Survival Guru

Wednesday, February 16, 2011 4

Q: What are the best survival schools in the country?

What are the best survival schools in the country?
The Editors
Santa Fe, NM

By: Question from: ,
Tony Nester
A:

I've listed several below but want to preface this answer with a few thoughts. The survival field has grown tremendously in the past decade and there are many different approaches to teaching. I would recommend researching the school's teaching methodologies and their focus. You'll want to decide whether you want a lecture or hands on course, and in what discipline you want to be trained—military, disaster-prep, Native American, primitive skills, therapeutic, or practical outdoor skills. Think about whether food and water will be provided, or whether it will be more of an endurance (i.e. suffering and deprivation) test.

Below are several schools spread throughout the US that focus on practical skills.

Wilderness Arts Institute, Montana
David Cronenwett, who heads the school, is the Naturalist-in-Residence at The Nature Conservancy's Pine Butte Guest Ranch. He has been teaching Natural History, Bushcraft and Wilderness Survival since 1999. His courses focus on winter survival, summer survival in the Rockies, and bushcraft skills. For more info, visit wildernessartsinstitute.com

Jack Mountain Bushcraft, Maine
Run by professional guide Tim Smith, JMB is a bushcraft and wilderness survival school and a traditional Maine guide service. Visit jackmtn.com for info on Tim's courses—which range from two days to 12 weeks.

Midwest Native Skills Institute, Ohio
Instructor Tom Laskowski, whose primitive firemaking methods are legendary, offers comprehensive classes in wilderness survival. He'll teach you how to survive and live comfortably in the wilderness with little or no equipment.

Ancient Pathways, Arizona
This is my school in northern Arizona. We provide 2-21 day courses in desert survival, bushcraft, walkabouts, and our signature knife-only course. This is the course actor Emile Hirsch took to prep for his role in the film Into the Wild. For more info, go to apathways.com.

Primitive Survival Skills, Florida
Former Navy Seal Madison Parker teaches in the panhandle of Florida and combines extensive survival experience in the jungle with years of applying primitive living skills. Plus, he is a true master with a slingshot! Visit primitivesupply.com for his courses.

Author's Bio

Tony Nester

More at Outside

Comments

4
jonathan

What about Tom Brown, who has been doing this stuff before it was a fad. http://www.trackerschool.com/index.asp

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Amber

What about BOSS, the Boulder Outdoor Survival School? Seems like they should be on this list. http://www.boss-inc.com.

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jonathan

Doesn't seem right to me that the person answering the question puts HIS OWN survival school in the answer. That's not unbiased. Outside should have had someone else give the answer.

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Mike Johnson

Amazing this guy puts his own school in the list. Especially when it's based in Arizona where Cody Lundin, of Discovery Channel's "Dual Survival" has his primitive skills school as well. Conflict much?

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