We are a small, educational non-profit located in Leadville, Colorado. HMI was founded in 1995 by Molly and Christopher Barnes in the spirit of combining best-of-class wilderness education with traditional academics. 

Working with teenagers is our specialty, and we have served over 600 of them in programs varying in length from two weeks to four months. Our signature program is the Rocky Mountain Semester, a semester-long academic and wilderness program for successful high school juniors. We also offer a variety of summer programs.

Please contact us if you have any questions about our mission or our programs, and thanks for visiting.

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.