Outward Bound: Gap Year Pathfinder Expeditions
- United States of America
About Program
This is where challenge and discovery help you shape your vision for your future. Pathfinder expeditions focus on increasing self-knowledge, strengthening decision-making skills and processes, and setting goals – all life skills to help you chart a path forward with passion and confidence.
We get it, launching into a new life stage can be exciting, confusing, fun, and a little scary at times. Grab a map and compass and navigate stunning landscapes, new connections, and the awesome realization that there is more in you than you know.
Our Pathfinder curriculum was developed by a team of experienced Outward Bound Instructors to lend structure to exploration. What does this mean? It means deepening your experience. It means recognizing that the challenges we face in the backcountry – and how we overcome them – are parallel to our lives back home. What you do next is up to you, and we’ll help you recognize what’s possible.
Video and Photos
Program Highlights
- Pathfinder expeditions are 30 days, and are specifically designed for ages 18-25.
- This course is ideal for people who are searching for a new focus on the path ahead.
- This challenging adventure will help you better understand your strengths and interests.
- You'll focus on increasing self-knowledge, clarifying values, strengthening decision-making skills, and setting goals.
- Explore iconic wilderness across the U.S.
Popular Programs
Courses will launch on the Green river in two person canoes for 68 miles through Labyrinth Canyon. The river enters Labyrinth Canyon slowly, named for the serpentine path it carves as it dives deep into the redrock sandstone that characterizes southeastern Utah and the Canyonlands area. The most spectacular aspects of the Utah landscape are the hidden treasures found within its vast canyon networks, formed by millennia of wind and water.
Over one million acres in size, the Boundary Waters extends 150 miles along the Minnesota/Canadian border. With over 1,200 miles of canoe routes, nearly 2,200 designated campsites and more than 1,000 lakes and streams, it is an amazing place to experience the wilderness. It contains portage-linked lakes and streams, interspersed with islands, forests and rocky ridgelines. The Boundary Waters' paddling routes offer outstanding opportunities for solitude, remoteness, teamwork, and adventure.
The Rocky Mountains, one of the most famous mountain ranges in the world, stretch over 3,000 miles. These legendary peaks have had a profound influence on the development of the continental United States. The Colorado Rockies has the greatest concentration of high peaks in the lower 48 states, with hundreds of ‘Thirteeners’ (13,000 foot tall mountains) and 54 ‘Fourteeners.’ The state is famous for its abundant wilderness adventure possibilities, from skiing to rock climbing to mountaineering.
The Big Bend course area is one of the most remote and geologically interesting in the nation. The Rio Grande River carves a huge, sweeping bend where Big Bend National Park earns its name. Big Bend National park is a desert backpacking and rock-climbing paradise. In this region, delicate desert flowers exist alongside fossilized trees. Mountain passes give way to steep-walled canyons and cliffs. The land itself is awe-inspiring, with canyons towering 1,000 feet over the river.
Joshua Tree National Park - Welcome to the high desert moonscape, where rugged mountains and desert plateaus have been sculpted by wind and rain. Three distinct ecosystems come together to form this land of extremes: the dark, cold, star-filled nights against warm sand and boulder-filled days. Participants will travel through granite monoliths and through narrow canyons.
Questions & Answers
Staff Interviews
These are in-depth Q&A sessions with program leaders.
