Mission & Programs
HMI Mission Statement
The mission statement of the High Mountain Institute (HMI) is: “HMI nurtures personal growth through interaction with nature and participation in a strong community. We promote intellectual, physical and personal development through insistence on academic excellence, our philosophy of mentoring and apprenticing, and rigorous experiential learning. We seek to promote independent thinking and to develop skills of learning and habits of mind that both enhance self-reliance and transfer beyond the boundaries of HMI.”
We invite you to explore the wilds, challenge yourself intellectually, and hone your backcountry skills with us through an apprenticeship with Nature.
About HMI and HMI Programs
Our defining program is the Rocky Mountain Semester (RMS) an academic and wilderness program for motivated college-bound students in their junior or senior year of high school. In the wilds of the Colorado Plateau, there are many teachable moments that form a bridge between the lessons of the textbooks and those of the larger world.
HMI also offers a variety of short-term programs such as wilderness medicine and avalanche courses, custom leadership training programs, professional development seminars for educators, and program development consulting services for smaller outdoor programs.
Finally, HMI offers guided fourteener climbs in the Collegiate Peaks area, outside Buena Vista, CO. One- to three-day custom mountaineering and ski mountaineering courses are also available. Please call for more information.
HMI is not simply an environmental, experiential, or traditional school. We borrow liberally from all three traditions, but also leave ourselves open to the world at large. This allows us to present students with new experiences that they can understand and apply to their lives as a whole.
HMI offers programs that combine academics and the natural world. We seek to connect ourselves, our students, and our community to the natural world. Deep Ecologist Arne Naess coined the phrase “Simple in Means, Rich in Ends.” We strive to incorporate this in all our actions. We are not Luddites, but hopefully conscious individuals working together with and without the accoutrements of modern civilization.
We are thankful to have a talented and motivated faculty, inspiring groups of alumni, and a dedicated base of supporters. All of us work together in an intense and close-knit environment. Time spent in the field provides all of us with common experiences and strong friendships. We encourage this environment and relish the challenges it creates.
If you need more information, drop us a line or contact us!
HMI Non-Discriminatory Statement
The High Mountain Institute admits students and employs faculty and staff of any gender, race, color, religion, sexual preference, national and ethnic origin, to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students, faculty and staff of the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, religion, sexual preference, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletics, and other school administered programs.