Elliot Marsing, 20, of Bainbridge Island recently completed a 21-day expedition in the Teton Valley with the National Outdoor Leadership School.

The winter outdoor educator course is designed to help students develop the skills to teach others about camping and traveling responsibly in winter environments.

The first five days of the course were spent at NOLS Teton Valley near Driggs, Idaho. Instructors taught basic skills (pack and sled packing, lighting stoves, dressing for the field) and stage for day trips. On the morning of the sixth day, the expedition headed into the wilderness. For 16 days Marsing and his fellow students camped, traveled and played in the backcountry.

School officials said Marsing graduated from his NOLS course prepared to lead an expedition of his own.

The school was founded in 1965 by legendary mountaineer Paul Petzoldt, and teaches students in remote classrooms ranging from the Amazon rain forest, to Alaskan glaciers and the Arctic tundra.