NOLS has re-invented themselves over the years as more of an environmental advocacy and adventure travel organization than their original roots as a pure skills educational endeavor. Part of your tuition money will go towards them spending time and energy on environmental ‘education’. It’s not as much a mountaineering training school as it used to be. Some good can come of that, of course, but in my opinion when you’ve got a group of young men on the adventure of their lives, good leadership means you should be willing to support a positive buzz of excitement. More, men in their 20s are at the most risk of poor judgment of any time in their lives, and thus, an organization such as NOLS has a duty to put energy into reducing such risk, and when endless environmental grousing comes from an instructor instead of mentoring about mountaineering judgment and leadership, it’s not a good thing in my opinion.

Plenty of negativity will come later in these kid’s lives, and most kids these days are totally up to speed on environmental issues due to emphasis in school and in the media.

I actually saw this coming and warned Louie about it before the course, so he was ready. But he did comment on it when he got back.