This film follows a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) 35 day mountaineering course as they traverse the Wind River Wilderness of the Rocky Mountains in 1972. NOLS international headquarters is in Lander, Wyoming on the east side of the Wind River mountain range. It contains classic footage with Paul Petzoldt, renowned mountaineer and founder of NOLS, the preeminent world leader in development and instruction of minimum impact camping techniques and training mountaineering guides in good expedition behavior.