High Mountain Institute
Primary and Secondary EducationColorado, United States51-200 Employees
Based in Leadville, Colorado, High Mountain Institute operates as a mid-sized educational organization founded to blend wilderness immersion with intellectual study. It merges traditional academics with wilderness skills, travel, and connection to the natural world. Its defining program is the HMI Semester, a combined academic and wilderness experience for academically motivated high school juniors. Beyond the semester, HMI offers a five-week Summer Term, wilderness medicine courses, avalanche training, and tailored programming and consulting for schools and other educational entities. A 2020 LATimes note reports the hire of Janak Bhakta to coordinate gap-year placements in national parks to support local conservation efforts.