bd-nols-partnership

Founded in 1965 in a small cabin in Sinks Canyon, Wyoming, the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is a nonprofit global wilderness school that seeks to help individuals step forward boldly as leaders.

NOLS believes that anyone can be a leader, and it’s the school’s mission to provide the environment and training to help them discover their full potential, both in classrooms close to home and remote wilderness areas worldwide. The scope of NOLS’ mission and impact is broad, with 14 campuses across six countries and educational opportunities worldwide. The school enrolls over 28,000 students and employs over 1,000 full-time and part-time staff and instructors with an annual budget of approximately $40 million in a typical year. NOLS currently has more than 360,000 active alumni.

Wilderness Medicine Expeditions

Black Diamond and NOLS have joined together to invest in the future of our outdoor community. Together we believe that the wilderness is the best teacher, and that the lessons learned and skills sharpened in wild places help elevate the leader in everyone.

Our partnership is founded on three key principles, all of which reinforce each other and function in a cyclical nature.

PROVIDE MENTORSHIP

As the mentorship gap grows each year, the value of providing opportunities to learn hard skills and risk management from an experienced teacher—whether in-person in the field or in a digital setting—is more vital than ever to helping the next generation achieve technical competency and develop mountain sense.

DEVELOP LEADERSHIP

We believe there is a leader in everyone, and that people from all walks of life should have the opportunity to rise up and be leaders, whether on an expedition or in their daily lives. Lifting up others and encouraging them to take the lead inspires us all.

GROW STEWARDSHIP

We see stewardship as the evolution of a love and awareness of wild places into a sense of commitment to protect what matters—advocating and engaging on a civic and environmental level —and taking action to conserve wild places and recreation resources for future generations.

THE BLACK DIAMOND ELEVATE SCHOLARSHIP

We know that easy access to the outdoors is a privilege that not everyone shares, and the Black Diamond Elevate Scholarship exists to foster the future of the outdoor community by providing a pathway to wilderness education and leadership for those who may lack the means to arrive there on their own.

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