Experience Lightweight Backpacking in the Rugged Rocky Mountains

Step into the high country of Wyoming’s Wind River or Absaroka Mountains on a 14-day lightweight expedition designed to build confidence, clarity, and competence in mountain travel. Moving through granite basins, alpine meadows, and glacier-carved valleys with an intentional, streamlined kit allows you to travel efficiently, respond to changing weather, and stay more connected to the terrain beneath your feet.

Whether you’re preparing for a long-distance trail like the Appalachian Trail (AT) or Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) or simply seeking a more grounded and purposeful way of traveling in the mountains, this course offers a supportive, skill-rich environment to refine your systems, strengthen your judgment, and expand your leadership capacity.

Photo credit: Micheline Callicott

Why Lightweight Travel Changes the Way You Experience the Mountains

Lightweight backpacking isn’t just about carrying fewer items—it’s a shift in how you think about comfort, efficiency, and decision-making in the mountains. Traveling light allows you to move with more ease over high passes, manage energy effectively on longer days, and stay more attuned to weather, terrain, and group dynamics.

On this course, you’ll learn to refine your systems, assess tradeoffs, and make thoughtful choices that support both safety and enjoyment. As you hike through alpine meadows, along ridgelines, and past cold, clear lakes, you’ll experience the freedom that comes with a well-designed kit and a growing sense of confidence in your own judgment.

This expedition is as much about personal growth as it is about technical skills. You’ll practice leadership, navigate uncertainty, and learn how to work collaboratively in real wilderness terrain—all while finding your own style of moving through the mountains.

Photo credit: Jamie O’Donnell

Explore the Wind River and Absaroka Mountains

A landscape shaped by granite, glaciers, and some of the most dramatic terrain in the Rockies.

The Wind River and Absaroka ranges are among the most remote and awe-inspiring mountain landscapes in North America. Towering peaks, expansive alpine plateaus, cascading rivers, and flower-filled valleys create a route that is both demanding and deeply rewarding. Over the course of 100–140 miles, you’ll travel on- and off-trail through varied mountain environments, each offering new skills to practice and decisions to make.

Expect steep ascents, rocky traverses, snow patches, and swift water crossings. You’ll learn how to navigate confidently using maps and natural features, apply Leave No Trace principles in sensitive alpine zones, and move responsibly through black and grizzly bear habitat.

Lightweight systems help you travel with efficiency, maintain energy throughout long days, and stay adaptable as weather, terrain, and conditions shift.

What You’ll Learn: Lightweight Systems, Navigation, and Wilderness Medicine

This course integrates lightweight travel, risk awareness, leadership, and wilderness medicine into a cohesive curriculum rooted in real, dynamic environments. By the end, you’ll understand how to build and refine systems that work for you—not just for this course, but for any future mountain trip.

• Lightweight Backpacking Systems
  Learn to create efficient, functional systems for shelter, sleep, cooking, layering, and packing. Understand the tradeoffs behind each gear choice and how to adapt your setup to different conditions.
• Wilderness First Aid
  Begin the course with a 2-day module on self-care and basic medical support in remote settings. This foundation helps you make confident decisions and understand how knowledge complements a lightweight approach.
• Navigation and Route-Finding
  Build strong map and compass skills, learn to identify natural features, and navigate both on- and off-trail terrain across a wide range of environmental conditions.
• Leave No Trace Practices
  Practice habits that minimize environmental impact and reflect the essentialist mindset behind lightweight travel.
• Risk Management
  Develop the judgment to assess hazards such as steep slopes, storms, snow, moving water, and bear habitat. Learn how lightweight systems and leadership decisions support safety margins.
• Leadership and Expedition Behavior
  Experience daily opportunities to lead, follow, communicate, and collaborate as you travel through complex terrain with a small team.

Photo credit: Micheline Callicott

Course Structure: 14 Days of Learning, Movement, and Growth

The course begins with a 2-day Wilderness First Aid module, providing foundational skills for self-care and emergency response in the backcountry.

For the next 12 days, you’ll move through a wide variety of mountain environments while refining your systems, practicing navigation, and taking on leadership roles. Expect full days of travel, hands-on skill building, and ongoing reflection.

Throughout the expedition, you’ll combine field-based experimentation with instructor coaching, gaining clarity about your own comfort thresholds, decision-making style, and leadership strengths.

Challenges and Rewards: Push Your Limits and Learn to Lead

Mountain weather is unpredictable and can shift from calm to severe quickly. You may encounter hot sun, sudden storms, high winds, snow, or freezing nights at any time of year. Lightweight systems and strong judgment help you adapt with growing competency rather than relying on extra gear for comfort.

Terrain challenges include steep passes, talus fields, boulder sections, dense vegetation, and river crossings. You’ll learn to assess footing, manage risk, pace yourself, and communicate as a team.

Traveling in bear country requires awareness, responsibility, and reliable systems for food storage, campsite selection, and group movement. These habits strengthen leadership and build confidence in the outdoors.

The reward for overcoming these challenges is immense—both in terms of personal growth and outdoor skill mastery. By the end of the course, you’ll have a stronger sense of self, newfound confidence in the backcountry, and the ability to lead and support others in wilderness settings.

Who Is This Course For?

For those who want to test their limits and prepare for extended backpacking adventures.

This course is ideal for individuals who are already comfortable with basic backpacking but are ready to take their skills to the next level. If you’re preparing for a long-distance trail or want to improve your lightweight backpacking knowledge, this course will allow you to practice a variety of systems (cooking, navigation, etc.) that will provide you with the skills to travel efficiently and confidently in remote wilderness areas. A strong physical condition and the desire to embrace challenges are essential, but previous wilderness experience is not required.

Join the NOLS Community and Transform Your Outdoor Leadership

Become part of a network of adventurers, outdoor leaders, and environmental stewards.

Upon completing the Rocky Mountain Lightweight Backpacking course, you’ll join the NOLS community of alumni who lead and inspire others in the world of outdoor education, environmental conservation, and leadership. The skills you gain on this course will not only benefit your backcountry adventures but will also shape your personal and professional growth.

Ready to challenge yourself, reduce your pack weight, and lead in the wilderness? The adventure of a lifetime awaits—join us in the Rocky Mountains and discover your potential.