| Day Hikes Day hikes are a safe, easy way to gain the skills you will need to stay safe in the wild--all while learning about the natural and social history of the area. You will learn about the 10 Essentials, map and compass, trip planning, risk management, and staying found. Your Guide will lend you a kit with some of the Ten Essentials, and you will hike +/- 7 miles while learning about Olympic National Park. Trips do not leave every day, so Reserve Your Spot Today! |
Backpacking Backpacking sweeps the backpacker into the wild world of wilderness with all its grandeur and intensity. Backpackers can hike for almost as many days and almost as far as they want: for example, from Staircase in the southeast corner of the park to the Grand Valley in the northeast, from the Dosewallips in the east to Quinault in the west, or from Elwah in the north to Sol Duc in the west. Consider these routes for your ultimate wildnerness experience. Then Reserve Your Spot! |
| Leave No Trace (LNT) Trainings Leave No Trace is the national standard for outdoor recreation ethics from a conservation perspective. The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics has established two main basic trainings in LNT: Awareness Workshops and Trainer Courses. Awareness Workshops last only a couple hours and offer little or no outdoor training. Trainer Courses are an intensive overnight experience with some backpacking. Reserve Your Spot for the course that's right for you. |
Scouting Guide and owner Jason Bausher is an Eagle Scout, Vigil Honor recipient, and is Wood Badge-trained. He can advise your troop about 50-miler hikes, the Leave No Trace Awareness Award, and merit badges such as Hiking, Backpacking, Camping, and Climbing. Jason can also serve as a liaison with the National Park Service to organize work parties or service projects in Olympic National Park. PLUS: Grays Harbor Boy Scouts receive FREE TRAININGS! Reserve Time for Your Program. |
| Service Tourism on the Olympic Peninsula will only last if we work to conserve the resource by doing trailwork, raising money for political action, and by teaching wildness to the generation to whom we hand over the earth. Sign Up Today to do or give what you can for the preservation of our children's earth. Where are your talents? Clearing trails? Educating National Park visitors about Leave No Trace ethics and practices? Raising money from friends, family, and business associates? Leading Boy or Girl Scouts? YOU CAN HELP!!! |
Mountain Seminars Do the mountains, rivers, and glaciers of Olympic National Park merely form one big playground, or is wilderness essential to our Being as embodied Beings in the world? Jason Bausher works on questions such as this in his environmental philosophy, and he shares his research in mountain seminars. He received his master's degree in theology from Yale University and is finishing an M.A. while in a doctoral program in philosophy. Check out a few of the seminars. Don't see your burning "big questions" being asked on this list? Email Olympic Mountain School for a custom program. |
Rope Rigging and Rescue
Olympic Mountain School offers some rope rescue skills in the curricula of its programs, but more advanced skills may be gained from longer and more intensive rescue trainings. These skills include rope rigging for industrial applications such as confined spaces in mills, shipping locations, and factories. If you or your group are interested in a rescue-specific course in the Olympic Mountains, industry experts in mountain rescue and rope rigging can be brought to the Olympics to train your group in skills such as the following:
- Knots used in rescue
- Harnesses used in rescue
- Ropes (static versus low stretch and dynamic)
- Belays
- Escaping belays
- Load tensioning and transitions
- Rappelling
- Ascending with Purcell Prusiks
- Anchors for rescue-sized loads
- Operations command and control
- Communications
- Stretcher rigging
- Patient tie-ins
- Simple, compound, and complex pulley systems
- Static and dynamic
- Safety factor calculations (e.g., 10:1)
- Fall factors
- Force vectors
- the Kootenay Highline System
- Edge transitions
- Pike and Pivot
- Panorama Pick-Offs
- Collecting and analyzing rescue, drop test, and slow pull data
- Organizational dangers of dogmatic systems evaluation
Prices are variable. Identify the needs of your group and call (360) 581-3936 to plan your training.
Wilderness Medicine
Wilderness MedicineOlympic Mountain School can bring in frontcountry and backcountry medical professionals to train you and/or your group on the Olympic Peninsula. Popular wilderness medicine trainings are the Wilderness First Aid (WFA) or Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certifications. WFR is the industry standard for outdoor professionals, and instructors from Wilderness Medical Associates or the N.O.L.S. Wilderness Medicine Institute may be brought to the Olympic Peninsula to instruct this training with support from doctors from Grays Harbor Family Medicine and the Grays Harbor Community Hospital. These trainings have a minimum class size requirement that may be filled with other interested students from other groups.Prices are variable. Identify your needs or the needs of your organization, and Olympic Mountain School will find a way to make it happen. Call (360) 581-3936 for more information.
