Gear necessary for the activity is provided by W.I.L.D.. Example: a day trip rock climbing includes: harness, helmet, climbing shoes, rope, and all accessory rock climbing equipment. Backpacking courses include: backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, foam sleeding pads, trekking poles, and group gear such as a group shelter and kitchen/stove equipment. W.I.L.D. does not provide: clothing (rain jackets/pants, footwear, hats, gloves, etc), toiletteries (personal medications, sun screen, bug spray, toothbrush, etc), or personal eating/drinking utensils (bowl, spoon, cup, & water bottle). W.I.L.D. will email a gear list with each program once registered.

Payment in full is required to sign up for a program. A 100% refund - minus the 2.9%+$.30 Square transaction fee - is available if you notify W.I.L.D. of the cancellation more than two weeks (14+ days) before the first day of the registered program. Cancellation 13 to 8 days before the trip entitles the participant to a 50% refund (minus the 2.9%+$.30 Square transaction fee). The non-refundable 50% is transferable to another W.I.L.D. program for that year, if desired and if there is space available. No refund is provided if the participant does not show up or cancels 7 days prior to the trip. For refund policy regarding inclement weather for climbing day trips, please see the following question. Please contact us if you have questions!

If it has rained significantly during the early morning hours, is raining when you get up or is threatening to rain, please call. We get online and take a look at the weather radar early in the day to help us make a decision about whether or not to cancel a climbing trip. Calling us may save you an unecessary trip to our meeting location. Understand that the rock in our area — granite and limestone — dries quickly and we are very experienced with local conditions. If we say it will be dry enough to climb, it’s dry enough to climb. Likewise, if we say it’s wet, trust our judgment. The litmus test we always apply on bad weather days is this: If this were our day off and we intended to go climbing recreationally, would we go? If the answer is “absolutely not,” then we certainly wouldn’t dream of subjecting participants to those same conditions. Asking participants to pay good money to be miserable is not in our mission statement. We will cancel your trip, provide a full refund (minus the 2.9%+$.30 Square transaction fee), and we will do our best to reschedule your trip if possible. For that reason, if visiting Fairbanks, always consider scheduling your trip as early in your stay as possible, in case bad weather requires us to cancel your trip and reschedule.

W.I.L.D. actively encourages participants to minimize their use of technology during programs and courses. This includes: texting, making phone calls, posting on social media, or playing music aloud on devices while in the field. We like partcipants to meet and interact during every program and have found cell phones a distraction from wilderness immersion and social interaction. Use of such devices is acceptable when the group is traveling in vehicles. We understand cell phones are often used for pictures, and believe capturing the moment for later is great, just remember to live in the moment as well.

We offer courses for preteens/teens and adults. Age requirements vary based on the course or program. Please click on individual courses to find age requirements.

While we want to accept everyone on our courses/programs, W.I.L.D.'s commitment to excellent student-to-instructor ratios, permitting limits for the sensitive areas where we operate, and other operating restrictions mean we cannot always accommodate every person on their desired course. If you are interested in joining up to two additional waitlists (for being on a total of three waitlists), please contact us. It's important to know that W.I.L.D.'s waitlists are not necessarily first come, first served. We will prioritize placing waitlisted individuals on a course based on their activity during the admissions process (for example, completing required forms). Please contact us for more information if this does not sufficiently answer your question.

Most of our courses do not require any prior experience. However, we do suggest a level of physical fitness based on the anticipated demands of the course and always encourage individuals to talk to their physician to make an appropriate decision before signing up and participanting in any of W.I.L.D.'s programs.

Nutritious, from scratch meals, are provided on our overnight programs. With overnight courses, meal preparation is part of the experience and participants will share in the creation of each meal. We are prepared to accommodate vegetarians, vegans, gluten-free students and participants with food allergies. It's important to make sure that any dietary needs or preferences are noted on your health form, and that W.I.L.D. staff/instructors are aware of them. Don't hesitate to bring it up if you think we might have missed it, because we can only accommodate food preferences that we know about!

W.I.L.D. owners are following updates from the CDC, State of Alaska, and our local public areas that we use. Currently we will be bringing hand sanitizer and provide masks for vehicle rides for those that forgot their own. Masking in vehicles is currently optional as per the low level of Fairbanks community risk (updated 3/17/23). We encourage social distancing (6+ft) when indoors and have increased our equipment cleaning regime. All instructors have been vaccinated as well. For more information about our gear and sanitation policies, please contact us.

Here at W.I.L.D. we want all participants and instructors to be safe when out in the field. Group size, human smells, and group noise are all natural animal deterrents. For extra animal protection on day trips, both instructors will carry bear spray, instruct others how to use bear spray appropriately, discuss what actions to take when encountering other wildlife (moose, porcupine, etc) and hike in a group with an instructor in front and in back. Overnight outings will involve not only bear spray but bear canisters to store food and smelly items (toothpaste, sunscreen, etc), and optimally positioning cook/food storage stations and tents to take into consideration travel of smells through a given terrain.