Our Leadership Expedition for college-age students combines backpacking in the Talkeetna Mountains with sea kayaking in Prince William Sound. We welcome previous Wilderness Ventures participants, as well as new students having completed the 12th grade through college. Our Leadership Expedition is an ideal sequel to our other offerings and an excellent beginning experience for older students interested in pursuing outdoor leadership positions. While completion does not guarantee future placement with Wilderness Ventures, it does offer students an advantage in obtaining eventual employment in this field.
Backpack the Talkeetna Mountains
From the Anchorage airport, we'll pack supplies for the first half of this program, then proceed to the spectacular Talkeetna Mountains for a 9-day, off-trail backpacking trip. This wild alpine environment, lush and rarely visited, is home to wolves, bears, caribou, Dall sheep, lynx, and wolverine.Sea Kayak Prince William Sound
From the Talkeetna Mountains, we'll paddle through Prince William Sound on a serene 7-day sea kayaking trip. Rocky cliffs, dense rain forests, spectacular coastal mountains, active glaciers, and abundant marine life make for dramatic surroundings. We'll explore the minimum- impact skills required in aquatic environments and learn techniques for sea travel and navigation.Our Curriculum
The first portion of our program consists of extensive off-trail navigation and development of hard wilderness skills, such as expedition planning, zero-impact camping, map and compass use, and food management; we will have plenty of opportunities to enhance these skills as we practice them on our 2 extended treks. While other outdoor leadership schools emphasize only hard skills, we believe that effective leadership requires much more. A wilderness leader is simultaneously guide, naturalist, counselor, teacher, and facilitator. This trip, taught from a leader's perspective, emphasizes these other soft skills, and we will have numerous opportunities to lead and manage the group process. A balance of hard skills and soft sensitivity skills are qualities we look for in our leaders each summer. This unique and practical curriculum is designed to develop such leaders and, coupled with travel through Alaska's wilderness, provides an experience for which we feel there is no substitute.
