Pacific Northwest Explorers

The Pacific Northwest Explorers (our introductory adventure trip for sixth graders) arrived safely into Seattle yesterday.

The Yellowstone Teton Explorer Adventure uses the backdrop of the dramatic Teton M0untains and famous Yellowstone National Park for 16-days of introductory activities that are as diverse as the environments of this beautiful region. Begining and ending in the Old West town of Jackson Hole, this wilderness adventure gives students the opportunity to whitewater raft two mountain rivers, trek among the famous geysers and thermal features of Yellowstone, embark on an exciting chuck wagon adventure (complete with horseback riding, authentic Western dining and live entertainment), bike ride under the magnificent Teton mountains and enjoy nights camped under the most brilliant star-filled sky imaginable.

Here are some recent photos from this summer’s early section of the Yellowstone Teton Explorer Adventure.

An Early Congratulations To All Our Soon-To-Be Graduates!

While most of our trips are already full, we’re still holding limited space on a few adventures that make the perfect gift for recent high school graduates and older high school students.
Alaska College Leadership Expedition: Trek through the lush and seldom-visited Talkeetna Mountains. Sea kayak through coastal fjords among rocky cliffs, dense rainforests, spectacular coastal mountains and active glaciers. This unique and practical curriculum is designed especially for young adults who have recently completed their high school education.

Our European Alps Adventure offers the quintessential post-graduate experience in a well-supervised, constructive environment. Explore the best of Switzerland, France and Italy. Combine spectacular hut-to-hut trekking on the Alps’ two must-do hiking routes. Visit charming European Villages. Explore cosmopolitan Geneva and climb the 13,450-foot, snow-clad Breithorn.
Costa Rica Service: Experience an unspoiled tropical paradise of pristine beaches and exotic wildlife. Preserve endangered sea turtles. Sea kayak palm-laden coastlines and raft a jungle river. Work and interact with local populations while earning 60 hours of community service.

With all of our adventures, we place a strong emphasis on ensuring clustered age groupings and appropriate gender balance. Because our adventure programs have remained so popular after 37 years of operation, we are able to run multiple sections of many trips to ensure the best social dynamic in each group.

Please call us to discuss inspiring, age-appropriate adventure opportunities for recent graduates and for students of any age. I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Sincerely,
Mike
Mike Cottingham
Owner, Founder
Wilderness Ventures

800-533-2218
info@wildernessventures.com

Climb the Grand Teton with Wilderness Ventures

Many people wait their entire lives for a chance to climb a world-famous mountain like the Grand Teton.
However, you can summit this 13,770-foot Rocky Mountain peak this summer!

Plus you´ll get to whitewater raft the Snake River, backpack in the Wind River Range and sea kayak in Yellowstone National Park — all on this 22-day adventure that explores the best of the Rocky Mountains.

Rising 5,000 feet above the Jackson Hole valley floor, the craggy Grand Teton will tower far above your head from the time you arrive at our small airport until you stand triumphantly on this Tolkienesque peak at the top of the world. Best of all, you don´t have to have any experience to climb this majestic mountain. Your program includes a world-class climbing school, where our small group will learn important alpine skills such as belaying and rappelling.

After graduating from climbing school, we´ll begin our two-day mountain ascent with a 4,000-foot climb to base camp, where we´ll spend the night above tree line. The next morning, we´ll wake up very early (when it´s still dark!) to conclude a once-in-a-life-time mountain climbing experience with a bid for the rock-exposed summit and a 150-foot rappel off the backside of the peak.

Since 1977, over 2,300 young adults have climbed the Grand Teton with Wilderness Ventures. 

One of the most fantastic things about the Grand Teton Adventure is that it gives you the opportunity to do so many activities in so many amazing wilderness areas that are so close together. The wilds of the Wind River Range, the excitement of the Snake River and the pristine beauty of Yellowstone National Park are all under the shadow of the Tetons — here in Jackson Hole. We can´t wait to see you.

Teen Adventure Camps Celebrate Earth Day and National Parks Week

Since 1973, our teen adventure camps have been committed to teaching teens about the joys of living in the out of doors. By bringing our teen adventure students into the most inspiring settings on the planet and providing them with fun, immersive introductions to these spectacular “Last Best Places,” we teach teens conservation ethics in the most hands-on way imaginable.

TEEN ADVENTURE IN OUR NATIONAL PARKS
By granting admission-free access to all of its national parks this week, the National Park Service is encouraging access to our country’s greatest treasures. In that spirit, we have dedicated our teen adventure camps to bringing groups of students on immersive adventures into the most spectacular national parks and wilderness areas in the United States and around the globe.

OUR EXCLUSIVE TEEN ADVENTURE CAMP PERMITS
When we founded Wilderness Ventures 38 years ago, we sought operating licenses for our teen adventure camps in the most spectacular and beautiful areas in America, and fortunately, teen adventure permits to these places were still available at that time. Today, we hold treasured (and oftentimes exclusive) teen adventure permits to 34 of the best protected lands in the Western US. For example, we are the only teen adventure program for teens with the authority to lead teen sea kayaking expeditions onto the high alpine lakes of Yellowstone National Park and to lead teen hiking and teen backpacking adventures into Grand Teton National Park. Our permits are truly special, and with the privilege of being able to take teens to these wonderful places, we also recognize our tremendous responsibility to see that these areas remain preserved and protected for future generations of teen adventure campers.

For more information on remaining availability on our 2010 teen adventure programs in the world’s “Last Best Places,” please call us at 800-533-2281. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Mike Cottingham
Founder, Owner
Wilderness Ventures — the leading teen adventure program for today’s teens.

Unbreakable: Avoid Injuries with this Bone Strengthening Advice

By WV teen adventure camp office staff member Pete Rognli.

Published in the March issue of Bicycling

“The negative consequence of a cycle-only exercise routine is the loss of bone strength,” says Scott Rector, PhD, author of a recent study that determined that cyclists tend to have significantly less bone density than runners and weight lifters. Among other issues, this condition increases your odds of sustaining a fracture if you crash. Don’t let your cycle-centric exercise regimen leave you vulnerable. Include the following in your regular routine for a strong skeleton.

Impact Exercises
To add both mass and density to your skeletal structure, Rector recommends a combination of plyometrics (dynamic moves such as box jumps and clapping push-ups), rope-jumping and resistance exercises. For results most likely to keep you intact in a crash, work the areas you want to protect.

Calcium Sources
Some researchers theorize that, due to the duration of most training rides, cyclists are more likely than many other types of athletes to sweat out their mineral stores. Besides the obvious (milk), consume good calcium sources such as kale, almonds, white beans, broccoli and figs. Another way to get your calcium is to bask in the sun—vitamin D regulates your absorption of it. Expose your face and arms for 15 sunscreen-free minutes three times a week.

Wilderness Ventures is the leading teen summer camp, specializing in outdoor teen summer adventures for teens, age 13 - 18. Our teen summer camps run in the finest environments of the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, California and abroad. To learn more about our teen adventure camps and teen summer programs, call 800-533-2281.

Teen Service Projects Preserve The Most Inspirational Settings On The Planet:

Accredited Teen Summer Camps

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As the pioneering teen summer camp, Wilderness Ventures has been conducting adventure camps in the American West for 37 years. We conducted our first teen summer camp in 1973, visiting all of the most splendid wilderness areas in the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest. Today, we take great pride in running the best teen adventure camps in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, California, Hawaii, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and in several international destinations, including Central and South America, Europe, Australia and the South Pacific. Because of our vast teen adventure experience, our exclusive destinations, and the enviable degree of control that we have over the quality of our adventures, we are largely considered the best teen summer camp available to today’s teens.

Teen Summer Camp Destinations

When we conducted our first teen summer camp in 1973, we wanted to bring our teen summer campers to the best, most beautiful and most inspiring environments on the planet. Some highlights of our first teen summer camp consisted of the Glacier Peak Wilderness, the Three Sisters Wilderness, Yellowstone National Park and Olympic National Park. Back in the early 1970s, permits to our nation’s treasured wilderness areas was still possible to obtain. With tremendous foresight, our founders Mike and Helen Cottingham were able to aquire permits to the best and most beautiful teen summer camp environments in the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountains, Alaska, California and Hawaii. Affectionately, we refer to these environments as “Our Last Best Places,” and the exclusive permits that we hold to these treasured environments allows us to conduct teen summer camps in the most beautiful locations on the planet. For example, we are the only teen summer camp with the authority to lead teen backpacking trips in Grand Teton National Park and Oregon’s Three Sisters Wilderness; we are the only teen adventure camp allowed to lead sea kayaking expeditions onto the high alpine lakes of Yellowstone National Park, where our own adventure camp sea kayaking specialists.

Teen Summer Camp Safety

Because of our self-managed permits in these teen summer camp destinations (see above and “Our Last Best Places”), we have a high degree of control over who leads our expeditions. Our teen summer camp leaders are the most highly qualified, most extensively trained staff members in the teen summer camp industry; see “Our Leaders.” But another important distinction between Wilderness Ventures and other teen summer camps is the level of control our leaders have over the adventures they are leading. Many teen summer camps must, for example, subcontract their important outdoor adventure activities to permit holders so that they can conduct teen backpacking trips and teen hiking trips; this process often dilutes the quality of the leadership in charge of the health, safety, enjoyment and general well being of the teen summer camp activities. Since we operate under our own permits, we have the assurance that only our own highly qualified and trained leaders are conducting our teen summer camps.

Teen Adventure Programs

While many organizations offer teen adventure programs for today’s young people no outdoor adventure camp can claim to have more experience leading teen adventure programs than Wilderness Ventures. With 37 years’ experience and over 20,000 alumni, Wilderness Ventures is by far the most experienced teen adventure program. With that experience comes a strong attention to safety, leadership development, fun and individual attention for each student in our teen adventure program.

Safety

We certainly recognize that there are many teen adventure programs available to discerning parents. What our teen adventures programs offer is the most tried, tested and well planned adventure camps immaginable. Many of our teen adventure program destinations have seen Wilderness Ventures students return year after year since 1973. In many of our beautiful destinations, such as Grand Teton National Park, we are the only teen adventure program permitted to operate. On our international teen adventure programs, we don’t adventure into the next hot destination simply because it is a trendy place to run a teen adventure program. It takes years to put together a safe and smooth teen adventure program, especially in an international environment. No one has more experience leading international and domestic teen adventure programs than does Wilderness Ventures.

Leadership

Our teen adventure program leaders are the best in the industry. Most are teachers, graduate students, PhD candidates – folks who have immense experience leading outdoor adventures, but, as important, possessing of a gift and love for working with adventurous teens in an outdoor setting. All of our teen adventure program leaders entering a wilderness environment are Wilderness First Responder certified and all teen adventure program leaders, in addition to their own high level of skills, attend a two-week staff training at the beginning of the summer.

Fun Teen Adventure Programs

We believe strongly in creating positive connections with the outdoor world and our 37 years of experience has taught us that the fundamental quality of every teen adventure program is that, in order to teach leadership skills and love for the outdoors, the teen adventure program must first be fun. All of our teen adventure programs assume no prior knowledge on the part of the participant and provide an emotionally safe and nurturing environment for teen adventurers to learn new skills, experience new environments and grow as individuals.

Individual Attention

We put a tremendous amount of resources forth every year to constructing teen adventure program groups with a good gender and age balance. We group teen adventure programs according to age. We ensure that each teen adventure program group contains only students who are excited about their adventure for the right reasons. Our students are excited about experiencing new environments, activities and cultures with a great group of teenage adventure program participants.

As the pioneering teen adventure program, Wilderness Ventures has been conducting adventure camps since 1973. Call 800-533-2281 to request our adventure camp catalog or to learn more about our exciting teen adventure programs.

Teen Adventure Camps

Teen Adventure Camps and Teen Service Programs by Wilderness Ventures

Wilderness Ventures, the worldwide leader in teen adventure camps since 1973, offers several teen adventure camp service opportunities where teens can earn up to 80 hours of community service while participating in many of the fun, substantive, leadership-oriented activities that have made our teen adventure camps so popular for the past 37 years.

US-based Teen Adventure Camps and Teen Service Programs

Our domestic teen service adventures offer a healthy blend of both cultural and environmental service while making the most of these spectacular areas where our teen adventure camps have been operating for the past 37 years by participating in fun, leadership-oriented activities in the greatest outdoor locations of the United States.

Yellowstone Teton Service:

From our home for teen adventure camps in the Teton Mountain Range, we team up with the US forest service to offer an unprecedented teen environmental service program in the greater Yellowstone region. While in the most beautiful backcountry environments on the planet, we’ll roll up our sleeves and help with trail work – learning about the watershed and erosion control techniques that preserve this treasured landscape. In between these teen community service projects, we’ll take time to enjoy the outdoor playground of Yellowstone and the Tetons by whitewater rafting, rock climbing and, of course, seeing teen adventure camp sites like Old Faithful for which America’s first National Park is so famous.

Hawaii Service:

Centered on the “Big Island” of Hawaii – considered the state’s most scenic and most beautiful — we’ll embark on a teen adventure camp filled with both valuable community service and fun teen adventure activities. The Hawaii Service teen adventure camp has the privilege of working with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and Reef Teach for our important conservation and human service projects. Teen adventure campers will also have plenty of fun – learning to surf, sail, whitewater raft and sea kayak this water-sports paradise.

International Service Opportunities and Teen Adventure Camps

Each of our international teen adventure camp destinations are carefully chosen and thoroughly researched to provide the safest, most fun and most immersive teen adventure programs possible. Here is one example of our teen adventure camp destinations that offer unparalled service opportunities in the most breathtaking settings imaginable.

Peru Service:

This extraordinary teen adventure camp offers teen whitewater rafting, mountain biking, and teen hiking programs through the most extraordinarily beautiful environments of Peru – through the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu, into the beautiful Andes mountains and onto the floating reed island that are home to the Uros Villagers on Lake Titicaca. This teen community service program visits and lends a helping hand in three remote villages, participating in environmental, educational and cultural service projects.

For more information about these and other great outdoor teen adventures, including teen adventures in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and the Rocky Mountains and international teen adventure camps in Europe, Australia and the South Pacific, Central and South America and British Columbia, call 800-533-2281. Call or visit wildernessventures.com to learn about the service-oriented teen adventure camps listed here or teen service camps in the American Southwest, Costa Rica and Fiji.

About Wilderness Ventures’ Teen Adventure Camps

Wilderness Ventures operates adventure-oriented teen service camps in the Rocky Mountains, Alaska, Hawaii, the Southwest, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru and Fiji. With 37 years in the field and over 20,000 alumni, Wilderness Ventures is by far the oldest and most experienced organization leading teen adventure camps.