Thanks to Death Valley 2012 Group III for filming this “music video” while on course!  Good luck to the students departing for the High Sierras on July 25!  We can’t wait to hear about your adventures.

What is AWE?

The Athenian Wilderness Experience (AWE) is a 26-day backpacking course for students in their junior year and is graduation requirement of all students. Students attend either the Death Valley Course in the Panamint Range of Death Valley National Park in the spring or the High Sierra Course during the summer, which travels the Sierra Nevada high country in Yosemite National Park, Toiyabe National Forest and the Inyo National Forest. AWE includes extensive backpacking, navigation, first aid, low-impact camp craft, technical rock climbing, rappelling, peak ascents, natural history, a solo experience and service.

Students focus on promoting leadership, fellowship abilities, improving physical well-being, recognizing and acting upon individual strengths and weaknesses, and appreciating and care taking the natural environment. Opportunities abound to develop human interactive skills by sharing responsibilities, making group decisions, taking care of one another, and realizing personal potential.

Learn more here.