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…
Quiz: Managing Altitude Illness
Take this wilderness medicine quiz to find out what you really know about the symptoms and treatment for altitude illness.
Tolerance for Uncertainty: Sea, Mountains, and Culture on a Patagonia Semester
Chilean NOLS grad Ignacio Martínez shares stories and advice from his Semester in Patagonia.
NOLS and the Wilderness Risk Management Conference: 25 Years of Facing Challenges Together
For the last 25 years NOLS has worked with partners across the outdoor industry to improve risk management awareness, standards, and practices.
7 Fishing First Aid Hazards (and What to Do)
Read our tested strategies for handling the first aid hazards you’re most likely to see when you go fishing in lakes, rivers, streams, or the ocean.
The Top 3 Leadership Lessons You Won’t Learn in an Office or Classroom
NOLS instructor Liz Townsend believes the most important leadership lessons are learned outdoors—not in the business world (although they do apply there!)
Pay It Forward: How My NOLS Semester Helped Me Lead My Own Backcountry Trips
Carolyn Highland reflects on one of her favorite days ever—ascending an unnamed peak with a student-only team on her NOLS semester—and its lasting impact.
Case Study: A Hot Day Becomes a First Aid Situation
Test your wilderness medicine skills to see how you would respond to this first-aid scenario.
Snow in May: Leadership in the Face of Uncertainty
Sarah Delany reflects on the most impactful—and toughest—day of the customized NOLS course she took with fellow Bates College students in the Adirondacks.
Quiz: Treating Heat Illness and Dehydration
How much do you really know about heat illness and dehydration? Test your skills with this first aid quiz from NOLS Wilderness Medicine.
Learning a Non-Linear Leadership Style from Sea Kayaking
Breaking the norms of leadership styles helped this NOLS grad grow on an all-women's sea kayaking leadership course in Baja California, Mexico.
Stay or Go? Making Evacuation Decisions [Infographic]
How do you make decisions about evacuating a patient from the wilderness?
NOLS Instructor Expeditions of 2017
Check out a collection of stories from some of the expeditions and trainings instructors pursued in 2017 to continue growing as leaders and educators.
