Rocky Mountain Wilderness Discovery is an extraordinary and potentially life-changing journey into the wild heart of one of the world’s great mountain ranges. Created to support young people to face the unknown future with courage, compassion, integrity and creativity, it is the quintessential Outward Bound experience renewed for a new time. It is an experience with deep roots, for since the dawn of human history, people have been drawn to the mountains to seek inspiration, insight, and self-knowledge. Rocky Mountain Discovery participants follow in those ancients footsteps as they take the 'road less traveled' that has lured seekers, sages, artists and adventurers across the ages.

'Not I, nor anyone else, can travel that road for you. You must travel it for yourself' 
Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

On the Rocky Mountain Wilderness Discovery course, you will learn practical skills that will last you a lifetime. To stay safe and warm in the high country. To find your way in the wilderness. To travel and climb in rugged terrain. To feel at home on the land. To develop genuine leadership skills and make critical decisions with real consequences for yourself and others. Some of Canada’s most famous and accomplished mountaineers started out by taking an Outward Bound course, and there are few places where you can develop such a solid foundation in mountain travel. But whether you are contemplating a career as an outdoor professional, want to learn to travel independently and interdependently in the mountains, seek to discover your deeper potential or simply crave a real adventure that can help you make a difference in the world, the Rocky Mountain Wilderness Discovery holds something for you.

In a real sense, the course starts once you sign up and begin to prepare yourself for a profound experience. Arriving at the course start, you will meet the group of like-minded companions and the exceptional Instructors who will accompany you on this journey. You will begin to forge bonds that can last a lifetime. An intense period of preparation then follows. Food and equipment must be packed. New skills must be learned and practiced. Decisions must be made. What will be taken to serve the journey ahead? What must be left behind? Once the preparations are complete, it is time to leave the everyday world behind and cross a threshold into the wilderness. You will be on foot in the mountains now until the course ends. For each person, there will be a moment of reflection; the person who returns to that everyday world three weeks from now will not be the same as the one who departs today.

'A true adventure is an experience with an unknown outcome.'

Every Wilderness Discovery Program is unique – if we knew in advance what was going to happen for you, it wouldn’t be an adventure! What we can say is that there are some elements found in every Wilderness Discovery Program as we journey together into the unknown. You will learn the fundamentals of becoming a competent mountain traveler. You will travel on foot into a spectacular wilderness, surrounded by unnamed peaks, glaciers and ancient forests that are still home to the wolverine and the wolf, the elk and the eagle, the mountain goat and the bighorn sheep. You will ascend mountains, climb rock faces, ford rivers, and traverse alpine ridges. You will see more stars than you knew existed. You will plan and lead a group objective – perhaps a summit climb – with minimal input from your Instructors.

'There is more in you than you think' 
Kurt Hahn, Outward Bound Founder

You will also have the opportunity to undertake one of the modern world’s few true rites of passage – the famed Outward Bound solo. You will spend three days and two nights alone in the wilderness reflecting on your life and path. For many alumni, the solo has been a defining moment in their lives that has helped them to glimpse their true passion and potential. And when you return from the wilderness, you will have the chance to give something back to the world through an act of meaningful community service.