Camp Moosilauke - Overnight Camp for Boys in New Hampshire

The season is sold four ways: a four-week first session open to all ages, that first session split into two separate two-week halves - the earlier half with limited availability, the later one for boys rising into the second to sixth grades - and a two-and-a-half-week second session open to all ages. The day balances structure and choice. Boys of all ages are assigned to two morning activity periods, with classes from tennis to mountain biking to archery to kayaking, so that every camper meets the full breadth of the programme; they sign up themselves for the two afternoon periods, and free-choice days run through the summer. Returning campers have preference in enrolment until the start of October, and several age groups fill during the autumn.

Tuition covers the stay in camp, meals, the activity programme and the backcountry trips. A registration deposit is payable at enrolment and is deducted from the tuition. The camp provides need-based financial aid each summer to more than thirty families.

Campers live in cabins on a campus of more than 100 acres of forest and fields with a secluded mile-long lake. The camp takes about 140 campers, and notes that camps with twice as many campers often work with campuses half the size. Around seven staff in ten either were campers at Moosilauke themselves or are returning employees.

Meals are provided as part of the camp programme and eaten at camp.

Waterfront: swimming, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, standup paddleboarding, waterskiing, wakeboarding, wake surfing, fishing and nature excursions, on over a mile of shorefront kept for the campers' private use. Land sports: eight options including lacrosse, baseball on two minor-league quality diamonds, soccer, basketball, tennis, archery and mountain biking. Outdoor adventure: multiple-night backpacking trips, whitewater kayaking and canoe trips. Evenings go to special activities such as fishing, waterskiing, tubing and team-building games, and campers can choose to play other camps in more than six sports, which the camp keeps deliberately in proportion.

The camp occupies more than 100 acres of forest and fields around a secluded mile-long lake in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, with over a mile of private shorefront. On land there are five clay tennis courts, two basketball courts with lights, two baseball diamonds of minor-league quality, two soccer fields, a lacrosse field and an archery range. A wood shop, an arts and crafts centre and two large recreation halls complete the non-athletic facilities.

Moosilauke has run as a boys camp since 1904 and is directed by Bill and Sabina McMahon. Its programme is built on what the camp calls broad and deep positive risk taking inside a nurturing and supportive culture: in more than a century, no camper has arrived confident in every activity area, so every boy finds places where he is a beginner, meets failure and works past it. Campers come from nineteen states. Intercamp competition is treated as a core part of camp life, and kept in proportion.