Vol. 71, no. 18
Outdoor school offers more than just college credit
Imagine being in the North Cascades, standing over the edge of a bottomless crevasse. All that’s stopping you from falling to your death is one rope and two people. You haven’t talked to anyone from home in nearly a month, and now you’re wondering whether or not you’re actually going to make it out alive. You decide to fall into the crevasse anyway; after all, your fellow rope teammates need practice setting up a two-pulley system. Later, while you’re being pulled out, you decide you don’t regret falling in, and can’t wait for someone else to. No, this isn’t a hiking trip gone wrong, but a typical day in the life of a NOLS student.
The National Outdoor Leadership School, or NOLS, was founded in 1965 by Paul Petzoldt in Lander, Wyo. Its goal is “to be the leading source and teacher of wilderness skills and leadership that serve people and the environment.” More informally, NOLS is a school that takes students out into the wilderness for an extended period of time and teaches all about surviving in the outdoors, while participating in activities from sailing in Australia to backpacking in the Rocky Mountains. Participants learn skills such as wilderness medicine, outdoors cooking and in Brian Schultz’s (’10) case, setting up a two-pulley system.
“My favorite part of the course was the crevasse lesson,” said Schultz.
You can apply for a NOLS course on their website (www.nols.edu). Trips cost about $100 a day, so they range from $1,510 (two-week Idaho ski trip) to $13,050 (semester in New Zealand). Tuition doesn’t cover transportation to and from the course or the cost of personal equipment. Extra fees can cover college credit, but LC only accepts NOLS courses as PE credit. To enroll in a NOLS course, no experience is required. “It’s definitely something anyone can do,” said Schultz. “You’re only limited by your mind.”
Schultz, who spent 32 days in the North Cascades, said he learned as much about mountaineering in one month as people learn in three years of on and off mountaineering. First aid, winter camping, and avalanche safety were just some of the lessons taught on the make shift “white board”—a white plastic bag thrown over a Thermarest mattress.
Students spent about two-thirds of their time on the snow, and about one-third at base camp where they would receive rations. Every 10 days, packhorses would arrive with food to be dealt out among the students. Even though NOLS boasts that participants will “have enough fuel and nutrition for the physical demands of a NOLS course”, ask any alum and they will talk about how precious food really is when exerting themselves for days on end.
“Someone offered me $15 for a Power Bar and I turned it down. I also carried a kid’s wag bag for two Power Bars,” said Schultz. He said that if you don’t know what a wag bag is, you don’t want to.
Kirstin Fix (’10), also had a lot to say about food. “You get really creative when you’re making things, because you don’t want to use all of the good stuff first. The instructors made doughnuts!” Fix went on a month long trip sea-kayaking trip in Baja, Mexico. “After a day of kayaking you’re so hungry, but too tired to make anything. I probably ate peanut butter everyday for lunch.”
A typical day on the Baja trip consisted of packing up the kayaks in the morning, kayaking anywhere between three to four hours, setting up camp and then doing whatever you want.
“We did a lot of diving, which was cool,” said Fix. “We also learned how to spear fish which is way harder than it sounds. We hiked a lot. Some people would just nap on the beach, sometimes the instructors would teach things like surfing in your kayak. Everyone did their own thing.”
During the first part of Fix’s trip, the instructors taught everything. The last couple of weeks were student-led. “The three people in a group would look at a map and have to decide how to get to a certain place on time,” she explained. “The whole trip was weather-dependent. We stayed on one beach for five days, and it was up to the group leaders to decide whether or not to go, and how to make up the lost time. It was challenging, but you learned a lot about leadership.”
The variety of the participants was also a high point for Fix. “I think one of the coolest parts is that you’re going to have people on different levels. You’re going to have people who are really ambitious, and some who just want to play on the beach. You kind of expect everyone to be really hard core, but the instructors do a good job keeping everyone satisfied.”