NOLS Blog
How to Make Hash Browns with Cheese
Hash browns have a well-deserved reputation as a delicious breakfast treat, but this cheesy version is great for lunch or dinner too—and that’s before you add nuggets of ham or bacon and a few shakes of hot sauce into the mix! This recipe requires a little forethought—both the hash browns and dried onions benefit from…
NOLS Picante Sauce
Picante perks up almost any savory recipe—try it on eggs, beans, in soups and coupled with anything on ...
Backpacking Among Giants: A Trip Report from Norway’s Jotunheimen Mountains
Photo by Amanda Klein In August of 2025, the inaugural NOLS Alumni Norway Backpacking Trip ventured into the Jotunheimen Mountains ...
Case Study: Altitude Illness While Trekking
The Setting You are on the trip of a lifetime hiking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal with one of your best friends. This trip has been in the works for over a year. You’ve spent countless hours training, reviewing maps, and daydreaming about being in the mountains. You can’t believe you’re finally here! You flew…
What a NOLS Risk Review Really Looks Like: A Case Study with NatureBridge
In the same year as NOLS’ 60th anniversary, we are celebrating 20 years since the formation of NOLS Risk Services. For 60 years, NOLS has operated in remote locations all over the world, and in 2005, NOLS Risk Services was formed to share what NOLS has learned about operational risk management in the process. NOLS…
Case Study: Dental Emergency while Rafting
A member of your rafting party loses a tooth partway through a 4-day trip. How do you respond?
Where Play Meets Purpose: A Journey Through the Canyons
Since 2022, NOLS and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business have collaborated on a yearly weeklong expedition to the canyons in southeastern Utah. This expedition is the culmination of a semester-long leadership course for Ross undergraduate students. It combines concepts and learnings from the classroom course with the NOLS leadership curriculum in a…
Rothberg-Birdwhistell Exploration Fund: Expedition to the Peruvian Andes
In the spring of 2025, we set out on an Alpine and ski mountaineering expedition to Peru’s Cordillera Blanca. As outdoor educators with experience leading students on NOLS courses, our team shares a deep commitment to learning through challenge and a connection to wild places. Our goals: explore new terrain, attempt several high peaks, and…
Case Study: Sea Kayaking Slip
A fall partway through a sea kayak trip deep in the wilderness poses unique issues. How do you apply your wilderness medicine skills to this incident?
MtnMeister: Five Star Camping Cuisine
National Outdoor Leadership School - NOLS grad talks about camping cuisine on MtnMeister
WRMC presents Risk Management Award to Johnson
The Wilderness Risk Management Conference (WRMC) presented the seventh annual Charles (Reb) Gregg Wilderness Risk Management last week in Portland, Ore.
NOLS Stewardship Award Presented to Ratcliffe, Chief of NPS Division of Conservation & Outdoor Recreation
NOLS Stewardship Award presented to Bob Ratcliffe, Chief of the NPS Division of Conservation and Outdoor Recreation
NOLS Presents Alumni Achievement Award to Metcalf
NOLS Presents Alumni Achievement Award to Peter Metcalf
Black Diamond Founder, CEO to Speak in Lander
Peter Metcalf, founder and CEO of Black Diamond, will give the keynote speech during the National Outdoor Leadership School’s (NOLS) 50th anniversary celebration.
Sketchfervor: WFR a.k.a. Wilderness First Responder
Wilderness First Responder course described with cartoons
Sports Guide: Forging New Paths
When Cole Medders signed up for the Spring Semester in the Rockies, he fulfilled a long-held desire to move out West and explore the wild. The course began in February with a winter camping excursion in Wyoming’s Absaroka Mountains. The group practiced backcountry skiing, avalanche rescue, and built igloos to take shelter from the elements, which Medders says was the highlight of his NOLS experience. “It felt like you were really surviving out there,” he says. “It got down to -20 or -30 degrees some nights and we were way out in the middle of nowhere in the mountains, just surviving this environment that people aren’t really supposed to be in. It’s very empowering.”
