Wilderness & Survival Skills

The whole of the website should be about this aspect of our work. It's our rationale. It's what we do. For some of us it's what we instruct, day-in, day-out, across the UK. It is also probably the most misunderstood of all the aspects of our profession.

Haukeligrend Central Southern Norway

'10,000 kms Solo' Expedition 2002

'Survival' is about 'will' and determination; wilderness skills encompasses just that - skills. You have to learn these skills - and it takes time - sometimes decades of honing ways to do things, being content to journey through some of the world's remotest places fully understanding your place in nature and how to live close to the land; and knowing what to do when in trouble.

Our sustainable low-impact operations undertake to show people how to live, move, and work in wilderness with minimal interruption to the natural environment.

The Big Six of 'Survival' are:

SHELTER     WATER       FIRE      FOOD     MEDICAL      NAVIGATION

However a lot of what you put into practice is actually dependent on what you already know about yourself, your stamina, your training, your lifestyle, and your ability to work on your own - mental stamina and inner drive.

I cannot over-emphasise enough the need for training and learning, training and learning and yet more training and learning! So many people ask me throughout my work, how to learn these skills, where to learn these skills, and how long it will take. I often start them off on a training programme but few show real thirst to learn. Many want to even instruct without having gone through the years of preparation, the hard times, the reading, the talking to sages who know - spending time with these people - just being in their presence because they really do know.

How many nights have you camped out? How many dawns have you witnessed waking up on the summit of a mountain? How many miles have you walked alone through the remotest parts of the UK or abroad? Where have you been? Can you handle a crisis - a real crisis; are you continually a cleptomaniac for information? Do you 'run' after knowledge about the outdoors? And yet you want to be a wilderness specialist?

After over 40 years as an outdoorsman I am still learning - everyday - and this journey I'm on just gets better and better.....and everyday I instruct and envision people into the skills and attitudes of working, moving, and living outdoors.

So maybe by now you are getting the message: 'commit'...'switch-on'...and immerse yourself in the ways, lores, and time that are needed to work with the natural world - whether that's taiga or temperate forest, mountain, coast, icefield, arid desert, ...or other environments.

In the following pages you'll find tasters to maybe whet your appetite - to find out more about the bodies of knowledge and skills about 'survival' / wilderness work / bushcraft. It is not meant to be an exhaustive encyclopaedic treatise on the subject. If you want that then go away and read books before going out and practising - making mistakes - and / or going on a course.

SHELTER

It's a basic need - not necessarily the first thing you should do in an emergency perhaps - but once you've sorted out somewhere to hunker down, then you begin to feel a little better about yourself, and perhaps your predicament if it's an emergency. Of course building some structure to 'live' in very much depends upon your skill, your resources to hand, the tools you have, and your energy factor.

[[ HUNTER Outdoor Training keeps a database of current survival experiences from around the world. We have almost 500 of these covering just the past three years. On almost every occasion where people were having to 'survive' they did not have the tools - or knowledge - or resources to build a shelter, but determination and improvisation saw them through - to live to see another day. ]] 

Novices building shelter with a fire reflector in its early stage of construction

Lightweight backpacking shelter system erected for a demonstration

Shelter is a fundamental survival skill. We want to be snug and protected - it's a basic need in fact, and when we are in possession of our very own 'castle' we feel much better about ourselves - feel we can sort of 'take on the world' a bit more. I never cease to be amazed at how adept young people are at constructing their own shelters - almost regardless of age. I have seen elite soldiers in training make a mess of their basha - and 8 year olds produce something that an RAF Combat Survival Instructor would be proud of......maybe there's a lesson there.

Don't worry - the bluebells will bounce back !

...don't wait til dusk to build your shelter especially if it is to be constructed out of natural materials: if walking on the trail all day then stopp at 2pm. In a survival situation the choice is obvious.

...try to get the best place to build as early in the decision making process as possible....ie don't waste too much time!

...don't build by a stream or on obvious animal tracks.

...leave no trace when you leave that you've been there.

...do not build your shelter too high as you have to try to heat it.

...leave space in front of the shelter for a fire, and if possible a fire reflector.

...beware of 'deadfalls' - deadwood branches that can come crashing down in a gale to land on your shelter.

...be creative !!

TOP LEFT: Yukon / lean-to (frame only!) with fire reflector utlising a tree as a primary-support TOP RIGHT: a 'kennel' made entirely of cut and split wood ABOVE: variations on a theme: use of a tarp or basha sheet

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