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…
NOLS and Saybrook University Pioneer Innovative New Master’s Program
NOLS and Saybrook University have partnered to launch a new Master’s in Leadership program that combines online study and outdoor education. A 32-credit, three-semester program beginning in January 2019, the NOLS Saybrook MA in Leadership includes three wilderness expeditions led by NOLS.
James Mills Receives Paul K. Petzoldt Award for The Adventure Gap book
The Wilderness Education Association gave James Mills the Paul K. Petzoldt Leadership Award at the 2016 International Conference on Outdoor Leadership.
The Ultimate Gifts for the Daring Adventurer
See gift ideas for the adventurer in your life, including a NOLS expedition.
Honors Business Students Share Reflections on Wilderness Expedition
Students from the University of Texas’ Canfield Business Honors Program (BHP) reflect on an eight-day backpacking expedition with NOLS in January 2019.
ESF: SEO Steers NYC Student to Conservation Biology
Sponsors for Educational Opportunity Scholars. Taste for adventure sent him to the Talkeetna Mountains in Alaska for a 30-day backpacking trip with the National Outdoor Leadership School and helped guide him into an internship with the Nature Conservancy.
The Gap Year Trend: What, Why and How?
One option through NOLS is a semester in the Rocky Mountains including backpacking, mountaineering, winter camping, wilderness medicine, rafting, etc.
Vermont’s Lieutenant Governor Inspired by NOLS Course
David Zuckerman, Vermont’s lieutenant governor, took a NOLS sea kayaking course in Alaska shortly after the Exxon Valdez ran aground, an experience that solidified his commitment to tackling environmental issues.
Finding Refuge in the Wild
A part of Colorado’s growing refugee population, Muna Oweidat recently went backpacking for the first time on a NOLS expedition for MBA students.
4 Spring Break Trips You Haven’t Considered
Choose a different kind of spring break this year. Forget the touristy beaches and overcrowded ski resorts and dive into a real outdoor adventure!
The Engineer, His Camera and an Alaskan Love Affair: Part Two
The Engineer, His Camera and an Alaskan Love Affair: Part Two
