Twice yearly, all students leave campus for field experience. Trips to the San Juan Islands, the Cascade Mountains or the desert of Utah are part of our outdoor education program. Backpacking, kayaking, snowshoeing, and rock climbing build leadership skills and provide a forum for academic experience in the field.

Wilderness trips also supply a large measure of adventure!

Through a variety of outdoor experiences, West Sound Academy integrates its academic and art curricula with the teaching of safe and comfortable living in the wilderness. It is our goal to help students toward an appreciation of nature's beauty, the interrelation of its parts, and the need for conservation, preservation and restoration of natural habitat.

In so doing, students broaden their personal awareness through the process of adjusting to an unfamiliar outdoor setting. They evaluate their relations with others, discover the need to give and receive group support, and develop leadership capabilities previously unknown.

It is the focus of WSA that graduates will have the ability to travel through the backcountry with a measure of confidence, a minimum of environmental impact, maximum observation skills, and the desire to continue outdoor exploration. Through our program students will discover their unique capabilities while gaining the knowledge and desire to make wise environmental decisions. But above all, it is our hope that they will come to understand themselves holistically, as part of our natural system.

• To travel through the backcountry with appropriate pace, food, clothing and equipment to ensure individual and group safety and comfort
• To learn minimum impact hiking and camping techniques appropriate to specific environments
• To anticipate weather, changes in terrain, and length of travel
• To develop the skills necessary for the type of travel i.e. canoeing, kayaking, backpacking, climbing, snow travel
• To stretch oneself physically, emotionally and intellectually and develop strength from that experience
• To understand geologic forces
• To learn the connections inherent in the natural world
• To experience reflective silence
• To evolve a deeper sense of commitment and responsibility
• To develop a love for open space and the consequent desire to preserve it