I'm going to take a mountaineering course next summer, either through National Outdoor Leadership School or International Wilderness Leadership School. The goal of this is to get the necessary skills to begin leading my own trips/expeditions in more technical terrain. The NOLS trip I'm looking at is the Waddington Range Mountaineering course (http://www.nols.edu/courses/waddington- ... aineering/) The IWLS course is Patagonia Mountaineering (http://iwls.com/locations/south-america ... aineering/) They both look great.. I would love some opinions! Have you had an experience with either company personally? Or just check out the courses and tell me what you think. I'm leaning towards IWLS because of the avalanche cert and location, and cost compared to NOLS. But I've never even heard of IWLS until recently, while I've known about NOLS for years. What are your thoughts?

I've never heard of IWLS before and none of their instructors seem to have any recognized certifications for guiding (e.g. AMGA, IFMGA), which raises a red flag for me. NOLS has a long history and good reputation.

I took an IWLS course and really thought it was a great experience. I haven't done NOLS but some of the others on the trip had done it or Outward Bound. I think IWLS has a higher average age than most NOLS groups. I was the youngest in my group at 19 by 3 or 4 years. I think because of this IWLS is a bit more advanced than NOLS courses, and you get treated like an adult too. I did a mountaineering trip in Argentina, 24 days in the Nevado el Plomo area south of Aconcagua and then we all attempted Aconcagua (some summitted by I didn't). I don't think NOLS would do a trip of this difficulty, and none of the NOLS courses in South America that I looked at were as challenging.

In terms of what ExcitableBoy said about guides, I don't think our lead guide was as experienced as a couple NOLS lead guides I've met. I don't know how experienced assistant NOLS guides are to compare. But, I thought our lead guide was great and they did their jobs well, were really good teachers, strong climbers, good people and suited for the difficulty of the course and skill of participants.

For courses with IWLS you should contact them about what is being offered. I don't think they offer every course every year. Plus summer here would be winter in Patagonia so I don't know if it's the ideal time of year.

If you have any more questions feel free to send me a PM.

If you're looking for options, here's a list of climbing schools in the US/Canada.

http://www.summitpost.org/climbing-schools-us-canada/285489