About Us

 Who We Are 

Established in 1980, Sundance Outdoor Adventure Society is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization based in the New York metropolitan area, devoted to non-competitive outdoor activities for the LGBT community.

What We Do

Sundance began in 1980 as a hiking club. As member interests diversified, other activities were added. Sundance currently is organized around these activities: 

Camping and Backpacking, Biking, Boating, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Metro/Cultural, Skiing/Snowboarding and Skating.

Where We Go

Most Sundance outings are within a two-hour radius of New York City. They can be as varied as an evening at the Museum of Modern Art, a hike in the Catskills, or a bike ride in the Hamptons.  Many outings are day trips, but we also have weekend trips, as well as Extended Treks that last a week or longer and have ventured as far away as Europe, South America, New Zealand, and the Far East. Sundance also rents a Ski Lodge near Okemo Mountain in Ludlow, Vermont, and a Beach House in Fire Island Pines.

Sundance History: Who founded Sundance? How did we get our name? & other cool info:

The founder of Sundance was an approximately 30 year old, handsome and affable young man named Michael Caltabiano.  In his professional life, he worked outdoors as a surveyor, and indoors as the bouncer for a few gay bars in Long Island, including Equus.

Mike was unhappy that so much of gay life at that time (1980) seemed to be so utterly indoors, whereas he loved to be outdoors, preferably in the company of other gay men and women who loved the outdoors as well. So, in late 1979 and early 1980, Mike began holding 8pm meetings in the back of the Bunkhouse, a gay bar in Sayville, Long Island, New York. He bamboozled, pressured and cajoled a number of his bar-fly buddies into doing a few simple hikes within Long Island, then a day hike across the GW bridge and up the Long Path, and then to Harriman State Park in February of 1980.  This was followed by a full weekend event on Memorial Day of 1981 (or 1982) to the Covered Bridge campsite at Willowemoc, New York (near Liberty). 

By this time, Michael decided to call his group Sundance, in honor of the dance that Native Americans did when they hoped that the heavens would provide good, sunny weather.

By 1982, Sundance had become much more Manhattan based, had become incorporated, purchased its first state of the art Kapro computer, and formed its first Board of Directors.  Membership shot up from its first year tally of 80, to about 600.(my guess, here.) by 1982.  Michael Caltabiano was on the first, 1982 Board, chaired by our very own Joe Fazio.  

Lenny Magnus