Seattle Academy's Yukon Trip FAQ Says, Politely, No Friend Requests

It is the most beautifully closed door I have ever read. Note the parenthesis. "(or families)." Somebody's parent once asked. Several parents. Possibly all of them.

The school's reasoning is that part of the point is meeting people you wouldn't normally spend time with, and that past seniors consistently say meeting new people was one of their favorite parts. In camp, everyone helps with cooking, firewood and cleaning up. In the cookhouse, a rotating crew of students and adults takes turns making three meals a day: pancakes, eggs or oatmeal for breakfast, rice or pasta with beans or meat for dinner.

So the teenager you didn't choose is the one making your pancakes. That is the whole lesson of adulthood, delivered on a frozen lake.

The 2026 packing list is thorough and occasionally poetic. A wristwatch, "suitable for outdoor activities," with a "Bonus for an alarm feature." Sunglasses for the glare off snow and ice. Hand moisturizer, with a note not to underestimate dry weather plus constant hand sanitizer. Earplugs, which tell you everything about the tent.

Earlier classes got there by sea. The 2024 trip began with a four-day ferry ride through Alaska's Inside Passage to Skagway, then a bus to the lake.

One alumnus from the class of 2014, interviewed by the school in 2025, said the friends he made on that trip, and on a service program in Seattle, were still the people in his life.

The eldest goes to a summer program next July. I drafted an email asking whether she might room with her best friend, for logistical reasons, since the two families share a carpool and a dentist. I used the word "logistical" twice. I did not send it. The program's FAQ, it emerged, also had the question, with a parenthesis.