NOLS Wind River Mountaineering

Head to Wyoming and explore the mountains. On this course, you’ll travel through Wyoming’s Wind River Range learning the basics of traveling and climbing in the mountains. Whether you’re camping for the first time or an experienced backpacker, this course will have new challenges for you. Find out more!

Wyoming’s Wind River Range, where your expedition takes place, is a rugged, glacier-carved range known for its sheer granite walls and superb climbing. Remote crags and thousand-foot couloirs offer unparalleled opportunities for learning mountaineering skills. 

Your course will begin with basic camping and travel skills: cooking and stove use, map reading, Leave No Trace practices, and techniques for hiking and camping in grizzly bear habitat. A foundational course goal is building an inclusive community with your peers. Learning the value of teamwork, you will tackle group challenges and achieve common goals. Whether you spend more time learning to travel on snow, ice, or rock will depend on the snowpack and conditions in the mountains during your course. Beyond the basics of knots, rope handling, and belaying techniques, you may learn ice axe use and self arrest, step cutting, climbing in crampons, glacier travel, rock protection placement, “mixed” climbing on old snow, ice and rock, and more.You’ll spend time practicing these techniques on small cliffs near camp. As your experience builds, you may move on to longer, technical climbs. Non-technical peak ascents are also an option.

Mountaineering courses hike or climb almost every day. When moving camps, you’ll travel in a small hiking group so you have more opportunities to lead, make decisions, and practice navigation as you travel through the wilderness. When top-rope climbing or attempting a peak, you may travel as a large group or in a smaller team with a single instructor. Ultimately, you’ll learn the skills needed to travel in the mountains long after your expedition ends.