North Cascades Alpine Backpacking

Photograph (above) taken by Luke O'Neill

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LOCATION

Pacific Northwest

EXPEDITION TYPE

Backpacking

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

Alpine Backpacking, Service

PRICE

$2,380 - $5,940

PROGRAM

High School

AGES

14-16 , 16-18

LENGTH

7 - 22 Days

SEASON(S)

Summer

SKILLS

TECHNICAL

Campcraft
Cold Weather Safety
Food Preparation and Cooking
Leave No Trace Methods & Ethics
Map and Compass
Navigation
Self Care
Sheltering Strategies

INTERPERSONAL

Character
Communication
Empathy
Independence
Leadership
Positive Risk Taking
Problem Solving
Resilience
Responsibility
Self Awareness
Self Confidence
Service

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Experience the lush and rugged terrain of the “American Alps” backpacking the North Cascades.

The North Cascades Alpine Backpacking courses are one- to three-week long expeditions into the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, one of Washington State’s most remote and beautiful alpine environments. Expect to learn wilderness skills such as setting up tarps, cooking, backpacking, navigating, and more. The course also includes an emphasis on leadership, character development, and an ethic of service. From getting up early and cooking breakfast to hiking up a mountain, wilderness travel is demanding. You do not need to have any previous experience, but arriving physically fit and excited for the opportunity for personal development will enhance your experience and allow you to take full advantage of the expedition.

NOTE: For the health and safety of students and staff in the COVID-19 pandemic, students may be required to travel to course start by private transportation. Please work directly with your Course Advisor for your course for the most up-to-date and regionally-focused travel options. All students and staff must provide a current negative COVID-19 viral test result before arrival to course and/or consent to having a COVID-19 test administered at course start. Outward Bound requires students and staff to follow COVID-19 protocols for 14 days prior to course start and while traveling including physical distancing, wearing a mask in public, and frequent and thorough handwashing.For complete “Health and Safety Practices for Outward Bound Expeditions,” click here.

UPCOMING COURSES

COURSE #	DATES	DAYS	AGE	COST
WWTA-141	6.14.21 - 6.28.21	15	16 - 18	$4,875	APPLY NOW
WWYA-141	6.14.21 - 6.28.21	15	14 - 16	$4,875	APPLY NOW
WWTA-151	7.4.21 - 7.25.21	22	16 - 18	$5,940	APPLY NOW
WWYA-121	7.11.21 - 7.17.21	7	14 - 16	$2,380	APPLY NOW
WWYA-151	8.1.21 - 8.22.21	22	14 - 16	$5,940	APPLY NOW
WWYA-142	8.4.21 - 8.18.21	15	14 - 16	$4,875	APPLY NOW

Thank you for your interest in Outward Bound!

This course starts within the next week. Please call us at 866-467-7651 to assess the possibility of applying for this course!

Classic Courses

Are you ready to take a journey that will change your life? You won’t look at day-to-day drama the same way after you’ve conquered a high mountain ridge, made a boat obey your command in windswept waves or slept under the stars watching bats swoop overhead. Joining an Outward Bound expedition changes you. Your crew, your Instructor, your route and your adventures will have a profound and lasting impact on you as you rise to meet exhilarating natural challenges in some of the country’s wildest places.

Build skills, form connections: Learn and practice wilderness, teamwork and leadership skills. Find connections with your crewmates based on support and respect (and fun too!), and in the thick of challenges, discover there is more in you than you know.
Value strengths and strengthen values: Uncover your unique character strengths, develop your leadership abilities and learn how to let compassion in to everyday life by pushing your own limits and working alongside your peers.
Demonstrate mastery: As you gain confidence in new skills, take on more decision-making responsibilities. Work together to achieve team goals, solve problems and succeed both as individuals and as a group.
What you’ll learn: For High School students, the opportunities to carry more weight (literally and figuratively) and make impactful decisions with accompanying consequences fills the expedition as you go through numerous trials and triumphs. It’s all about independence.

After you come home, many of the character, leadership and service traits you uncovered on your expedition stay with you, helping you navigate your daily life with more resilience and success.

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Fox

Photo courtesy of Luke O'Neill

Photo courtesy of Luke O'Neill

Photo courtesy of Mitsu Iwasaki

Photo courtesy of Luke O'Neill

Photo courtesy of Ari Kosal

Photo courtesy of Eli Mauksch

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Fox

Backpacking

Students will work together to explore the high mountain landscape of the North Cascades where they will learn the essentials of backcountry travel necessary to carry them into remote meadows and high mountain vistas. Activities include: leadership and communication skill seminars, navigation with map and compass, Leave No Trace® ethics, first aid and backcountry cooking.

Depending on the group and the conditions, we’ll attempt to summit one of the many rugged alpine peaks in the course area. The peaks we attempt are both challenging and beautiful. They are often day-long ventures that require scrambling skills, taught by our experienced Instructors. On backpacking courses we do not climb peaks that require technical gear or ropes.

Service

Service to others and to our environment is a core value of Outward Bound and is integrated into each course. Groups follow Leave No Trace ethics as they engage in 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. Additionally, students may have the opportunity to work alongside select social service agencies like nursing homes, hospitals, and organic farms. Students see the impact of their actions firsthand, and may develop a desire to continue service in their home communities.

Photo courtesy of Luke O'Neill

Photo courtesy of Katie Griffith

Photo courtesy of Luke O'Neill

Solo

In order for profound learning to take place, students spend time reflecting on their experience, and Solo is that opportunity. 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. With sufficient food and equipment, students will set up camp at sites of their own, using the wilderness skills learned during the first portions of the course. The amount of time students spend on Solo is based on course length, weather, student condition, age, and Instructor preference. Solo campsites are chosen to offer as much solitude as possible (yet be within emergency whistle-signaling distance of other group members). Most students spend their Solo time journaling, drawing, reflecting, thinking and resting as they process lessons of the course to focus on their goals for the future. Instructors check on each participant at regular intervals, as safety is always a top priority.

Final Expedition

Outward Bound believes that an appropriate amount of independence is a powerful educational tool. During the travel sections of this course, Outward Bound Instructors purposefully and gradually transfer certain leadership responsibilities to the students culminating with our “final expedition.” Near the end of course—if the group has demonstrated the necessary leadership, team problem solving and wilderness living skills—students may have the opportunity to travel without Instructors immediately present. Many of our students feel this phase of the course is the most rewarding, as the group learns to work as a team, problem solve, and accomplish a goal independently, while utilizing all the skills they have acquired.

Personal Challenge

Courses typically end with a Challenge Event—an individual final physical push. This typically takes the form of an endurance run or triathlon-style challenge.

Outcomes

Outward Bound promotes character development, leadership, and service in the most engaging classroom possible … the wilderness. In real time, students experience the effects of their decisions on themselves and the other members of their group as they work to complete difficult tasks necessary for wilderness travel. Instructors challenge students to try new things and step outside their comfort zones. They also provide feedback that students implement on course and when they return to their communities.

Photo courtesy of Luke O'Neill

Course Area

The North Cascades, Washington

Known as the “American Alps,” the North Cascades offer glaciated mountains, alpine lakes and high alpine meadows for endless exploration. The North Cascades host the greatest concentration of glaciers outside of Alaska, and are full of high mountain meadows peppered with wild flowers. The Outward Bound course area hosts some of the most stunning alpine climbing and backpacking routes in the United States. Temperatures range from freezing to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Early-season courses (May, June) may spend time camping on snow, while mid-summer courses tend to have more moderate temperatures.

These regions are the ancestral lands of the Syilx tmixʷ (Okanagan), Yakama, Nłeʔkepmx Tmíxʷ (Nlaka'pamux), Methow, np̓əšqʷáw̓səxʷ (Wenatchi), Coast Salish, Skagit, Tulalip, Entiat, Chelan, Skykomish and Nuxwsa'7aq (Nooksack) nations.

SAMPLE ITINERARY

7-Day Courses

15-Day Course

22-Day Course

DAY 1

Course Start

DAY 2

Intro to backpacking, camp craft, and team building skills

DAY 3-4

Travel and peak attempt

DAY 5

Solo