NOLS Blog
Case Study: Fishhooks
The Setting You’re on the first day of a twelve-day whitewater canoeing expedition down the Green River. Your group consists of fifteen students and four instructors. Everyone is paddling close together down a stretch of flat water practicing strokes, building skills, and getting to know one another. Spirits are high. People are laughing, chatting, and…
When Everything Came Into Focus — Hiking Patagonia’s Torres del Paine O Circuit Alumni Trip
Photo: Libby Poston I first learned about the O Circuit in 2025, a year before I actually did ...
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
In May 2025, Bharat Bhushan, Prerna Dangi, and I took on a challenge to climb Panchachuli III (6,349m), believed by local residents to remain unclimbed. We aimed to approach it via the northeast route through the Meola Glacier. Despite occasional visits by military and paramilitary personnel, there was no recorded mountaineering information or documented route…
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…
Ladakhi Women’s Welfare Network Founder Thinlas Chorol to Speak at Yale
Thinlas traveled to attend Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and then the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) where she became a credentialed guide.
Meet Thinlas Chorol: Mountaineer and more
She attended the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) where she became a credentialed guide. She returned to Ladakh to open Ladakhi Women Travel Company.
How Gap Years Can Prepare You For College: A Semester in Patagonia
After several months and many reiterations of the Common App passed, I decided to defer from Colorado College and apply for a semester in Patagonia with NOLS.
Yarn Registry – I am a Grand Canyon park ranger
I obtained wilderness first aid and CPR certifications. I did a NOLS course and a American Red Cross class before starting to work at the National Park Service.
In Wyoming, a cautious public lands victory
Aaron Bannon, the stewardship and sustainability director at NOLS, said the crowd at the hearings included hunters and anglers next to conservationists.
Molly Graham is taking on a top ops role at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Molly Graham has also worked at Google and the Council on Foreign Relations, and was a wilderness instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS).
Steamboat Springs graduate completes Patagonia expedition
Jackson Perry, a 2014 Steamboat Springs High School graduate spent 80 days during fall term on a NOLS Semester in Patagonia.
This environmentalist is the flag-bearer of the changing face of farming
She became an instructor for NOLS and would live in the mountains for months, the environmental studies, working for the EPA and now farming.
Edmond resident completes 80-day wilderness expedition in Patagonia
Joe Romano, 20, of Edmond, recently completed a fall semester in Patagonia with NOLS.
WWII 10th Mountain Division Victories Honored Through Ski-In
Trained in skiing and mountain climbing during the war, many WWII 10th veterans developed the U.S. ski industry and outdoor recreation programs like NOLS.
Meet the first African-American crew member of the ISS
NASA announced that first flight astronaut Jeannette Epps will be the first African-American space station crewmember when she launches for her mission.
Teton Staycation: A Brief Escape to Baldy Yurt
The NOLS, Driggs location, offers various winter courses, some of which involve yurt trips, depending on the course objective and where the course travels.
