Denali

Other Courses: Baja | Spanish Immersion | Lake Clark

•	Course Overview
•	About Denali
•	Course Description
•	Course Schedule
•	General Info
•	Photo Gallery
•	Tuition

Climate
The weather in Denali State Park varies widely and can change quickly. It can be in the 40s and raining or 80 degrees and sunny. Enrolled students will be provided a detailed gear list ensuing preparedness for temperature and weather variations. Mostly we dress in layers so we can easily change the warmth of our clothing as temperatures fluctuate throughout the day.

Travel
The group meets in Denali State Park at Byers Lake Campground, Mile 147 of the Parks Highway. The field course ends at Little Coal Creek Trailhead, Mile 163.9 of the Parks Highway. Students are responsible for getting to the start of the course and being picked up at the end.

Student Equipment List
Enrolled students are provided a detailed gear list. Classroom with a View provides group gear such as tents, cook gear, first aid kits and other emergency gear. Students are responsible for bringing individual gear, such as rain gear, a sleeping bag, hiking boots, and a backpack. Classroom with a View has some gear available for rent.

Accommodations
Students stay in tents during the duration of the field course. Instructors, boys, and girls sleep in separate tents.

Food
What will we eat? Food is always a big concern for anyone setting out on a field course in which someone else has planned the food. Learning to cook outdoors is an element of the Outdoor Leadership course. We learn about and practice preparing low maintenance meals that provide balanced nutrition to fuel us through our active days. Our goals are to minimize preparation time, necessary dishes and utensils, and the cost of groceries, all while learning tasty and useful menus and tricks for camping and backpacking. We organize a system to divide and share the group responsibility of cooking. A wide variety of meals and snack foods is an important element of the field course. We can accommodate any individual dietary needs.

Safety
Provided below are safety details specific to the Denali course. For aspects of safety planning that apply to all courses, visit the SAFETY page.

All students receive a safety orientation at the start of the course. This includes a briefing on rules, procedures and expectations of the field course. Students learn about bear and moose safety, hiking safely, first aid procedures. Students do not leave the group without permission. Other pertinent safety issues such as preventing common health problems like dehydration, colds, sleep depravation, sun exposure, and hypothermia are also included in the safety orientation. We also talk about the importance of proper dress for days that may be as cold as 30 degrees and as warm as 80 degrees.

Students are instructed on emergency procedures and equipment should anything unexpected happen while on the field course. We carry a satellite phone with us at all times for emergency use. The satellite phone works anywhere in the world. The group is also always in possession of a first aid kit, which allow for the treatment of anything that doesn't require seeing a doctor. Instructors are trained in advanced first aid.

No student is ever permitted to wander off by him or herself. If students do wish to explore, they must be with a group.

Clinic
There is a clinic located 90 minutes from the trailhead. If necessary, we would seek treatment there.

Camping
Camping is at Byers Lake Campground and in the backcountry along the Kesugi Ridge Trail.

Bear Safety
We lead many courses in bear country: Denali, Chilkoot Trail, Kenai, Lake Clark, and Yukon, Canada. As a large group making noise, you can imagine the likelihood of us running into a bear is low. Although we've had the opportunity to observe a bear in Denali from 1/2 mile away, it never noticed us, and we have never had any encounters. However, we still take all possible precautions. There are many things we do to prevent bear encounters.

First, we select locations and routes that afford high visibility, such as the alpine tundra over which we hike. The Kesugi Ridge Trail is an established, maintained trail that is well traveled. This is where we'll spend most of our time. While we hike cross country, we avoid routes with low visibility such as congested drainages, alder covered slopes, or willow thickets. If we must cross through a low visibility area or go around a blind corner, we make lots of noise. This is not hard for us! In this situation, the instructors cover the front and back of the tight group.

Before we even begin hiking, students are given a safety orientation. Included in this orientation is detailed bear safety information. We cover how to behave in bear country, how to prevent encounters, and how to act if we do see a bear. We go over many scenarios, and then we actually do drills by having a person pretend to be a bear down the trail. Mindy, who trains the instructors, was trained by wildlife technicians at Denali and spent 4 years teaching bear safety to visitors of Denali, which has one of the best safety records in the country.

Instructors carry an air horn to make noise and/or bear spray in case we do see a bear in close proximity.

“I came not really knowing what to expect. The instructors were way cooler than I imagined, the place was awesome and the other students are great.”
- Student, Denali '03

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