Here’s the deal — NOLS Patagonia.

My NOLS course starts in a week (get caught up here). Over this dinner this evening, among barrage of questions about what exactly I’m going to be doing in Chilé over the next month, my sister suggested I post some more info on my blog. Here it is.

Course description via NOLS

Course features
• Extreme and unpredictable weather
• Infrequently-traveled course routes
• Self-contained expedition
• Remote terrain; Evacuation difficult; up to more than a week’s travel from medical facilities
• Thick bushwhacking and river crossings
• Emphasis on student leadership and responsibility
• Incredibly pristine high mountain areas
• Focus on mountain travel, technical climbing (skills covered are dependent on weather conditions) glacier travel and
heavy weather camping skills

The Expedition
This five-week mountaineering expedition travels in a remote mountain region of the Patagonia Andes and ice fields. Patagonia’s northern and southern ice fields extend for hundreds of kilometers along the Patagonian Andes. They are the largest contiguous ice fields outside of Antarctica and Greenland. Within this immense stretch of remote, rugged mountains you’ll embark on your mountaineering expedition in Patagonia. Here you’ll travel for more than four weeks surrounded by steep mountains, snow, ice, expansive rivers and dense coastal forests. You’ll learn the techniques of alpine and big-glacier mountaineering, off-trail travel, and heavy-weather camping—all the skills needed to carry out remote expeditions and explore rugged and little-known mountain terrain. This course will offer you the challenges of unknown terrain and fierce alpine weather, preparing you for travel in any mountain area in the world.

Here is the full course description document (PDF), so read up if you’re interested.

So, that’s what I’ll be doing for the next month or so. Fun, right?