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High School
Blue Ridge – Backpack, Whitewater Canoe & Rock Climb
Step outside of your comfort zone and make new discoveries as you traverse the wild trails and roaring rivers of Western North Carolina.
Scholarships
Savings Plan
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Open 
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North Carolina
About This Course
Activity
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Backpacking -
Canoeing -
Rock Climbing
Setting & Location
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Forest -
Mountains -
River -
Course Start Location: Asheville, NC -
Course End Location: Asheville, NC
Students Can Earn
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College Credit
Session Details
4 sessions are available for this course
What You’ll Learn
Forge an epic adventure! On Outward Bound courses for high schoolers, you’ll make new friends and face exciting new challenges together while building communication and leadership skills that help your group soar to new heights!
What You'll Do
Spend your days backpacking lush forest trails, climbing rugged rock faces, and paddling whitewater rapids. Learn how to navigate using a map and compass, build outdoor skills, and master camp craft alongside your crew.
Where You'll Be
Venture into the ancient and misty Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. With your crew by your side, you’ll discover rushing rivers, hidden waterfalls, and forests brimming with wildlife in one of North America’s most biodiverse regions.
Why It Matters
High school is hard work – take a break and do something memorable! You’ll explore new places, make friends, and learn skills that will expand your belief in what’s possible. We are crew, not passengers which means you’ll share responsibility for your crew’s success through teamwork, communication, and leadership. Let’s go!
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Classic Courses for High School
What if you had space to feel more connected to yourself, to others, and to the challenging world around you?
Three Week Courses
You’ll develop valuable teamwork skills, sharing failures and wins while having epic adventures! You and your crew will establish a thoughtful community, bonding through hard-earned success. You’ll learn how to both lead and support your group. And you get to uncover the answer to big questions like: “Who am I; who are YOU; and how can we sustain a strong, connected crew?”
Us. But Better.
You and your crew will learn how to support each other’s success, boldly tackling challenges and persevering together through epic adventures! Our skilled instructors protect the time and space students need to both recognize your strengths and consider the strengths of others.
Connection and Care
Focusing on building a connected group where each student’s unique personality is valued, you and your crew will practice the communication skills you need to feel safe, cared for, and pay forward that care for each other as you go adventuring!
Shared Success
You’ll start to learn how to be thoughtful about your own actions, your words, and the impact of both on other people. You will practice holding all of this at once while you just how magical facing challenges and succeeding as a team can be!
Life on Course
Explore the Blue Ridge Mountains, where every day brings a new challenge and an opportunity to grow.
Each day, you will wake up to fresh mountain air and get ready to take on the day’s challenge, from backpacking to your next campsite, paddling whitewater rapids, to rock climbing. Through these activities, you will sharpen your navigation, paddling, belaying, and campcraft skills. As a crew, you’ll share leadership roles, meals, stories, and laughs. You will practice Leave No Trace ethics and give back to the land through hands-on service. By course end, you’ll leave with new friendships, leadership skills, and memories that will last a lifetime.
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Sample Itinerary
Here’s an example of what your course itinerary might look like. The actual plan will depend on permits, weather, group skills, and instructor evaluation.
Swipe on table below to view more.
22-Day Course
| Day 1 | Course start, duffle shuffle, camp craft, and risk management |
| Day 2-5 | Backpacking training expedition: learning navigation skills |
| Day 6-8 | Rock Climbing: climbing, belaying, rappelling, and multi-pitch climbing |
| Day 9-11 | Backpacking main expedition: advanced navigation and group decision-making |
| Day 12 | Resupply and service project: trail building or work with community service organization |
| Day 13-15 | Whitewater canoeing: paddle strokes, boat maneuvers, rapid scouting, and self-rescue |
| Day 16-18 | Solo |
| Day 19-20 | Backpacking final expedition: practicing leadership and independence |
| Day 21 | Personal challenge event; clean and de-issue gear; graduation ceremony |
| Day 22 | Course end and transportation to the airport |
FAQs
Is this like summer camp?
Our courses are fast-paced and take place entirely outdoors in all types of weather. We unplug from devices. We have tons of fun. And we work hard, too. Come prepared to be part of the team and participate fully.
Where does course start and end?
All Blue Ridge Mountains courses start and end at Asheville Regional Airport (AVL). A North Carolina Outward Bound School (NCOBS) representative will meet participants at baggage claim for check-in. Transportation is provided between Asheville Regional Airport and the course area at course start and end.
What are your essential eligibility criteria?
Our Essential Eligibility Criteria shares what participants must be able to do during course. Full disclosure of all health and medication information is required during the admissions process.
Is this a course meant to address patterns of concerning behavior?
No. This is a Classic Outward Bound course-it is not designed for struggling teens or “at-risk youth.” Please check out Outward Bound Intercept courses that do focus on repairing behaviors and challenging family relationships.
What do Instructors do to manage risk on course?
In addition to ongoing training and mentoring that is always happening for field staff, Instructors have numerous conversations before, during, and after course about how to manage risks and make specific plans to keep students safe emotionally and physically. The goal is to offer students enough opportunities involving perceived risk, such as rock climbing, so that they are stretched to step outside their comfort zones. It is through those experiences that they have powerful learning experiences. We are also teaching students how to use what they learn so they too can prevent incidents and respond proactively to our greater teacher – nature – which can often be unpredictable!
