Living in the digital world hasn't made you soft, has it? Every winter, you ski the backcountry. You take your mountain bike down serious trails. You're a backpacker, fly-fisherman, avid kayaker and even a darn fine wilderness photographer.
But what about when things go wrong? When that little glitch—the wrong path taken, the poor map reading, sudden bad weather—turns your day hike into a stay-alive situation? Do you know how to handle yourself when you’re standing by a raging unknown river, soaked to the bone, utterly lost, just a decent penknife in your hand and a lighter in your pocket?
See our slideshow of Extreme Survival Schools.
Finding a quality survival school depends a great deal on what you want to know, where you want to learn it, and how far you want to push yourself. You can opt for all-primitive teachings that include no modern implements whatsoever like at Boulder Outdoor Survival School. Or receive training with completely modern tech, including GPS devices, the latest fire-starting gear and a survival knife that's much more than a blade, or even a combination of both, like the Northwest School of Survival. Plus, there are a number of specialty courses: risk assessment and small-aircraft crash survival, to name just two. Some courses have guides with Guinness-like records, such as Wyoming's American Avalanche Institute.
Bear Grylls, the English-born host of the Discovery Channel’s popular Man v. Wild, and former Special Air Service survival instructor and medic, says: “Always telephone a survival school [that interests you] and ask to speak with an instructor. A good school with a good staff will always be happy to discuss your requirements and advise as to whether their courses are right for you.”
Rich Johnson is the Survival columnist for Outdoor Life magazine. In the 1970s, this Vietnam-era Green Beret spent a pleasant year in a cave in the Utah desert (wife and two kids in tow) while immersing himself in a study of primitive living techniques. He agrees with Grylls that research is the key to finding the right survival school.
“Check the school’s background and ask the school for a list of former students who you can contact and talk with about their experiences,” he says. “Also, one of the most important things a survival school can teach is leadership—how to work with others to create an atmosphere of cooperation, establish priorities and a good work ethic.”
See our slideshow of Extreme Survival Schools.
Two top schools to consider for leadership and survival ethics are the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracking, Nature and Wilderness Survival Schools. Both are popular for good reason. Conducting wide-ranging skill courses across the U.S. and in a number of other countries, NOLS offers courses in wilderness risk-management training, something that any outdoor expedition leader needs, and which can easily help one’s thinking when managing risk in the wilds of a glass-enclosed office building. Tom Brown Jr.’s school is known for covering students in mud to teach them methods of concealment and observation, but the instructors also promote their operative philosophy of living in the wilderness. Brown’s methods are a distillation of his own instruction from a Lipan Apache mentor.
The skills of indigenous cultures are central to the survival teachings of the Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS) in Colorado, and the two UK-based survival schools in this list, Bushmasters Ltd. and Bushcraft Expeditions. BOSS adapts methodologies of the Anasazi and Fremont cultures to take students across the tough terrain of Utah wilderness. These courses will test your gut, your legs and your head, as the BOSS philosophy is to have its students become part of the wilderness, “rather than an intruder with a backpack.”
Still, students aren't expected to "run naked into the wilderness and freeze and starve," says the BOSS Philosophy Statement. "We do have equipment lists for our courses.” But packs, tents, GPS and any new-fangled camping gear will be left behind.
In the rainforests of Guyana, where the Amazonian jungle digests everything—including you—Bushmasters teaches that “survival is 90 percent positive mindset.” The remaining 10 percent requires jungle-survival skills taught by native guides. If you’re not ready for the hardcore just yet, Bushmasters offers a jungle course in which you’ll have a good deal of modern equipment at your avail to get through the typical 16-day jaunt.
“All our expeditions are designed around the fact that most students have no previous experience, so each expedition has an acclimatization phase followed by a period of learning skills to make yourself comfortable in each environment,” says Bushcraft instructor Ross Bowyer. “We fully immerse ourselves into the [native] culture—living with them, eating the same food, learning the skills they have developed to live in that environment. It doesn’t take long to realize they are true masters.”
Nature is almost always the source of trouble for the wilderness survivor, with its extreme temperatures, rain, snow, tough terrain and few sources of pure water. Says Grylls, “‘Survival’ is dealing with a situation that you have been forced into by circumstances beyond your control… An ability to ‘think outside the box’ and a cheerfulness in adversity are, to my mind, the secrets of survival.”