at Minneopa, Seven Mile Creek and Rasmussen Woods. They have a fondness for the Kasota Prairie and love to run the route around Indian Lake. “It’s more low key here,” Ingman admits. “But there are a lot of great places to go. Minneopa is absolutely excellent. It’s probably the most underrated area in Mankato.”

Ingman also confesses to a preference for the trails that snake through Rasmussen Woods, which is near his mother’s west Mankato home. “I’m biased, but I really do love Rasmussen Woods,” he says. “You can get in there and feel like you’re pretty remote, even though you’re right in town.”

Of course, remote is relative for Ingman and Gibbs. Last summer, they took a mountaineering trip to the top of both Mount Hood (in Oregon) and Mt. Rainier (in Washington); two weeks later, they left for their month-long adventure in Alaska. Both trips took them miles away from civilization. They also brought them closer together.

“During that time, we weren’t apart for more than an hour,” Ingman says. “We ate out of the same pot, just taking turns, that whole time. And we made it through.”

They laugh about the fact that when they got back to Mankato, they had a cumulative net worth of approximately $300. But their rent is reasonable and neither of them needs much to live on. “We’re pretty thrifty,” Gibbs says. “We save up what we need and then we take a trip. We don’t really go shopping and buy lots of things.”