WMI Annual Staff Training In Progress
Many NOLS' Wilderness Medicine Institute staff have been on the scene here in Lander brightening our hallways with their smiling faces. This is WMI's annual staff training where they learn the latest medical protocols, hear from outside experts and have fun together.
One of the highlights this year was Dr. Gordon Giesbrecht (aka Dr. Popsicle). He is a renowned hypothermia expert and has even been a guest on Letterman, where he did his interview from a giant vat of ice water.
The week wraps up tomorrow night with a social out in Sinks Canyon. Yee Haw!
Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director
February 25, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
NOLS in Orvis News
Just got my copy March/April issue of the Orvis News. NOLS is featured on page 19 in an article about the Frequent Flyer Travel Rods. NOLS Rocky Mountain director Dave Glenn is quoted extensively in the article.
Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director
February 24, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
NOLS Adds More Courses for Summer
A surge in summer enrollment has led NOLS to add capacity.
We have added an additional section of the Wind River Wilderness course for 16 and 17 year olds on June 20.
Another section of the 30 day Adventure course for 14 and 15 year olds has been added on June 16.
An additional section of the 40 and older Alaska Sea Kayaking course has been added on July 24.
Something for the young and the not so young alike! Stay tuned for more enrollment updates.
Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director
February 23, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Former NOLS Instructor Makes U.S. Biathalon and Nordic Teams
Sarah Konrad, who instructed for NOLS in the 90s has achieved an unprecedented double. This week she is Germany at the Nordic Skiing World Championships as a member of the U.S. Nordic Team. She'll follow that up in March at the World Biathalon Championships in Austria. Sarah hopes to find herself in Turin, Italy next year for the Olympics competing in one or both events. Read more.
Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director
February 23, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
NOLS Student Featured on Montell
In 2003 on a NOLS whitewater course Nick Greeve was awakened by a bear standing on his back biting his head. His course mates scared the bear off, his instructors treated him and then two instructors and two students rowed him 47 miles in a raft to a waiting ambulance. Nick was treated and released from the hospital. On Monday, Montell Williams talked with Nick about his bear encounter.
After the incident NOLS changed or re-emphasized a number of its practices when traveling in Desolation Canyon. All courses carry bear spray, food is kept in sealed containers on rafts, students sleep at least 100 feet from the rafts and the areas where food is prepared and students sleep in groups of at least four.
Nick will be back at NOLS this summer. He is enrolled on a NOLS River Guides course.
Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director
February 23, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
NOLS Bus Assures Job Security for NOLS Marketing Staff
The NOLS Bus will be rolling onto the floor at New York Times Travel Show at the Javits Center in NYC in just a week and half. Today we spent time making plans for a final push for press coverage while the bus is in the Big Apple.
We are also in the midst of getting the NOLS street teams for the show all lined out. We already have quite a few volunteers and are getting great support from the NYC alumni chapter.
Speaking of the NOLS Bus. A nice article appeared in The Breeze, the student newspaper at James Madison University. The bus is in Charlottesville today.
Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director
February 23, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
NOLS Grads Launch New Company
Charles Ribaudo and Jim Young met on a NOLS Semester in Africa in 1993. This week at DEMO@15 they launched their start-up, Jambo. Jambo is peer-to-peer personal area matching technology, designed to let people directly network face-to-face with WiFi. Jambo uses PDAs, laptops, and smartphones, connecting them without intermediaries.
Soon NOLS will be offering this very cool service to NOLS grads. Imagine sitting at Gate 52 in LaGuardia and being notified that there is another NOLS grad sitting at Gate 60. If you have time you can decide to meet and swap some NOLS stories. Jambo allows you to wear your NOLS hat all the time! Stay tuned for more on this exciting development.
Charles and Jim's story is featured this week in Forbes.
Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director
February 18, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
The VO War
Bruce’s fingers look awfully tired from typing all of these blogs, so I thought I’d jump in to set the record straight about SVO vs. RVO. Can we please make up our minds??
The deal is: we have been calling the NOLS Bus fuel SVO, or Straight Vegetable Oil, in accordance with popular alternative fuel terminology. Recent conversations with the bus crew, other environmentally minded folk around the nation and within the office have called for the use of RVO, or Recycled Vegetable Oil, in a move to be more accurate. Thus far our fuel has been coming from grease traps in the back of restaurants, not Wesson bottles.
A quick VO glossary:
SVO – Straight Vegetable Oil, any virgin (unused) vegetable oil used as fuel
RVO – Recycled Vegetable Oil, any used vegetable oil salvaged from eateries for fuel. (In the non-NOLS world, you may see this type of oil referenced as WVO, or Waste Vegetable Oil)
You will still run across SVO in past mentions, but from here on out it’s RVO all the way..
Julie Hwang, publications intern
February 18, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
NOLS Winter Camping Book Available Now
The NOLS library of outdoor titles has just expanded again. NOLS Winter Camping, authored by Buck Tilton, co-founder of NOLS' Wilderness Medicine Institute and Jon Gookin, NOLS curriculum manager, includes sections on: expedition planning, snow shelters, winter clothing and gear, hazard identification and more.
NOLS Winter Camping joins an expanding NOLS library that includes: Soft Paths; NOLS Wilderness Guide; The Wilderness First Responder, the top selling NOLS Cookery and more.
Upcoming NOLS books include a land navigation book, a wildlands ethics book and a risk management book.
When it comes to the outdoors, "NOLS wrote the book!"
Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director
February 17, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Semester in the Southwest: Just Beginning
The Gila Wilderness, the nation's first designated wilderness area, offers travelers a unique journey through rugged mountains, serene meadows, harsh deserts, and deep canyons. This diverse region is home to mountain lion, black bear, elk, antelope, deer, bighorn sheep, bald eagle, wild turkey, peregrine falcon, red-tailed hawk... and NOLS Southwest Semester students on the backpacking section of their semester.
As students make their home in the Gila, they spend their days mastering backcountry travel techniques, learning about local history, culture, geology, and ecology, perfecting culinary skills, and soaking in the beauty of the Gila.
Watch here for stories from current semester students about their adventures backpacking in the Gila and more, as they continue their semester throughout the Southwest--caving in the famous Carlsbad Caverns of New Mexico; climbing at Cochise Stronghold, Arizona's premier climbing destination; canoeing on the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park in Texas; and using the skills they've acquired on a final Student Expedition in the Galiuro and Gila wildernesses.
February 16, 2005 in Southwest | Permalink | Comments (0)
