Outdoor adventure education is an experiential method of learning which takes place primarily through sensory involvement with the outdoors. Characteristics of adventure education include uncertain outcomes, risk, inescapable consequences, energetic action, and willingness to participate. Adventure education occurs in a diversity of venues, ranging from wilderness explorations to artificial climbing walls and ropes courses. Outdoor adventure education programs have the potential to improve the moral development of participants. Outward Bound, the National Outdoor Leadership School, Project Adventure, and the Wilderness Education Association have set examples for outdoor adventure education companies through their leadership, programming, and curricula. Standards developed by them have been influential throughout the field. Outdoor leaders need soft skills, which involve facilitation, instructional, and organizational skills, and hard skills, which include technical, safety, and environmental skills. Meta-skills that hold the hard and soft skills together are also needed and include effective communication, flexible leadership style, professional ethics, problem solving, decision making, and experience-based judgement. Recommended best practices include implementing ethics of care for participants and the environment, ensuring the safety of participants and staff, having trained and certified leaders, matching goals and objectives to organizational needs, providing skill development and awareness for participants, having a written curriculum, and conducting ongoing evaluation and research. Research needs are discussed. (Contains 69 references.) (TD)