Lead Instructor
Garrett Price
NOLS-trained, WFR-certified, and a decade working with youth.
Garrett built Dogwood Mountain School around a simple belief: kids grow when they are trusted with real challenges, in real places, with someone who knows how to keep them safe.
The Short Version
Garrett is an educator who never wanted to teach from behind a desk. He has led wilderness expeditions, coached climbing teams, and mentored students in schools from Nevada to Georgia to Washington.
He is putting down roots in Chattanooga because this is where sandstone cliffs, river gorges, and trail networks meet real adventure — and where he believes homeschool families should have a trusted outdoor program.
Dogwood Mountain School is where those threads come together — a chance to give kids the kind of formative outdoor days that shaped him, run by someone who treats their safety and their growth with equal seriousness.
Why Parents Trust Him
Wilderness First Responder
Garrett is a certified Wilderness First Responder (WFR), trained to manage medical emergencies far from the trailhead. Out in the backcountry, safety is never an afterthought — it is the foundation everything else is built on.
NOLS-Trained
Garrett completed coursework with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), the gold standard in wilderness education and expedition leadership.
Expedition Leadership
As a climbing academy coach, Garrett led multi-day wilderness expeditions in alpine terrain — managing route-finding, risk assessment, group dynamics, and client care in remote environments.
A Decade With Youth
Dean of Students (grades 7–12), school Program Director, climbing coach — Garrett has spent his career building trust and confidence with young people.
The Road Here
Program Director
2025 – 2026World Class Academy · White Salmon, WA
Ran day-to-day operations of a school for adventure athletes while teaching Economics and Algebra II and overseeing staff.
Dean of Students
2024 – 2025Veritas Collegiate Academy · Arlington, VA
Led student life for grades 7–12 — engagement, character development, counseling, and advising. The heart of the job was relationships with kids.
Climbing Coach
2023 – 2024Mesa Rim Climbing & Fitness · Reno, NV
Coached climbers ages 7–65 in private lessons and on recreational and competition teams. This is where teaching and the outdoors came together.
Programs & Operations Manager
2020 – 2022Georgia Tech — Center for Deliberate Innovation · Atlanta, GA
Led operations and founded a summer study-abroad and internship program, managing complex budgets, partnerships, and projects across education and non-profit settings.
A thoughtful foundation
Garrett holds a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Emory University and an M.A. from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem — a background that taught him to listen closely, understand people, and meet every kid where they are.
Ready to meet Garrett in person?
Group sizes are capped — 10 kids on hiking days, 6 on climbing days. Join the waitlist to hear when weekly outings open.
Join the Waitlist