America’s Cup Sets Sail — and so can you.

Starting Monday, the world’s most prominent sailing race departs from the Spanish coast. With electronic controls and rigid vertical airfoils (replacing cloth sails) that exceed the wingspan of a 747 giving the competing craft unprecedented mechanical advantages, this year’s race has been criticized for replacing seamanship and athleticism with technology.

This summer, you can learn authentic sailing skills in one of our live-and-learn-aboard boats off the coasts of Hawaii, Belize, Australia, Fiji or New Zealand. There’s no experience like learning to sail your own tall ship. Here are four summer adventure opportunities that put you on the water and in control of your own vessel.

Hawaii Kauai: While learning to sail off the Kona Coast, we’ll have opportunities to see amazing, shallow-water coral reefs, a myriad of colorful tropical fish, and giant sea turtles.

Hawaii Service: Sailing aboard a two-hulled catamaran we’ll travel to unique snorkeling sites where we’ll have opportunities to see amazing coral reefs, tropical fish and giant sea turtles. Our evenings will be spent witnessing spectacular sunsets during dinner, and then sleeping on white sand beaches.

Costa Rica Belize: Aboard our private chartered sailboats, we’ll spend several days sailing and snorkeling amidst hundreds of sandy cays in this quiet paradise of turquoise waters, coconut palms, expansive beaches, and tiny fishing villages. We will anchor each night on deserted islands, feast on a variety of seafood, and explore a marine reserve frequented by manatees, dolphins, and hawksbill turtles.

Fiji Service: we’ll board our live-aboard sailboat for 2 days of exploring the tiny Yasawa and Mamanuca Islands. Along our journey, we’ll learn about Fijian customs, culture, and traditions while acquiring basic sailing skills.

Australia: Our 4-day sail through the sun-drenched archipelago of the Whitsunday Islands aboard our private sailboats is a mariner’s dream. Dozens of coconut palm-laden islands with white sand beaches beckon us to drop anchor for snorkeling each day. We’ll learn sailing skills, marine biology, and maritime history while keeping a lookout for dolphins and humpback whales.

Tahiti, Fiji, New Zealand: Aboard 2 private sailboats, we’ll sail the amazing islands of New Zealand, steeped in whaling history and Kiwi lore. We’ll learn how to sail, tie knots, and navigate from our native skipper. We’ll likely see playful dolphins alongside our boat each day, while we gaze at the Southern Cross and a canopy of stars at night. Next we’ll spend 4 days sailing aboard our private sailboat to some of the most remote and beautiful islands to be found anywhere. Snorkeling will be excellent, and we’ll partake in a traditional Fijian meal at a local village, where we’ll be welcomed by Fijian Chiefs and entertained by village dancers.

WV Students Sailing On Our Hawaii Service Adventure

Thoughts from WV Leaders

The Haute Route

Streatching between Chamonix, France and Zermatt, Switzerland, the Haute Raute is one of the world’s premiere treks. Hiking from alpine hut to alpine hut along this famous but remote path, Wilderness Ventures’ groups have the opportunity to experience one of world’s most breathtakingly beautiful environments while sleeping in the traditional high alpine huts operated by the French and Swiss Alpine Clubs. Many people wait their entire lives to have the chance to complete the Haute Route trek, and Wilderness Ventures students are lucky enough to have this amazing opportunity in their teenage years.

Unlike the high alpine environments of North America’s Rocky Mountains, people have been living and working in the highland environments of the Swiss Alps since the origins of European civilization. This human presence brings cultural enrichment to the Haute Route Trek and this European summer camp as a whole. At the same time, this pristine environment offers plenty of unspoiled alpine scenery — craggy spires, ancient glaciers, alpine meadows and breathtaking peaks — to make a scenery lover of each of our students.

Each day, this European summer camp will hike along the ancient high alpine routes, over breathtaking mountain passes and through pastoral fields before resting each night indoors in picturesque Swiss Huts, many perched above tree line with a terrace that overlooks the top of Europe. Each evening, our wilderness adventure students will dine on a hearty Swiss dinner before crawling into bed. Because we sleep indoors and eat breakfast and dinner inside these huts in the company of other travelers, we are able to travel light, covering more ground during each day.

The Haute Route is a 13-day component to our 21-day European Alps International Adventure, one of the many fun and substantive European adventure camps that combine natural exploration with cultural immersion. Aside from completing the Haute Route, Teens on our European Alps international teen adventure camp also climb the famous Breithorn and experience the international splendor of Geneva, the French Commune of Chamonix (bordering both Mont Blanc and Switzerland) and Zermatt, long considered Europe’s foremost ski destination.

For more information on the Haute Route, any of our European summer camps or our teen adventure camps, please contact Wilderness Ventures: 800-533-2281.

The Community Organizer

[Published January, 2010, Mountain Bike Magazine]

By Pete Rognli

Back in the ’90s, Fritzinger was teaching math at Berkeley High when he posted a flyer advertising a cycling club. He had a road-riding group in mind, but he quickly switched to dirt when he realized one fundamental truth: Teenagers love mountain biking. Fritzinger has since grown that club into the NorCal and SoCal MB racing leagues, and launched the NICA this past October.

Is mountain bike racing safe for kids?
Statistically you see more injuries in football than in mountain biking. And there are other sports, like cross-country running, where kids aren’t supervised 100 percent of the time. We have a best-practices manual for coaches, and we’ll soon be implementing a licensing program.

Will a coaching licensor from the NICA help schools with risk management?
Liability is something schools are going to have to grow comfortable with. The real issue we’re talking about is creating a societal shift toward accepting a new sport. Imagine trying to sell football as a brand-new sport: ‘We’re going to dress a bunch of boys in gladiator-like pads and helmets and allow them to wage war on a grassy field. It will be a mono-gender sport, but we’ll let girls in miniskirts jump up and down from the sidelines.’ It would never fly. And I have no issues with football. But I also feel confident and unapologetic about promoting mountain biking to schools and coaches. It’s good for kids. It’s good for schools, for families and—when you think about promoting an activity that can ultimately reduce the carbon footprint of the U.S.—it’s good for society. That should be an easy sell for administrators and parents.

Any aspirations to move into downhill?
Downhill racing is venue dependent. In most communities there isn’t a place where you can set up a legal practice course. We’re enjoying a tremendous amount of success with cross-country. I don’t want to dilute that by adding a sport that isn’t accessible to most schools. At the same time we honor and support kids with downhill ambitions. Same goes for road racing. Many league racers go on to become world-class athletes across the disciplines.

There are currently 40 teams in NorCal and 14 in SoCal. What’s the next step?
We’ve just launched a Colorado league. I estimate having at least 100 riders in Colorado this first season. By 2015, the plan is to have leagues up and running in 10 states, including Washington, Arizona, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Utah.

What’s your office like?
We just moved into a new 2,000-square-foot facility. We’re overworked and understaffed.

So does that mean you’re hiring?
I wouldn’t put that in the magazine.

How can I get involved?
Three ways: Attend one of our conferences in Southern and Northern California, Washington or Colorado on best practices for youth cycling; email matt@nationalmtb.org for dates. Second, you could create a committee to help form teams and a league in your home state; email me for support. Finally, the NICA is a nonprofit and depends on the continued support of passionate cyclists who want their sport to become as accessible as soccer, baseball and football; visit nationalmtb.org for donation information.

What can racing teach about life?
Mountain biking builds a connection between kids, the outdoors and their community. Putting young people in a position of responsibility for their own machine while making them part of a team teaches both self-reliance and teamwork. It teaches kids to think beyond themselves.

Slideshow season is off to a great success. If you haven’t yet attended one of our informative and entertaining summer opportunity slide presentations, we have many events planned throughout the country during the second half of January. Please give us a call for directions, details or to RSVP.

Slideshows Off To A Great Start

One of the greatest parts of our winter months is visiting the thousands of alumni across the country. This week alone, we’re visiting Georgia, Massachusetts, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, New York, North Carolina, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maine, Michigan and Washington, DC.

Attending one of our brief presentations will allow you to learn why our wilderness adventures have been such a unique and special experience for so many young adults for the past 37 years.

Here are a list of our teen adventure camp slide presentations for this week.

Parents and students are welcome to addend our presentations and learn about our teen summer camps!

Slideshow reservations are appreciated: Please RSVP to our Jackson Hole adventure camp office at (800) 533-2281 or info@wildernessventures.com.

References: Please also call for a detailed listing of wilderness adventures references in your area.

Availability: Most of our teen adventure camps will have availability through the month of January. Some trip dates will fill earlier and others may have selected openings into the spring.

Equipment Rental Packages: Wilderness Ventures offers an equipment rental program for most of our teen adventure camps.

Please call our office for details. Further Questions: (800) 533-2281 & www.wildernessventures.com.

Yosemite National Park Adventures

Situated on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, Yosemite National Park offers world-famous hiking, backpacking and rock climbing opportunities.  Yosemite is widely recognized as one of the most scenic parks in the world. This iconographic national park is home to waterfalls, meadows and forests that include groves of giant sequoias. In 1984, 704,956 acres of Yosemite was designated as the Yosemite Wilderness by act of congress. Within this beautiful wilderness of spectacular granite walls, lake basins meadows and forests, Wilderness Ventures groups backpack and climb each summer.

Unfortunately, many of the 3.5 million visitors each year only venture into some seven square miles of park land — never traveling into the most beautiful and scenic Wilderness areas that make up 92 percent of the park’s lands. At Wilderness Ventures, we are committed to introducing young people to the most stunning environments on the planet. We create positive associations with the Yosemite Wilderness with our High Sierra and California teen summer adventures.

On these wilderness adventures, students backpack through the Yosemite high country and rock climb the stunning granite walls that permeate this National Park.  To learn more about our California or High Sierra Leadership Adventures, which offer unprecedented teen wilderness adventures into both Yosemite and remote areas of coastal California, call 800-533-2281 or visit wildernessventures.com.

Adventure As A Gift

Give the gift of experience. Every year, we see more and more parents presenting a Wilderness Ventures experience as a gift to their child. In an era when electronic distractions dominate many top teen gift guides, the Wilderness Ventures Catalog, in contrast, offers an amazing opportunity to give teens a present that will help them connect with their surroundings, their peers and themselves. Our over 17,000 alumni credit their wilderness adventure experience with us to be one of the most fun, memorable and formative experiences of their young adult lives. We believe that any adventure is as important as it is meaningful and as meaningful as it is fun. To accomplish the goals of our teen adventure camps, we ensure that everything we do creates fun, positive associations with our environments and our activities. Because our summer teen adventure trips (besides being meaningful) are so much fun, they are experiences that teens will look forward to and prepare for throughout the winder months.

These wilderness adventures are crafted for young adults who are just beginning their experiences in the outdoors or teenagers who are accustomed to outdoor life. These teen adventure camps offer unparalleled educational opportunities, and offer a creative alternative to traditional holiday gift giving as teens will walk away from these adventures with something that cannot be purchased in a store.

These teen adventure’ programs range from 14 days to 6 weeks, and the participants engage in multi-activity wilderness adventures and outdoor adventures for teens, including backpacking, whitewater rafting, whitewater kayaking, sea kayaking, rock climbing, canoeing, inflatable kayaking, mountaineering, fly fishing, snorkeling, SCUBA diving, sailing, surfing, and mountain biking. All of the wilderness adventures provide imaginative and unforgettable journeys into the backcountry in some of the most beautiful outdoor and wilderness areas of national parks and forests in North America and abroad.
To discuss our teen adventure camps or to order our award-winning, 100-page catalog, visit Wilderness Ventures online at www.WildernessVentures.com or call 800-533-2281.

Colorado Launches Teen Mountain Biking League

BOULDER, Colo.—  Weeks after the Northern and Southern California Youth Mountain Biking Leagues joined forces to create a National Youth Mountain Biking League, the freshly-spawned National Intercollegiate Cycling Association (NICA) announced the formation of a state teen mountain biking league in Colorado.

“With the launch of the Colorado High School Cycling league, we estimate having at least 100 riders competing in Colorado races this season,” says Matt Fritzinger, Executive Director of the NICA. “Colorado has a rich cultural history surrounding the sport of mountain biking so there is a lot of demand for organized teen mountain biking programs there.”

As part of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA), the Colorado League is based on and supported by a long-running, successful high school mountain biking program established in California, where mountain bike racing has become a varsity high school sport.

Teen Mountain Biking Leagues in Northern and Southern California have been established since 2001 and 2008, respectively. Following the Colorado League launch, the NICA plans to expand its teen mountain biking programs to Washington state.

“Colorado’s mountain biking culture runs deep throughout the state,” says Fritzinger, “The state is a natural venue for teen mountain biking adventures.”

Wilderness Ventures has been running teen mountain biking programs in Colorado for the past decade. Our Colorado-Utah Mountain Bike Leadership Adventure  is open to adventurous teenagers (7th grade - 12th grade), and visits the best mountain bike adventure destinations in both Colorado and Utah. Notably, this wilderness adventure visits the high desert single track ribbons of Fruita, Co., the stunning alpine riding in Telluride, Co., and the famous slickrock of Moab, Ut. Teen wilderness adventures students also raft the Colorado and Arkansas Rivers, learn rock climbing skills on the granite spires surrounding Telluride and develop friendships that last a lifetime.

For more information about the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, or for information on our Colorado Utah Mountain Biking Adventure, call 800-533-2281.

The Role of Trees in Global Warming

The New York Times did a recent story on the possibility of using the trees of the Deschutes National Forest as living storage mechanisms to offset our nation’s carbon footprint. Specifically, the article focuses on the Forest’s Three Sisters Rangers District, where Wilderness Ventures has been leading teen summer adventures for the past 37 years.

From Last Week’s Article in The Times:

The giant evergreens of the West have long been proclaimed essential, whether the cause was saving salmon and spotted owls or small towns and their sawmills. Now, with evidence showing that American forests store 15 percent or more of the carbon gases produced in the nation, expectations are growing for them to do even more.

As the premiere wilderness adventure program for teenagers (and the only teen adventure camp with access to the beloved Three Sisters Wilderness), we recognize that we have a responsibility to educate our students about the breathtakingly beautiful settings (we call them our Last Best Places) that our wilderness adventures visit.

One of our primary goals is to teach respect for wild lands. Our teen adventure camp participants learn that outdoor admiration by living and having fun in the outdoors. We believe in making positive associations with wild lands — by having fun in a safe manner in the most breathtaking settings on the planet. Our exclusive permits allow us to bring our teen wilderness adventures into 30 of the most desirable outdoor locations in North America; many of these (including the Three Sisters Wilderness, Grand Teton National Park and the Pasayten Wilderness) are inaccessible to other teen adventure programs.

To learn more about our ecological and social contributions, please visit wildernessventures.com/givingback