Wild places. Real leadership. Since 1965.
NOLS teaches skills and leadership through expedition-based wilderness education that lasts a lifetime.
Donate to NOLS
Your support helps NOLS students build leadership, resilience, and a love for the outdoors through life-changing wilderness education.
Wilderness Medicine
Wilderness First Responder (WFR)
The industry standard for outdoor professionals. Build the skills to assess and manage injuries and illnesses in remote settings.
With the leader in outdoor education
At NOLS, you learn by doing. With the wilderness as your classroom and expert instructors as mentors, you'll build backcountry skills, leadership, and judgment.
"NOLS taught me how to make decisions when the stakes are real. I use what I learned on every guiding trip."
Education that meets you where you work
On-site and local courses for working outdoor professionals, recertify, upgrade your skills, or train your team.
Patagonia teaches you patience the way few classrooms can. The wind, the weight, the wet, all of it conspires to remind you that wilderness doesn't owe you anything, and the best leaders learn to make decisions inside that uncertainty.
"Expedition behavior is the small daily kindness that makes hard trips bearable, and the discipline that makes them safe."
Real challenge produces accountability the way nothing else does. Our job is to take students into wild country, hand them real responsibility, and bring leaders home.
Expedition
Wind River Wilderness
Wilderness Medicine
WFR Course
Semester
Patagonia Semester
Wilderness First Responder
Wilderness Advanced First Aid
Wilderness First Aid
WFR Recertification
Outdoor Professionals
Guides, instructors, and rangers who need the gold-standard credential for backcountry work.
Healthcare Providers
Clinicians translating hospital-trained skills into resource-limited remote settings.
Search & Rescue Teams
SAR volunteers and pros adding wilderness-medicine protocols to their toolkit.
Personal Preparedness
Anyone who recreates outdoors and wants to be ready when something happens.
WAFA Course
5 days · $695
WFA Course
2-3 days · $350
WEMT Course
30 days · Intensive
"NOLS taught me how to make decisions when the stakes are real. I use what I learned on every guiding trip."
Mountain Guide · WFR Alum
"The simulations were intense and incredibly realistic. I left feeling actually prepared, not just checked-the-box."
ER Physician · WUMP Alum
"Best decision I made for my outdoor career. Worth every penny and every long day."
Park Ranger · WFR Alum
Trip Leaders
For outdoor pros leading group expeditions in the backcountry.
Outdoor Educators
Curriculum, leadership, and risk management for educators.
Conservation
Field skills for land-management and conservation pros.
Mission
Stay focused on what we're here to do, together.
Concern
Genuine care for teammates and the place.
Dignity
Hold space for people to do their best work.
Support
Lift others; receive help with grace.
Organization
Small disciplines compound on long trips.
Help
Offer it freely; ask for it without shame.
West Point's wilderness leadership program
Military
Why Mayo Clinic sends residents to NOLS
Healthcare
60+ years of teaching leadership where it counts
Wilderness First Responder (WFR)
The 80-hour Wilderness First Responder is the industry standard for outdoor professionals. You'll learn patient assessment, trauma management, environmental medicine, and evacuation decision-making, all in field conditions, with realistic simulations.
