Outdoor leaders model their values, and their ethical frameworks and moral development help shape their influence on others. Outdoor leaders face many obstacles as they seek to define ethical standards, including the challenge of defining common ethics, lack of professional certifications, the limits of professional ethics, and issues of power and control. A study examined outdoor leaders' ethical frameworks and moral reasoning, as they related to caring and justice orientations and to the use of post-conventional moral arguments. Sixty outdoor leaders drawn from two national organizations completed two instruments: the Defining Issues Test and the Manning Instrument, which measures the use of justice or caring justifications in the face of a moral dilemma. Respondents had a mean age of 36 years and an average of 12 years experience as outdoor leaders; almost all had at least a college degree, and more than half had advanced degrees. The results show that when analyzing dilemmas, these outdoor leaders used critical thinking skills and post-conventional moral arguments, which view moral actions as contextual and societal norms as guidelines rather than laws. In their initial decisions about dilemmas, outdoor leaders made care-centered decisions more frequently than subjects in prior studies and were even more likely to choose care-centered decisions upon reflection. Findings are presented in terms of gender, parental status, social class at birth and now, and age. Implications for the training of outdoor leaders and for further research are discussed. (Contains 34 references) (SV)