Join us for an adventure in the Indian Himalaya, where you’ll discover new challenges and gain global perspective as you travel through soaring peaks. Backpack through alpine villages and practice your conversational Hindi with local community members. Develop mountaineering skills on high-altitude glaciers or navigate whitewater rapids while rafting on the Kali River. Learn one or more technical skills—backpacking, mountaineering, or whitewater rafting—in the highest mountain chain in the world. The Himalaya is inhabited as high as 10,000 feet and sometimes higher: NOLS India courses combine the physical challenges offered by mountain terrain with a window into the culture of Kumaon communities. Here, the traditional Indian greeting, namaste, is a word worth knowing and saying properly. Whether you’re attempting a peak ascent or traveling to a high-altitude glacier to practice mountaineering skills, you’ll encounter local community members along the way. On courses with a homestay, you’ll participate in your host family’s daily life and attend classes on local ecology and history. On a NOLS India course, your engagement with communities in the Himalaya will frame and inform your wilderness experience.