Fall Season Under Way in Tucson

As we say goodbye to the summer rains here in the Sonoran Desert, we openly welcome another biannual visitor to the area—Semester in the Southwest students. This fall season the Southwest branch (NOLS Southwest) will play home base for one caving seminar and three student semester courses: two Fall Southwest Semesters (FSW-1 & FSW-2) and the Sonoran Year (SY).

The first Fall Semester group (FSW-1), which arrived on Monday September 3, spent its first few days at the branch acclimatizing to the heat and developing necessary first aid skills. Wednesday evening, the in-town staff threw a BBQ/pool party for the semester students and congratulated them on receiving their Wilderness First Aid (WFA) certifications.

FSW-1 student Graham Nesbitt surrenders to the deceptively docile Shamu pool toy.

FSW-1 students and instructors strike a pose before leaving on their
Gila Wilderness backpacking section