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…
Case Study: Heat Illness on an Early-Season Wildland Fire Assignment
Photo by Kirk Rasmussen The Setting You are working on a Type 2 initial attack handcrew in the ...
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
The Setting You are leading an early-season canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. It’s mid-May, and while the days are mild, the water is still very cold. Travel involves frequent portaging and wading in and out of the canoe to load and unload gear. Despite good effort, everyone’s feet have been wet…
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…
Paste Magazine: 6 Reasons to Visit Wyoming that Aren’t Yellowstone
Six reasons to visit Wyoming that aren't Yellowstone: Lander and NOLS.
Misadventures: Exploring Women
We live in a time of “Look at me, look at me,” presented to us on a daily basis whenever we have any contact with social media. I am witness to countless situations where people feign interest in news and conversations so that they can turn it around and make it all about themselves.
It’s so refreshing, then, to be able to say, “Look at them,” which is why I am writing about Katie McDonnell, age 19, and Taylor Rabbitt, 22. Although these ladies have never met, they share an exuberance, discipline, and passion to learn about our oceans, mountains, and diverse cultures through adventure, education, and exploration. They both have a great attitude towards life.
Katie McDonnell is a freshman at Elon University and a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) graduate.
Burrisisland: Learning Leadership
Dr. Qubein’s leadership qualities sparked memories for me of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), the premier teacher of outdoor living skills and leadership, offering courses from 10 days to full semesters in some of the world’s most spectacular natural settings. Over my lifetime, I graduated from four NOLS courses
Polymath Mag: My Journey to Becoming Comfortable Being Uncomfortable Through NOLS
Ever since my cousin told me about his NOLS expeditions that he took in high school I had been interested in going on one myself. The fact that I had always had a little bit of wander lust and a major spirit of the wild only helped encourage me to take the plunge and go on this adventure. The summer after my sophomore year of high school I decided that it was the right time for me to take my outdoor Sabbatical.
BioLite: Why Remaining Calm is the Most Important Preparedness Tool
When was the last time you attended a class focused on scaling a mountain face or navigating rapids? For most of us, spending a class period outside on the quad during college was a one time thing. At the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), class is held on the mountain or walking through the woods. Students embark on expeditions where they learn to rock climb, whitewater raft and lead through outdoor challenges. Instructors guide students through extreme scenarios daily so they can learn to remain calm under stress and make good decisions. For the past 30 years, Marco Johnson has actively instructed wilderness education courses while recruiting and training NOLS field staff worldwide. We sat down with Marco to learn how he teaches students to thrive in off grid situations and how we can keep our cool when faced with an indoor emergency. Here are his top three tips:
Slate: What Counts as Wilderness?
When you hear the word wilderness, what do you picture? Vast woods full of leaping stags? A mountain rearing up into the clouds? Jungles tangling in all directions? Or something else entirely?
Casper Star Tribune: NOLS turns 50, talk with former student and founder of Black Diamond
To help recognize NOLS’ 50th anniversary, the Star-Tribune caught up with Peter Metcalf, founder and CEO of international outdoor gear company Black Diamond Equipment and former NOLS student to explain how his experience in the organization helped shape his future.
WPR: National Outdoor Leadership School Celebrates 50 Years
NOLS was founded in Wyoming and is still headquartered in Lander, where it serves tens of thousands of students each year. Wyoming Public Radio’s Caroline Ballard caught up with John Gans, the executive director at NOLS, to hear his take on the school’s 50-year legacy.
Sierra Club Radio: An American Ascent, the first African American expedition to take on Denali
Photographer Hudson Henry on the new documentary An American Ascent, which covers the first African American expedition to take on Denali.
KDLY/KOVE: NOLS Holds Welcome & Opening Event
John Ganns, Director of the Lander based National Outdoor Leadership School, welcomed over seven-hundred returning NOLS graduates , former staff, community members and officials during opening ceremonies last night (Thursday) of the 50th Anniversary of the school, founded in March of 1965 in Lander.
Casper Star Tribune: Congrats to NOLS on 50 Years
Students learn to be adaptable and resourceful. They learn to persevere and to pursue goals doggedly. Those are life skills – skills that will stay with students long after they leave their mountain, desert, jungle or ocean classroom.
County 10: NOLS Celebrated 50th with Reminiscing, Parties, Workshops, Planning
Fifty years ago on March 4, 1965, Judge Jack Nicholas and Paul Petzoldt signed papers establishing the National Outdoor Leadership School in Lander,' current NOLS Executive Director John Gans told a large gathering at the Lander Community and Convention Center. 'While Paul was a visionary, he did not envision that today we would be an international school that taught courses in 28 countries, otherwise he probably wouldn’t have chosen ‘National’ for the name.'
