Get outside the traditional classroom and spend a semester in the Pacific Northwest. Grow your leadership skills as you explore quiet coves, dense forests, and rugged mountains. Summit soaring peaks while mountaineering in the North Cascades. Climb in world-class areas. Sail a keelboat through the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia, Canada or paddle a sea kayak on sparkling blue waters. Learn about local ecology and earn an industry-respected Wilderness First Aid certification.
This demanding semester will challenge you in the best wilderness classrooms of the Pacific Northwest in the U.S. and Canada. After completing this course, you’ll be well prepared to lead yourself and others both in the wilderness and in your community.
Throughout the semester, you will learn valuable wilderness travel skills, environmental studies topics (including ecology and natural history), leadership skills, and risk management.
Your semester begins and ends at NOLS’ Pacific Northwest campus in Conway, Washington. It will include a variety of outdoor skills, which vary based on the course you choose.
Service Component
This course may have the opportunity to do an educational service project with either land managers or local non-profit partners. Service projects could consist of activities such as trail building, trail maintenance or erosion control work. The likelihood of a service project will depend on the available resources of the local non-profit and/or land agency.
Option A: Wilderness First Aid, mountaineering, rock climbing, coastal backpacking, and sailing
Option B: Wilderness First Aid, sea kayaking, rock climbing, backpacking, and sailing
