Three groups of High Mountain Institute Gap students, our largest Gap cohort ever, arrived in Leadville, CO on September 20th, 2020. Students traveled via both plane and car, and prior to the semester start we encouraged all 36 students to quarantine for two weeks and get a COVID-19 test (and negative result, of course) prior […]
Student reflections from HMI Gap’s Fall 2020 “Wilderness and Conservation in The American West” semester. Written by: Zackery Stone “How are you going to use the bathroom?” It was perhaps the most common question I received when telling family and friends about my coming semester in the backcountry with HMI. At the time, my best
Student reflections from a 14-day backpacking trip through the Sawatch Range near Leadville, CO. Written by Emma Barker and Ruby Platt “F-Trek 1” (short for “Fall Wilderness & Conservation Semester in the American West”) returned from our adventure in the Sawatch just two days ago. Among the 14 days packed full of wonderful memories, there
Student reflections from HMI Gap’s “Climbing and Conservation in the American West” semester. written by: Noah Stiegler and Sabine Blumenthal Our group – “F-Rock” (short for “Rock Climbing & Conservation in the American West”) – just returned from our first exped in the Sawatch Mountains of Colorado. We backpacked through the Mount Massive Wilderness, stopping
From Outside Magazine: College Kids Are Flocking to Outdoor Education Programs by Sara Harrison When 19-year-old Sabine Blumenthal first left college, she was in denial. Like the rest of her classmates at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, she was sent home in March as the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across the United States. Even though she was stuck
From the Los Angeles Times: For college students, taking a gap year might be the best way to outwit coronavirus by Stacey Leasca “Janak Bhakta, a soft-spoken 17-year-old from Tustin, had big plans for 2020. He wanted to spend time away from academics to learn, grow and mature by traveling the world. Then the coronavirus pandemic struck and
Read the latest blog updates from our Andes Leadership Semester (a collaborative program with Where There Be Dragons). From 03/15/20: Dia de La Mujer: La Patagonia y yo Ode to Patagonia From 03/17/20: Las Aventuras de Los Apus Discotecas Adventures in Urubamaba Urubamba Scavenger Hunt! Un Dia en Urubamba From 03/22/20: Hi Families!
We are excited that you are interested in following along with the adventures of our inaugural Andes Leadership Semester. You can expect to be updated on the progress of this semester every 2-3 weeks as much of the time students will be in remote settings with limited access to connectivity. Since this program is being
Written by: Pearl Just two days ago, HMI Gap fall semesters came to a close. At the end of every HMI program, students do a Solo, during which they write their Full Circle, a reflection exercise to consider what they want to carry forward with them. One of our students, Pearl, wrote the following poem
Written by: Kevin Sun and Jack Viergever Hello from Chile Chico, the cuidad del sol! We’ve just come off of our 21-day expedition in the Patagonia wild. We’ve hiked through forests, marshes, mountains and many rivers during our time in the backcountry these past few weeks. The group started our journey on a blue bird
