NOLS Three Peaks Ranch

This month, Melissa Gray, the founder of NOLS Wilderness Medicine, is retiring after 36 years 🏔️

Melissa has been an incredible leader, mentor, and role model. Her legacy lives on in the instructors and staff she has mentored, the students she’s inspired, and the culture of care and excellence she helped build.

So today, as part of our Founders Day campaign, we are honoring Melissa with a special challenge:

A generous donor will give $100 for each of the next 36 donors to make a gift in honor of Melissa Gray’s 36 years at NOLS Wilderness Medicine.

Join in celebrating Melissa’s legacy and helping give future students the gift of confidence, leadership, and transformation that NOLS makes possible.

Donate Here: https://www.givecampus.com/s/p1tdbp

Registration for The WRMC is OPEN!

Attend the 33rd annual WRMC this October in Portland, Oregon to gain practical risk management skills, network with other professionals in the industry, and help elevate risk management standards for the outdoor adventure & education sectors. Register today to secure the lowest price!

Link to register: https://2026wrmc.sched.com/

Every day on a NOLS course, students face uncertainty and discover what they’re capable of. They learn to lead, to adapt, and to trust themselves and their teams in unfamiliar environments. 🏔️🥾

Your gift makes those moments possible.

A generous donor has stepped up with an additional Founders Day match that triples your gift $2 to $1 – through this weekend only.

Right now, your support can go three times as far, helping more students step into experiences that challenge them, strengthen them, and stay with them for life.

Before you log off for the weekend, please take a moment to make your Founders Day gift.

https://www.givecampus.com/s/obcqga

🎉 Celebrating 61 years of leadership in the wild.🎉

On June 8, we celebrate our 61st Founders Day, honoring the moment in 1965 when Paul Petzoldt and a team of instructors led the first students into Wyoming’s Wind River Range with a bold idea: leadership is learned through experience. Today, more students are ready for that experience, but not all have access.

To kick off our Founders Day Campaign, a generous partner will match all Founders Day contributions dollar-for-dollar through June 8, doubling the impact of your gift and the opportunities you make possible.

Help us hit the ground running with your Founders Day gift today. Together, we can ensure more students have the chance to step forward.

🔗 Donate now: https://www.givecampus.com/s/obcqga

“So much of it was about learning new skills. The value in NOLS for me is being in an environment so rich in new experiences.”

Shari Kearney didn’t just find a place at NOLS—as our longest serving female instructor, she has worked over 424 weeks in the field teaching courses ranging from mountaineering to horsepacking.

“I remember thinking this is a place I can stay for a while,” Shari says.

As the years became decades, Shari’s influence on students and instructors continued to grow. To read more about Shari’s journey from transformative expeditions to the practice of horse wrangling, follow the link below.

https://www.nols.edu/blog/staying-power/

It's !

It takes a world-class cadre of instructors to provide the NOLS experience--ongoing faculty development is critical to the quality of our programs.

Generous donors have combined for a $100k match opportunity–GIVE TODAY to double your impact!

https://www.nols.edu/en/portal/alumni/giving/

We made it into the County 10 News for adopting our newest member of the Three Peaks Ranch team. We've renamed her to Phlox (after the cute little flower that grows this time of year in the sagebrush country). We are so excited about her and where she'll go in our program.

https://county10.com/blm-honor-farm-wild-horse-burro-adoption-breaks-records-%ef%bf%bc/

Hello dear Three Peaks Ranch Community,
It is with great sadness that admit that our dear friend Sq**rt is ready for a new life of retirement. For those of you that have gone camping with him, you know that he is just about the kindest, funniest soul there is. He is super safe and would make a good backyard kid's horse. He has sidebone in his two front pasterns, arthritis in his front right knee and seasonal allergies that, in the past have cause lesions on his eyelids, but now, with treatment, seem to be kept at bay. He is intermittently lame at the trot. I bet he will take some management, but boy is this horse worth it for all the love and joy he gives. If you, or someone you know, is interested in retiring our dear friend, Sq**rt, please reach out to me and we can talk details.