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Since 1965, the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) has been teaching its students how to climb, kayak, and navigate; how to camp without leaving a trace; how to stay warm and dry in the wilderness; how to cope with a backcountry emergency; and how to effectively lead others through such experiences. There are many reasons for spending time in the remote outdoors. Awe-inspiring scenery, peacefulness, wildlife viewing, and exercise are all good reasons. Another is that such experiences build character: "The wildlands teach us to be smart, practical, resourceful, and observant. To hike ten hours through scabrous terrain, cross a brawny river, stay warm in a snowstorm, and navigate your way out of tangled woods tests and builds your best faculties." While no single book can prepare one for spending time in the wilderness--much less impart all the skills necessary to survive in the elements--the
NOLS Guide is an eminently useful place to start. Chapters include primers on equipment (fitting boots and packs, choosing a tent, the "Five Commandments for Equipment Care"); appropriate dress for a variety of climates; and ways of traveling in the backcountry, from crossing scree fields to fording rivers. It's not a substitute for in-depth instruction in, say, snow camping, or reading a map and compass. But with a solid grounding in the basics, one can take that first boot-step into what
Joseph Wood Krutch called "the great reservoir of energy, of confidence, of endless hope."
High Country News, October 25, 1999
This starting-from-scratch revision of The National Outdoor Leadership School's Wilderness Guide will tell you what to wear, how to navigate, and how to get across streams and scree fields in the backcountry. It will give you tips on whether to evacuate an injured person by helicopter, how to treat blisters, and how to look for lost members of your group. This is all useful and well written. But the book's major strength is its many discussions of the psychology and etiquette of being in the forests, deserts or high country. Mark Harvey shares many stories and anecdotes to drive home his points. The material on leading and being led is especially well done.
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