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 trucked from the ranch on the west side of the Wind River Mountains to their grassland on the east side, and from late October to mid-May, Shari serves as NOLS’s Winter Wrangler. She stops by to see the animals at least every other day, checking their health, doctoring them if necessary, or contacting the vet when required. When the folks who own the pastureland are out of town, Shari feeds the herd as well. At 73 years old, Kearney is not only NOLS’s longest continuously employed female instructor; she is also its most seasoned, having racked up 424 weeks in the field—the most weeks worked in the field by any female employee. 

For Kearney, NOLS was a natural fit from the start. 

In 1980, while working for Outward Bound, Shari was invited to be part of an all-women climbing expedition on Nepal’s Dhaulagiri, the seventh highest peak in the world. It was, she says now, a life-changing experience.

“In my formative years, almost all my climbing partners were men,” Shari recalls. “It was pretty special when I got to climb with women. That was the difference in the 1980 expedition.”

Also on the expedition were NOLS Instructors Lucy Smith and Cyndy Simer. The two talked at length about their experience at the school, and Shari became intrigued. After returning from Nepal, she completed her instructor course. Within months, she was out in the field, teaching others on semester-long courses in Alaska and Wyoming.

“I remember thinking this is a place I can stay for a while,” Shari says. And she did stay, influencing other women along the way.

Already an avid mountaineer, horsewoman, and skier, Kearney says her time at NOLS helped her develop additional wilderness skills as well. 

“I became a sea-kayaker, a sailor, a caver— I learned so much,” Shari says. “So much of it was about learning new skills. The value in NOLS for me is being in an environment so rich in new experiences.”

Kearney grew up in Washington, “on the wet side of the state,” and spent every spare moment outdoors, often on horseback. She attended Washington State University and came away with a degree in zoology—and a passion for climbing.

After joining the NOLS team, she spent years instructing courses in Alaska in the summer and Baja, Mexico, in the winter. She also spent almost a decade working at NOLS Headquarters, in the Staffing office and as a member of the Admissions team.

In between courses, she always carved out time for travel and adventure. The Dhaulagiri expedition served as the impetus for numerous return trips to Nepal where she attempted Ama Dablam, Everest, Annapurna II, and Pumori. Two of those climbs were all-women’s expeditions; the others were primarily all-women. She summited Ama Dablam and Pumori.

When she wasn’t climbing or working, she was planning her next trip. 

“Traveling to Nepal kept it fresh for me,” Shari says. “I learned how to watch my pennies, to live like a dirtbag so I could go back.”  

After the Pumori expedition, Kearney hung up her mountaineering gear and took up horse packing. By then, it was the early 1990s, and she was ready for a change. 

“I needed to give up something to embrace something else,” says Shari today.

Horse packing soon became her next great love. She worked for the U.S. Forest Service from 1991 to 1994, leading pack strings of horses in the Wind River and Absaroka ranges, mostly in the Teton Wilderness, where NOLS now takes many of their horse courses.

Meanwhile, she continued to instruct at NOLS, where she excelled at teaching both hard and soft skills.

“Often it’s the latter that are more difficult to learn: soft skills like communication, leadership, and conflict resolution,” says Kearney.  “It’s tough to rappel, but it’s tougher to offer feedback.”

Forty-five years later, she remains a vital part of the NOLS community. In addition to wrangling the herd in the off season, Shari re-rations courses on horseback, transporting food to courses in the Winds. She has also led sailing trips for NOLS Trustees and the executive team. 

As the years have become decades, Shari’s influence on students and instructors continues to grow. 

Jen Sallwick, NOLS Interim Vice President of Expeditions, first worked with Shari on a horse packing section of a semester-long course in the Red Desert, with Kearney as the lead instructor. It was 2002, and Sallwick had just completed her own instructor training. The horsepacking trip was her first experience leading NOLS students.  

“My learning curve was incredibly steep on that course. I was nervous, out of my element, and very much dependent on Shari’s mentorship.”

Sallwick says that she still measures her own growth against a yardstick Shari provided.

“Shari’s humility, combined with her mastery of skills and competence, set a professional bar for me that I’ve been chasing for the last 24 years.”