June 15, 2009

Career Change

I've got some serious catching up to do with this blog posting thing. From May 4th to June 8th I was taking a NOLS instructor course, which was designed to take experienced outdoor people and turn them into NOLS instructors. We had 12 students and 3 instructors on the course, all of which were amazing people.

We spent the first 19 days backpacking in the Wind River Wilderness, which was still mostly covered in snow at that time. Much of our time was spent learning how to teach the NOLS curriculum as it relates to Leadership, Environmental Studies, and Outdoor Skills. Without writing a book, I'm not sure how to summarize my experience on this part of the trip. Suffice it to say that we all had a wonderful time and became very good friends while learning a lot.


Shelter at 11,080 on Peak 11,098


Sun setting behind the Tetons from Peak 11,098


One of our many classrooms


Hiking across Burro Flats

The next two weeks were spent at a rock climbing camp near Split Rock, a couple hours south of Lander. Here we learned NOLS institutional standards for climbing, building anchors, and self rescue. I learned a great deal and managed to be one of the few to get checked off as a rock climbing instructor (everyone in our group got checked off to teach backpacking courses).

Freemont Canyon


Base Camp at Split Rock


Rainbow in a crack
My first contract will be teaching an Outdoor Educator Course in the Wind River Wilderness starting July 14th! I'm super excited to be involved with work where I feel I'm benefiting both people and the environment. I'm also optimistic about my potential for future work with NOLS, so I plan to cease being an engineer for the time being. For those who are curious, I no longer have a phone but should be getting a new one in about a week. I'll email the new number out as soon as I have it.

2 comments:

Jason said...

NEW JOB!!! Congrats Josh, that is awesome! Where are you going to be this weekend (June 17-22)? We are driving to C-town and it would be cool to see you on the way if we can.

~I said...

nice work, that sounds like a quality job. Where are you going to be working?