North Cascades Mountaineering
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Overview
Highlights
- This is an outdoor leadership course designed for age 23 years and older
- Learn the fundamentals of mountaineering
- Learn wilderness and leadership skills on expeditions and in classrooms
- Enjoy stunning views and new challenges
What's this trip about?
Details
Travel Themes
Destinations
Activities
Itinerary
NOLS courses teach wilderness and leadership skills on expeditions and in classrooms. Our students apply these skills to challenges in a supportive learning environment with high expectations. Students have the opportunity for a positive, transformational experience a...
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Dates & Availability
Check Current Availability, prices, specials with National Outdoor Leadership School.
The total tour cost includes the tour price (regular or promotional) and the compulsory local payment. The promotional price is subject to change. Check directly with the operator for the latest price offer. The tour operator requires you to pay only the tour price to purchase your travel. The compulsory local payment will be paid when you join the trip. All prices are based on double, twin or triple share occupancy. Solo passengers will be accommodated in a double, twin or triple room according to availability with a passenger(s) of the same gender. Single supplement only needs to be paid if the passenger does not want to share and requests their own room. Discounts can only be applied at the time of booking and cannot be added at a later date, regardless of any changes made to the original booking.
Prices may vary due to local taxes and trip seasonality. Click "Request Info" to inquire directly with the tour operator for the final trip price.
National Outdoor Leadership School Reviews & Ratings
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Great Wilderness courses!
Great Wilderness courses!
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I recently took the NOLS Wilderness First Aid course and was very please with not only the content, but the instructors as well. They were very knowledgeable and kne...
Tour Operator
Our school began in a small cabin in Sinks Canyon, Wyoming in 1965 as the National Outdoor Leadership School. At that time, we were primarily a wilderness skills school, doing our work in various mountain ranges and focusing on what teaching leadership in the outdoors meant. Today, we are NOLS, a multifaceted, wilderness school that supports thousands of students each year all over the world.
For us, it’s always been about how well we can serve our students. In the beginning, our founder Paul Petzoldt dreamt of nurturing leaders who knew how to live responsibly in the wilderness and teach others to do the same. One way we’ve evolved to better accomplish that has been by offering more diverse courses and trainings. Today, we focus on teaching leadership in many contexts, from leading during a medical emergency to a wilderness expedition, to training company executives, to helping our industry as a whole better manage the risks we face in the wilderness.
Our story since 1965 is one of resilience and determination, passion and pushing the limits of our expertise. We are thriving today because of the grit we developed by necessity in our early years. We invented outdoor gear when it didn’t exist, recovered from financial struggles that could have sunk the school, handled the loss and celebrated the return of our provocative founder, and reflected and learned when one of our community experienced loss or injury in the wilderness.
We’re also thriving because of the way our school has diversified and grown over the years. The wild forms the core of every aspect of the school, and the interrelationship of our various parts makes us stronger. NOLS Wilderness Medicine, founded as the Wilderness Medicine Institute, was instrumental in promoting and elevating the quality of wilderness medicine in the field's early days. It has enabled our wilderness medicine curriculum to be constantly tested and improved in the outdoors and led us to improved practices. Our years of managing risk for our own programs has become part of the expertise we share through risk management consulting and a yearly conference that promotes dialogue about risk in the industry. Being able to offer customized courses, in turn, has enabled us to reach larger audiences and test ways to keep our leadership curriculum relevant in many environments.
Today, our students are learning on oceans and in classrooms, in rivers and in conference rooms. Our curriculum resonates as much with a student just beginning high school as it does with an astronaut, entrepreneur, or outdoor program director; and each of these students shows us new ways to view and teach leadership.
As we strive to support growth in our students and continue to grow as leaders ourselves, we work together to leverage the strengths of each part of the school so we can continue to step forward boldly into the wild, no matter what that wild looks like, and help the world’s future leaders do the same.
NOLS is a non-profit school that seeks to help you step forward boldly as a leader.
We believe that anyone can be a leader; it’s our role to provide the environment and training to help you discover your full potential. We do that in classrooms close to home and in remote wilderness areas around the world.
We’re an organization with heart, expertise, and wildness, and these qualities help us support powerful, authentic experiences.
Our Mission And Values
Our mission is to be the leading source and teacher of wilderness skills and leadership that serve people and the environment. Our community—staff, students, trustees, and alumni—shares a commitment to wilderness, education, leadership, safety, community, and excellence
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Logistics
Average age: 32
Weather and Other Challenges
Weather
Mountain weather is unpredictable. On any given day, temperatures may range from below freezing to sweltering. Courses may experience snow and rain, or long stretches of sun and blue skies.
Terrain
Mountaineering in the Pacific Northwest, while it can be tough, remains a great learning ground for future mountaineering of all types. You will negotiate glaciers, crevasses and icefalls and walk on loose, shifting boulders. Much of the traveling is on steep terrain requiring precise movement. Often, you’ll be off-trail bushwhacking through thick forests or scrambling in boulder fields. You will traverse steep slopes of snow, loose rock or grass, and hike up high mountain passes, at times gaining 4,000-5,000 feet in a day.
Remoteness
For the duration of your course, you’ll be miles from the amenities of civilization. Telephones, ambulances, and hospitals may be days away. All NOLS instructors maintain wilderness medicine certifications and are equipped with well-stocked first aid kits to provide care in the event of an emergency.
Wildlife
This course travels through grizzly and black bear habitat. NOLS, in collaboration with bear biologists, has developed specific practices to minimize the risk of a bear encounter. Your instructors will teach these practices to you and you will have to follow them every day. Bear avoidance practices include carrying bear deterrent pepper spray, meticulously maintaining cleanliness at the cooking sites, and at times if the situation warrants, making loud calls to warn bears of your presence when moving through areas where visibility is poor and not being alone. Precautions against bear encounters may decrease the opportunities for solitude and privacy on this course.
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