NOLS Blog
When Everything Came Into Focus — Hiking Patagonia’s Torres del Paine O Circuit Alumni Trip
I first learned about the O Circuit in 2025, a year before I actually did it. My wife and I were in Patagonia on a Road Scholar trip. It started with a cruise through the Strait of Magellan and the Darwin Passage, followed by a few days in Torres del Paine National Park doing short…
Rothberg-Birdwhistel Expedition Fund: Panchachuli III Peak Climb
Team selfie. In May 2025, Bharat Bhushan, Prerna Dangi, and I took on a challenge to climb Panchachuli ...
Case Study: Non-Freezing Cold Injury on a Canoe Trip
Two people paddle a canoe on a calm river. Photo by Craig Muderlak The Setting You are leading ...
Lou Gordon: Three Decades of Influence
Louise “Lou” Gordon’s office in the Wilderness Medicine wing of NOLS Headquarters is tucked into the perpendicular intersection of two banks of offices, in the center of the activity but quiet and a little reserved. Like Lou herself.
After more than 30 years, the last 6 1/2 as NOLS Wilderness Medicine’s Wilderness EMT Supervisor, Lou is cleaning and packing up her office in preparation for her retirement. Her last day is May 1.
Climate Medicine: Where Climate Change and Healthcare Meet
Springtime has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere. Trees and grasses are greening up, flowers are blooming, and birds have returned to greet the morning with song. As many of Earth’s residents head into boreal summer, they know to expect rising temperatures. But what does that heat mean for human health? What happens when infectious diseases…
Summer Travel Programs for Teens: Why Wilderness Expeditions Offer More Than a Passport Stamp
Most summer travel programs for teens promise adventure. A select few actually deliver it. There is a difference between traveling through a place and learning to move through it with skill and intention. That difference is worth understanding before you commit to any program, and before your teen boards a plane. This guide breaks down…
Staying Power
Shari Kearney didn’t just find a place at NOLS—as our longest serving female instructor, she has worked over 424 weeks in the field and influenced generations of students. Shari Kearney is checking on Three Peaks Ranch’s stable of horses, kept on pastures outside of Lander, Wyoming in the offseason. Each autumn, the horses—dozens of them—are…
Connection, Resilience, and Dal Bhat: Manaslu Circuit Alumni Trip 2025
In November 2025, five gentlemen, one lady, three guides, and three support staff met in Kathmandu in preparation for a two-week NOLS alumni trek on the Manaslu Circuit in Nepal. Although we were all strangers coming from different parts of the world, our shared excitement for setting foot in the Himalayas was palpable. During those…
Best Summer Programs for Teens: Outdoor Adventures That Build Leaders
Most teens will spend this summer doing something fun, but maybe not so meaningful. Not because they lack ambition, but because the summer camps available to them were designed to center around fun, rather than building long-lasting skills. The difference between a summer that fades and one that becomes a reference point — something your…
Outdoors for All: Why Diversity Matters to the Outdoor Industry
Author of The Adventure Gap, James Mills offers insights as to why it's vitally important to add more color to the natural world and five things you can do to grow diversity.
NOLS Attends Conference on Bear Research
At the 24th International Conference on Bear Research and Management, NOLS joined other bear experts from around the world to share their knowledge last week.
NOLS Goes to Mars
National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) has been running courses for NASA Astronauts since 1999, through NOLS Professional Training.
New Zealand Outdoors Drawcard for International Students
They've left behind regular lives elsewhere in the world and have headed to the New Zealand campus of American-based National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS).
The school provides an education some of the students say they'd never get from a regular classroom.
Their accommodation before heading into the wilderness is a small village of tents on a grassy flat above the river in Aniseed Valley, named for the spice which once grew there.
NOLS Given Heritage Award
The Wyoming Business Alliance and Wyoming Heritage Foundation presented the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) with the heritage award Nov. 17.
NOLS River Rescue Guide Wins National Book Award
The NOLS River Rescue Guide earned a national book award from NOBA for instructional books.
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
