Backpackers carry everything they need - food, shelter, clothing and gear – allowing them to spend more time in the backcountry and venture into less visited places. This desert backpacking course includes both on-trail and off-trail terrain. The trails, when present, are usually of high quality. The off-trail routes can be especially challenging as these routes travel through boulder filled canyons across vast desert plains. Joshua Tree is a high desert, with areas of the park over 5,000 feet. This landscape provides an opportunity for a pre-dawn start to a peak attempt.

As water is scarce to come by naturally in the desert, staff will resupply food and water along the way at different water cache sites designated by Outward Bound California and the National Park. Though the landscape is demanding, there are few places in the world that compare to the beauty and uniqueness of where this backpacking leads.

The rock climbing section provides an introduction to personal climbing skills while building trust among crew members as they belay one another and set goals as a group. Groups will set up a backcountry “basecamp” as students explore the canyons and wander through unique rock formations looking for the next climbing area.

Students will acquire and build skills associated with technical rock climbing, including introductory rock climbing basics, knots, movement over rock, top-rope belaying, equipment use and care of harnesses and other items.  This section will include a variety of styles including crack-climbing and face climbing. Participants will climb some of the highest quality granite in one of the most popular world destinations for rock climbers.

Service is an integral part of the Outward Bound Pathfinder curriculum. We encourage service to the environment in the form of leaving campsites cleaner than we find them and practicing Leave No Trace ethics throughout the course. We coordinate service projects with land managers (Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, local land trusts, etc). One full day will be dedicated to service on this course. 

The solo experience provides an important break from the rigors of the expedition. With sufficient food and equipment you’ll spend time alone at an assigned campsite to rest, reflect, and practice the camp craft skills you have been learning throughout the course. We choose your solo site to offer as much solitude as possible, but within earshot of Instructors for safety considerations. You will not travel during this time and your instructors will check on you periodically. Many students are initially nervous about solo but most are ready for a break from the group when the time for solo arrives. This activity may be abbreviated or eliminated as instructors assess the weather, terrain, or other factors that could affect the outcomes of solo. For this program, a solo progression is structured into course. For example, you may start with a solo lasting only a few hours and culminate with a full 3-day solo towards the end of your course. Many of our past students express this was one of the most powerful elements to their course.

Outward Bound expeditions encourage students to grow into the best version of themselves. Compassion for self and others is foundational to our educational approach. Students work collaboratively with their peers and as individuals to navigate challenging circumstances and the everyday harshness of the natural environment. The physical and mental challenges students experience on course allow them to discover their strengths and build authentic connections. Through intentionally tiered technical skill instruction, students also gain self-efficacy in outdoor competencies related to their course. Consistent and cultivated space for introspection or interactive reflective processes supports students making connections between their experiences and their life back home Whether the expedition is a few days or a few months, students realize that they are stronger than they know, and develop confidence and perseverance that will last a lifetime.

Some of the social and emotional learning outcomes students can expect include:

• Belonging – a sense of connection in the group founded upon respect, inclusion, empathy and compassion
• Courage – catalyzing strengths in order to persevere and take on challenge and risks
• Physical Engagement – develop body awareness and confidence through sensate and bodily experiences
• Self-Regulation – the ability to counter distraction and strong emotions by calming, refocusing, and turn-taking
• Reflection – examination and questioning of actions, roles, relationships and assumptions 

Welcome to the high desert moonscape, where rugged mountains and desert plateaus have been sculpted by wind and rain.  Three distinct ecosystems come together to form this land of extremes: the dark, cold, star-filled nights against warm sand and boulder-filled days. Participants will travel through granite monoliths and through narrow canyons.

The Mojave Desert’s winter weather is perfect for a week on the trail or basecamping below the next climb. Weather in the park is generally dry, cold and rainfall is sparse, though unpredictable, and sometimes persistent thunderstorms do occur. Temperatures vary, with lows around 40 and highs around 70 degrees, to a much colder temp of 30 degrees at night and potentially hitting 100 early or late in the season. 

These regions are the ancestral lands of the Yuhaviatam/Maarenga’yam (Serrano), Cahuilla, Newe (Western Shoshone), Chemehuevi, Southern Paiute and Cocopah (Xawiƚƚ kwñchawaay) nations. We acknowledge them as the past, present, and future caretakers of this land, and also pay respect to their elders, both past and present. We recognize and continually support and advocate for the sovereignty of the Native nations of this territory and beyond. By offering this land acknowledgment we affirm tribal sovereignty, commit to working to support these tribes, and commit to holding Outward Bound California accountable to this work.