NOLS Blog
Case Study: Chest Injury with Fall
The Setting You are on a climbing trip in Red Rocks, Nevada. You’ve spent the last week dialing in your climbing, swapping beta with new friends at the crag and soaking up the desert sun. Today, you decide to take a break from long routes and focus on bouldering. You’re chalking up, eyeing a new…
Backpacking the Vilcabamba Valley to Machu Picchu Alumni Trip: Inaugural Trip Reflection
An Interview with Kellsie Forbes, NOLS Alumni Trips Manager Where did the idea to create an alumni trip ...
Alumni Spotlight: How my NOLS Course Impacted My Career
Almost exactly 10 years after coming to Alaska for the first time to take a NOLS course, Asa ...
The Wilderness Risk Management Conference: a Conference and a Community
An interview with Elyse Rylander, Wilderness Risk Management Steering Committee Chair The 33rd annual Wilderness Risk Management Conference (WRMC) will be held this fall, October 20 – 22nd, in Portland, Oregon. If you haven’t attended yet, the WRMC was developed from the work of multiple outdoor programs who wanted to create a space to foster…
Case Study: Bear Spray in the Face
The Setting You are almost done with a 3-day backpacking trip in the Wind River Mountain Range of Wyoming with two of your friends. You only have a couple miles left to get back to the car, and you’re already dreaming of the cheeseburger and milkshake you’re going to have once back in town. Prior…
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
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
The Setting You are working on a Type 2 initial attack handcrew in the Deschutes National Forest during the early part of fire season. It’s one of the first assignments of the year, and while conditions aren’t extreme yet, temperatures have climbed into the mid-80s°F with full sun exposure on a south-facing slope. The crew…
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…
How to Make Your Routine Leave No Trace
You're a pro at LNT on the trail, but do you ever think about applying these principles at home too? Get started with some tips from NOLS staff members.
Make Leadership the Focus of Your Gap Year
The true value of a leadership gap year isn't adding an impressive list of activities to your resume—it's about developing valuable life skills.
Camping Recipe: 30-Minute Cornbread
Worried about cooking outdoors? Fear not! You don't have to be a master chef to make this tasty cornbread.
4 Ways You Can Always Be Learning
A NOLS instructor reflects on how a rock climbing seminar inspired her to keep learning.
3 Ideas to Feed Your Inner Wild
NOLS mountaineering grad Will Harrison shares tips on adjusting to city life and incorporating lessons learned outdoors to life at home.
Camping Recipe: 4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Truffles
Chocolate and peanut butter—what's not to love? Here's a quick and tasty dessert to try on your next adventure.
10 Useful Wilderness Medicine Posts To Read Before Your Next Adventure
Check out these blog posts to get a refresher on key first aid topics before heading out on your next outdoor trip.
Tolerance for Uncertainty & Adversity
NOLS grad Carolyn Highland reflects on how learning tolerance for adversity on an outdoor semester in New Zealand translates to challenges at home.
When Your Teammate Becomes Your Patient: My First Aid Training in Action
A NOLS Wilderness First Aid grad shares the story of how his first aid training helped him when a friend was injured in a mountain biking accident.
Why Humans Need Wild Country
For us as a society, wild country gives us a place to wander in, to dream about, to disconnect, to live out our adventures in.
Looking Within, Stepping Forward
52 years after its founding, NOLS reflects on its foundational values and the relevance of its leadership curriculum then and now.
