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North Cascades Mountaineering for Adults

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LOCATION

Pacific Northwest

EXPEDITION TYPE

Mountaineering

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

Alpine Backpacking, Service, Rock Climbing

PRICE

$5,295 - $6,240

PROGRAM

Adult

AGES

18-25

LENGTH

15 - 22 Days

START LOCATION

SEA-TAC

END LOCATION

SEA-TAC

SEASON(S)

Summer

SKILLS

TECHNICAL

Campcraft
Cold Weather Safety
Food Preparation and Cooking
Knots
Leave No Trace Methods & Ethics
Navigation
Self Care
Sheltering Strategies
Snow Travel

INTERPERSONAL

Camaraderie
Character
Empathy
Independence
Leadership
Positive Risk Taking
Problem Solving
Resilience
Responsibility
Self Confidence
Sense of Social Connection
Service

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This course includes travel through incredible geography carved out by the glaciers, rivers and weather in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, high on the east slope of the Cascades.

The North Cascades Mountaineering courses explore the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, one of Washington State’s most remote and beautiful alpine environments. Here you will have the opportunity to escape your usual routine, explore stunning wilderness areas and enjoy yourself to the fullest. Students will learn wilderness skills such as setting up tarps, cooking, backpacking, climbing and navigating using map and compass. The course also includes an emphasis on leadership, character development and an ethic of service. Wilderness travel can be challenging, but with appropriate pre-course preparation, using tools we provide, adults of various ages and body types can be successful. You don’t need to have any previous experience, but arriving as physically fit as possible and excited for the opportunity for personal development will enhance your experience and allow you to take full advantage of the expedition.

NOTE: This course requires that students be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend. For questions regarding this policy please this page or call us at 866-467-7651.

UPCOMING COURSES

What is this?

For detailed information on course availability statuses and what they mean, click here.

COURSE #	DATES	DAYS	AGE	COST
WWCM-241	6.11.22 - 6.25.22	15	18 - 25	$ 5,295	APPLY NOW
WWCM-251	7.3.22 - 7.24.22	22	18 - 25	$ 6,240	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 for Adults

Do you ever want to unplug, step away from the daily grind to take on new challenges? Are you ready to conquer harder skills and remind your senses (or discover for the first time) what it’s like to crest a mountain peak, hear the echoes at the edge of a vast canyon or feel the rush of white water spray on your face? Take a break from your routine, radically change your surroundings and test your tenacity. Put some “firsts” in front of you and find moments of unexpected discovery along the way. Experience Outward Bound as an adult and prepare for an injection of adventure, awareness and adaptability that sticks with you long after you unpack your backpack.

Build skills, form connections: Meet like-minded peers and make connections as you work through priorities and adventures together, learn outdoor skills at the hands of expert Instructors, and earn every good night’s sleep.
Value strengths and strengthen values: Re-discover your inner strength, renew your natural leadership abilities and practice adapting to new environments. Tap in to your trust and compassion as you tackle obstacles with a support crew standing beside you.
Demonstrate mastery: As you awaken your wilderness skills and dig deep to rise to the physical and mental challenges, the bulk of the expedition’s leadership and decision-making responsibilities transfer from the Instructor to the crew. Work together to achieve team goals, solve problems and succeed both individually and together.
What you’ll learn: Watch, try and share more difficult outdoor skills that you’ll master on your expedition. Discover and then remind yourself that there’s more in you than you know. Having taken the risks, learned from and adapted to all sorts of new situations and environments, you’re ready for whatever life hands you going forward.

Return home with newly expanded wilderness abilities, an energized outlook, a rekindled allowance of empathy into situations and relationships and an eye toward the future.

Photo courtesy of Jake Anderson

Photo courtesy of Jake Anderson

Photo courtesy of Jake Anderson

Photo courtesy of Judith Robertson

Photo courtesy of Luke O'Neill

Photo courtesy of Luke O'Neill

Photo courtesy of Luke O'Neill

Photo courtesy of Jake Anderson

Mountaineering

Mountaineering courses move through high mountain terrain and focus on preparation for a peak attempt. Successful peak climbs require patience, efficiency, and teamwork to reach the summit, and may involve roped climbing on snow and/or rock. Students will start by learning backpacking skills, map and compass navigation, and Leave No Trace ethics, and progress to basic mountaineering skills. The instructor-to-student ratio is never more than 1:5 during this section, allowing for personal coaching from our expert climbing and mountaineering Instructors on the physical techniques of mountaineering, as well as tailoring the curriculum to the interests and aptitudes of individual course participants. The course will likely include at least one peak attempt depending upon the weather and the group’s physical preparedness. Peak attempts are day-long enterprises often entailing pre-dawn starts. Successful peak climbs often involve roped climbing on snow and/or rock, and require patience, efficiency and teamwork to attain the summit

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. Students see the impact of their actions firsthand, and may develop a desire to continue service in their home communities.

Solo

In order for profound learning to take place, students need time to reflect 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 choosing, using the wilderness skills learned during the first portions of the course. The amount of time students spend on Solo is based on length of course, 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 the 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 the “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 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 Personal Challenge Event—an individual final physical push. This might take the form of a run or a 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. Adult courses offer a unique opportunity to disconnect from everyday life and reconnect with one’s self and others. Regardless of age or life stage, Outward Bound believes that everyone can benefit from opportunities to experience challenge, adventure, and to work within a supportive environment to gain a greater sense of self.

Photo courtesy of Jake Anderson

Course Area

The North Cascades, Washington

The North Cascades are called the “American Alps” for their rugged beauty and glaciated peaks. They remain some of the wildest and most untrammeled wilderness in the United States. The North Cascades host the greatest concentration of glaciers in the “Lower 48” and are full of high mountain meadows peppered with wild flowers. This course area hosts some of the most scenic alpine climbing and backpacking routes in the United States. Temperatures typically range from freezing to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Early-season courses (May and 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

15-Day Course

22-Day Course

DAY 1

Course start

DAY 2-5

Backpacking and team building

DAY 6

Rock climbing

DAY 7

Resupply

DAY 8-10