Dear 2021 Graduates, I just returned from a five-day backpacking trip in the Los Padres National Forest with a group of high school students from the Midland School. While not instructing Outward Bound courses, I’m the Dean of Experiential Learning... READ MORE

 Take a look into your gear closet. What do you see? Your favorite pair of climbing shoes with a little hole in one of the toes. That old rope that has been fine so far even though you’ve taken... READ MORE

Imagine you finally reached the end of a long day hiking in the San Juan Mountains in the Colorado Rockies. You marched up and down switchbacks, overpasses and persevered through an afternoon thunderstorm. Now, the sky has cleared and you’re... READ MORE

It was around mile 60 when I started to really question if I was going to be able to complete the somewhat absurd challenge I’d set out for myself: running alone on a 100-mile course I plotted in the unrelenting... READ MORE

Sharing mindfulness practices with my students has been a powerful experience. I often keep it really simple—something they can bring back home. We find a peaceful location, grab our camping pads and sit with our eyes closed. We start by... READ MORE

A few weeks ago, I was standing in a circle with five dirt-covered adolescents just outside Marble, Colorado. With Aspen leaves still dripping from the early morning’s downpour, I told the students that the 15-day mountaineering course they had just... READ MORE

“I regard it as the foremost task of education to ensure the survival of these qualities: an enterprising curiosity, an undefeatable spirit, tenacity in pursuit, readiness for sensible self denial, and above all, compassion.” –Kurt Hahn, founder of Outward Bound Curiosity... READ MORE

Have you ever hiked all day to a seemingly pristine campsite, only to set up your shelter and see used toilet paper sticking out of the ground right next to where you were planning to rest your head that evening?... READ MORE