Outdoor adventure activities such as whitewater boating, caving, rock climbing, and mountaineering continue to be popular among the public. As a result of this popularity, numerous organizations "contract out" the leadership and delivery of the adventure portion of their curriculum. This paper explores two widely used venues for offering outdoor…

This article describes instructor criteria in three outdoor organizations: Outward Bound (OB), the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), and the Wilderness Education Association (WEA). Common requirements for outdoor leadership programs are outdoor experience and skills, advanced first aid, CPR, and a minimum age requirement. Traditionally…

Attitudes toward various outdoor leadership competencies and differences in approaches to selection, training, assessment, and certification of outdoor leadership candidates were examined among 169 experts from 5 English-speaking countries. U.S. experts had the most extreme attitudes and were concerned about insurance, litigation, and land…

The National Standard Program for Outdoor Leadership Certification does not answer all needs for outdoor leadership, but it does provide nationally recognized curriculum and evaluations, availability of criterion for certification, persons with various educational degrees also certified for outdoor education, and a safe, enjoyable, and productive…