Are you seeking the exhilaration of a perfect ride in untracked powder? Want to learn the skills to transition from being an area rider to a backcountry boarder? Then come snowboarding with NOLS! You’ll venture through the mountains on your split board, improve your snowboarding skills, and learn to be comfortable and happy outside in the winter.
In this snow-covered playground, you’ll learn to travel responsibly in avalanche terrain—an important skill for riders who want to venture out of ski areas into the untamed snowy wilderness.
This 12-day course allows for weekend travel for those who have limited time to be away from family or work. The course begins with instruction at Grand Targhee Resort, and the first two backcountry nights are spent in a yurt—a semi-permanent soft-walled structure complete with a wood stove and an outhouse! This allows participants to ease into the challenging winter environment and gain quick access to untracked powder.
After such relative luxury, the course moves further into the backcountry where you’ll construct elaborate snow shelters, learn about teamwork, and carve turns in fresh powder. Camping and traveling in the winter is a lot of hard work, and surfing down the mountain in knee-deep powder is a very cool reward.
“People talk about wild areas all the time,
but Alaska has a wildness and beauty unlike anywhere else. When
our group finally made it to a summit, we just went wild. I’ll
never forget that feeling of being on a mountain where hardly anyone
else has ever been.”
Ryan Hughes
Semester in Alaska, 1999
University of Maine Student
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