Hard lessons

This is no ordinary school.

The classroom can be unmercifully miserable for the slow-to-be-educated. The goal isn’t about passing grades but rather making the grade with yourself and your group.

Three young adults from Spokane recently completed National Outdoor Leadership School courses that included mastering skills such as backcountry skiing, desert canyoneering, whitewater paddling, sea kayaking and glacier hiking.

All of them say they suffered physical exhaustion, mental stress and extreme conditions – all prerequisites for the education they were seeking.