to our world. - NOLS

Evan Horn
Packrafting is the latest technique for exploring Alaska's deep wilderness. Paxon Lake
ALASKA BACKPACKING
An Alaska Backpacking course is a wilderness expedition in every
sense, allowing you to explore beautiful landscapes in the Talkeetna
Mountains, the Alaska Range, or Wrangell-St. Elias National
Park, where the trees disappear and the land stretches into
alpine tundra plains with a backdrop of rugged and heavily eroded
mountains. Up here where it’s still light at midnight, you’ll follow
the tracks of the seasonal caribou migration. How to hike on tundra;
identify the birds, flowers, wildlife, and plants of the North
Country; and keep warm, dry, and happy even when it’s wet are
all part of your backcountry curriculum. You’ll become a seasoned
wilderness traveler, learning how to read a map, navigate off trail,
and scan the horizon for grizzly bears, black bears, moose, wolves,
and Dall sheep.
DETAILS
Age and Length:
16 & Over • Average age: 19 • Duration: 30 days
16 & 17 Only • Duration: 30 days
Tuition: $4,110
Optional College Credit: 2 hours Environmental Ethics, 2 hours Leadership Techniques,
2 hours Skills Practicum
Dates: page 106
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ALASKA BACKPACKING AND PACKRAFTING
Packrafting is at the forefront of Alaskan exploration and NOLS
is right there with it. Designed for students 18-and-over, this
30-day land- and water-based expedition uses packrafts—singleperson
inflatable rafts weighing four pounds each—to open up
some of the world’s most remote country that would be otherwise
inaccessible to overland travel. With this equipment and the
help of experienced instructor teams, you will navigate the
rivers of the eastern Alaska Range and the Talkeetna Mountains
that would otherwise be obstacles on a traditional backpacking
course. On this self-sustained monthlong expedition you’ll
learn how to live comfortably in the backcountry, hike through
mountains and across tundra, and paddle your packraft through
Class II rapids. You might even see Dall sheep, moose, caribou,
wolves, and black and grizzly bears along the way.
DETAILS
Age and Length: 18 & Over • Duration: 30 days
Tuition: $4,770
Optional College Credit: 2 hours Environmental Ethics, 2 hours Leadership Techniques,
2 hours Skills Practicum
Dates: page 106
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www.nols.edu • (800) 710-NOLS • admissions@nols.edu