NOLS Blog
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…
Climate Medicine: Where Climate Change and Healthcare Meet
Fires at wildland-urban interfaces—the transition zones where human development, such as houses and infrastructure, meets or intermingles with ...
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. Lila Sternberg There is ...
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…
Case Study: Motion Sickness on a Surf and Dive Trip in Oahu, Hawaii
The Setting You’re leading a small group on a combined surf and introductory scuba trip on Oahu. The group is staying on the North Shore and driving early in the morning to a south shore harbor to meet the dive boat. The coastal road is narrow, hilly, and full of tight curves. Several group members…
Summer Programs for High Schoolers: Choosing an Adventure That Lasts
Every parent of a high schooler feels it: these summers matter. The window is short, and how your teen spends it shapes more than you’d think. The science backs that up. Adolescence, roughly ages 12 to 18, is one of the most significant growth windows a person will ever experience. It’s when teens actively figure…
The Complete Guide to Summer Programs for Teens
Each summer between high school years is about 90 days. For most teens, the time passes quickly — and how it’s spent matters more than it might seem at the moment. For parents thinking about how to help their teen get the most out of these months, a structured summer program is one of the…
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.”
Recorder: One In-Tent Kid
Deerfield 14-year-old makes outdoors his home for 200 days straight — so far. He also camped out during his two-week National Outdoor Leadership School trip this summer in the Adirondacks, where he hiked 44 miles and up 17,000 vertical feet over 12 days."
High Point: Netflix Co-Founder Marc Randolph to Speak at HPU
Marc Randolph, the co-founder of Netflix and an entrepreneur who changed the way we watch movies and television, will visit the campus of High Point University on Nov. 2. He is a frequent speaker at industry events, works extensively with young entrepreneur programs and is a trustee of the non-profit National Outdoor Leadership School.
County 10: Lawsuit against NOLS regarding student’s death in India officially dismissed
Last week, in the midst of the National Outdoor Leadership School’s 50th anniversary festivities, it received word that a federal judge in Cheyenne had dismissed a lawsuit against it.
Addicted to Oil? NOLS RVO Bus Runs Independent of Nation’s Energy Woes
Addicted to Oil? NOLS RVO Bus Runs Independent of Nation's Energy Woes
