Adult Courses

Unplug from electronic devices and plug into the fundamentals of the natural world on an Adult expedition with Outward Bound. Acquire essential outdoor skills and experience rugged wilderness adventures as skilled Instructors urge you to surpass expectations and realize “there is more in you than you know.” With physical challenge, time for rest and reflection and conversations dedicated to evaluating life priorities, our adult courses are refreshing, reaffirming and rejuvenating.

• Build core skills: Receive hands-on training in technical and interpersonal skills as part of a diverse and supportive adult crew. Confront new challenges and re-discover your inner strength.
• Practice Outward Bound values: Learn to incorporate core values like compassion, integrity, excellence and diversity and inclusion into your daily life on course.
• Demonstrate mastery: As the course nears the end, Instructors transfer leadership responsibilities to the students. As a crew, apply new skills and work together to achieve team goals.
• What you’ll learn: Return to home, work and family with a refreshed outlook, renewed confidence in your own abilities, and the satisfaction of challenges met and overcome. 

Service

Service to others and the environment is a core value of Outward Bound and is integrated into each course. Participants follow Leave No Trace ethics as service to the environment and do acts of service while leading and supporting fellow participants. Designated service projects are coordinated with land managers like the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service to collaborate on land restoration projects. Some projects are more social services based and participants may visit a nursing home or hospital to provide service there. Students develop a value of service, seeing the impact of their actions firsthand and transfer this desire to serve their communities back home.

Solo

The solo experience provides an important break from the rigors of the expedition and gives students the opportunity to reflect on their Outward Bound experience. Many students use this reflection time to make decisions about their future, journal and enjoy the beauty of their surroundings unencumbered by the constant external stimulation of modern life. The duration of solo depends on the course length and type, as well as the competency and preparedness of the student group. With all the food, skills and supplies they need, participants are given a secluded spot to reflect alone, and are monitored by staff throughout the experience to maintain safety. Students find that solo provokes profound and powerful learning in a short period of time and often becomes one of the most memorable parts of their Outward Bound experience.

Outcomes

Courses are offered in a variety of locations and for different lengths to provide a range of programming from which participants can choose the optimal experience for them. Longer courses allow for a full immersion into the Outward Bound experience, more time to practice wilderness travel and the opportunity to experience both success and failure to promote personal growth.

Adult courses focus on communication skills, character competency, awareness of self and surroundings and finding a sense of purpose. Regardless of course type, students can expect to get comfortable living and working together in the wilderness while creating a solid foundation of skill sets they can continue to build on after course.

Course Area

Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Minnesota.

Over 10,000 years ago, continent-sized glaciers scraped their way across much of Ontario and northern Minnesota leaving deep ruts, ravines and holes in their tracks. Eventually, as the glaciers melted, these ravines filled with water, creating a seemingly endless interconnected web of lakes and rivers. In the winter, the BWCAW transforms into an even more severe and remote wilderness. While travel in these conditions can be more difficult, winter enthusiasts enjoy moving over frozen lakes and rivers by dogsled, cross-country ski and snowshoe. Winter in the Boundary Waters is mesmerizing, peaceful and exhilarating. It is a place of spectacular extremes, trackless snow, bracing cold air, glowing warm embers and powerful silence.