Outward Bound exec sets a survival course.

• Position: People - Henry Browning

Henry Browning's first adventures were free. "I was about 9, and we didn't live far from Linville [Gorge], so I'd go backpacking and hiking there." North Carolina Outward Bound was headquartered in Morganton, his hometown. "My brother took a class there."

Since then, Outward Bound has moved to Asheville, and Browning, 45, recently was named executive director. He peddles adventure -- wilderness-based courses of four days to more than three months at about $150 a day -- in places ranging from Table Rock to the Chilean Andes. Now his challenge is to make it pay - or at least break even.

He succeeded Larry Pitt, who became CEO of Nantahala Outdoor Center last fall. It, too, has been under financial pressure in the crowded wilderness-adventure industry. State tourism officials estimate such programs bring in $45 million a year, but margins are slim -- typically 1% of sales.

That concerns Browning. Outward Bound barely broke even last year. Returns from its $8 million endowment are being sapped by the down stock market, and its $6.9 million budget has doubled from what it was 10 years ago. Attendance, meanwhile, has dropped by 25% to about 3,000 in 2002.

But for Browning, Outward Bound is going home. He worked there in the early '80s after...