Photo by Jordan Cranch.

On her Rocky Mountain Outdoor Educator semester, Erin Phillips skied backcountry mountains, canoed whitewater rapids, and hiked more than 100 miles across the Utah desert. Each new landscape brought fresh experiences, including the day she and her coursemates hiked for hours to reach a water source in the desert’s slot canyons and danced in celebration.

The desert awakened another kind of thirst as well, a burning curiosity about the beautiful and harsh environment that surrounded her: “Escalante taught me a very special lesson: to stop. To stop doing and start listening.” 

Topics: Semester abroad, Behind the Scenes, Semester, culture, education, outdoor semester

Last summer, the Antler River was a knee-deep stream flowing through a broad meadow deep in the mountains of Alaska. Now, it was a moving lake, flooding the entire meadow.

Topics: Semester abroad, leadership, Behind the Scenes, Semester, research, Problem Solving, outdoor semester

“We’re out of food!” Josh shouted as his group hiked into the campsite on the last night of the course.

Topics: Behind the Scenes, recipe, NOLS cookery, education, backcountry recipe

NOLS Risk Services caught up with Julie Barnes to find out why she values risk taking, risk management, and wilderness-based experiential education. Julie is the Director of Outings at Marin Academy (MA), an independent high school in San Rafael, CA, with a big focus on immersive experiential education & engaged learning. Many of these experiences take place in wilderness areas, which invite challenge, exploration, and the opportunity, for students and faculty alike, to be fully present.

Topics: Behind the Scenes, WRMC, risk-management, education, Wilderness Risk Management Conference, NOLS Risk Services

“I am going to say it's not really possible to connect the Broken Skull with other rivers in the area, the mountains are just too impassible…Black Wolf Creek is unknown. Drops at a significant gradient from Grizzly…and passes through some very narrow canyons which would probably be huge whitewater. Not really recommended to go there...It is not possible to connect Broken Skull or Black Wolf (to) Thundercloud Creek without helicopter support.” -Local river guide

Topics: Behind the Scenes, Canada, instructor, Instructor Development Fund, Instructor Development Fund (IDF), packrafting, Instructor expedition, stories

The start of a course, or any trip with new people, is usually a little bit messy. Setting up the tent just took 45 minutes and, when you finally finish, you realize that no one has started cooking dinner yet. On top of that, you don’t even have water to cook with yet.

Topics: leadership, Behind the Scenes, expedition behavior

You go on outdoor adventures to enjoy the group experience as much the scenery or any activity you'll do. Just like packing your gear, you can plan ways to keep everyone motivated and excited to be part of the team.

Topics: leadership, Behind the Scenes, Outdoor Leadership, teamwork

We’re excited to announce our three new courses for winter and spring of 2018. Do service work at a school in Tanzania, explore remote cave paintings in Baja California, and grow your avalanche awareness with a winter ski training.

Topics: Behind the Scenes, education, new courses

Instructor, University of Oregon faculty member, and speaker at the 2017 NOLS Summit Eric Boggs talks with us about how to use storytelling as a powerful way to teach leadership.

Topics: leadership, Behind the Scenes, storytelling

“We want [our students] to use the education to be leaders in their community with an understanding of ecology and conservation for the wild outdoors far beyond their legislators back home. We expect these people to be a grain of sand on the beach of future leadership.” —Paul Petzoldt

Topics: leadership, Behind the Scenes, Environmental Stewardship, Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability, climate change

I grimaced slightly as I rolled onto my side, stretching the sunburnt skin on my back and shoulders. After the mild pain subsided I couldn’t help but laugh at this new source of discomfort, and its stark contrast to the bite of the frigid wind in Frey and the raw chill of the fog in Los Arenales.

Topics: Behind the Scenes, NOLS Patagonia, rock-climbing

We arrived at Velvet Falls, one of the first notable rapids of this family trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.

Topics: Behind the Scenes, instructor, NOLS Teton Valley, whitewater rafting

Editor’s Note: We’re introducing six new courses to our fall lineup that are all 10 days or shorter. Enjoy!

Topics: Behind the Scenes, NOLS Rocky Mountain, NOLS Southwest, NOLS Northeast

We’re announcing the newest NOLS course: Pluto Space Travel and Spacewalking.

According to executive director John Gans, “Pluto’s an unconventional choice, but was only logical for our newest course area.”

Topics: Behind the Scenes

Photo by Matt Heaton.

You’re the type of person who will eat a noodle that fell in the dirt, shudder when you think about “surface pooping,” and march right through mud puddles on the trail rather than around them. You’re a master of Leave No Trace.

It can be hard to know how to bring your dedication to LNT to your daily routine. So, I asked around at NOLS Headquarters to find out what NOLSies do to keep LNT alive in their daily routine.

Take a look and see if there are any ideas you can fit into your lifestyle.

Topics: Behind the Scenes, leave no trace, Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability