Mountaineering Courses Promise Epic Treks

Imagine a class that backpacks through Washington’s North Cascades for 29 days. This is a reality with the North Cascades Mountaineering course offered through the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). In this course, 10 lucky students, with the aid of two instructors, travel through the North Cascades and encounter deep valleys, jagged peaks, vast glaciers, and cascading waterfalls.

During the expedition students have the opportunity to hone their mountaineering prowess by learning technical skills, developing a sense for leadership, engaging in environmental studies, and practicing risk management in the wilderness. The best part? This course is just one of about 20 courses offered yearly by NOLS.

Founded in Lander, Wyoming in 1965, NOLS has graduated more than 290,000 students in the past 50-plus years. They offer courses of various lengths in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountains, New Zealand, Patagonia, East Africa, India, and the Yukon.

“We require no previous experience for most all of our courses. A great place to start would be our classic Wind River Wilderness course in Wyoming. This is the original program that launched the school over 50 years ago,” said Mike Casella, the school’s marketing representative and an alumnus.

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