Survival Skills Courses - May Long Weekend
Choose your package: Drop in for 1 session, 2 sessions or the entire weekend!
Our survival courses are held in gorgeous Tumbler Ridge, BC - We have a beautiful vacation home to use as your base camp for the weekend. See accommodation details below.
Our instructor is the legendary Russ Meades of Narrow Paths in Edmonton. He is ex-British Military and Canadian Army, retiring in 2021 to teach bushcraft full time. In 2019, Russ was honoured by the great Mors Kochanski by being certified as a peer in the fellowship of Wilderness Living and Survival Instructors.
Russ is also a former Mountaineering Instructor, Unarmed Combat Instructor, and Physical Training Instructor. He has a Diploma in Physical Education, a Diploma in Journalism Arts and gained a Distinction during the Joint Services Command and Staff course, a two-year military Master-level program, in 2015.
Day 1, Friday May 16th
Knife Skills and Fire Building
Choosing a knife and how to perform its many uses safely.
Making tinder and kindling for fires, carving simple items like tent pegs for your shelter, to creating more elaborate useful projects for your camp or survival location.
Learn how to use your knife to strike a very hot spark, even in wet conditions. Learn how to de-limb and cut down saplings, and then de-bark them swiftly and safely.
Learn to use the knife to build a viable shelter as well as to forage for and prepare food. And learn how to modify your knife for specific uses and how to sharpen and maintain your knife so it is always in top condition.
You’ll learn the psychology and science behind fire
Natural and man-made tinder’s, improvising a spark, fatwood, making feather sticks, how to forage for tinder, kindling and fuel
Fire lays, friction fire, flint and steel, charring materials (natural and man-made), siting your fire, and safety considerations (including safely putting out a fire), etc.
You’ll learn the types of fire and their uses for heating, cooking, keeping bugs at bay, and for rescue (signaling), etc
Day 2 & 3 Sat/Sun May 17th/18th
Wilderness Navigation Classroom & Field Day
Maps
Types of maps and their uses
Interpretation of topographic maps
The national grid system
Orientation to the ground
Understanding relief (contours)
Protection and modification of maps
The compass
Bearings
Correcting for declination
Following a desired bearing
The compass as a protractor
Cautions with the compass
Setting the map with the compass
Extras
Find one's position with the compass.
Staying on course in close terrain or poor visibility.
Judging distance, Pacing, Pacing corrections for steep ground.
Use of an altimeter.
Use of a GPS. Survival navigation, including use of the sun and astral navigation.
Day 4, Monday, May 19th
Foraging and Shelter Building for Survival
Shelter introduction
Foraging for survival (incl. water (treatment and safety), food, medicine, and materials for shelter, etc.
Survival First Aid tips (incl. Personal First Aid Kit)
Personal Survival Kit
Accommodations in Tumbler Ridge - The Hideaway
Book a room and share the house will fellow classmates May 15th - 19th
Master $450
Bedroom 1, $315
Bedroom 2, $315
Alternative Accommodations
Stay at the Rotary Campsite
Stay at the Monkman RV Park
Numerous Recreation Sites to choose from
Stellar Jay’s Airbnb
Wolverine Chalet Airbnb
The fine details:
Classes will be held both indoors and outdoors. We will have a shelter nearby but please dress according to the weather and in layers. For Days 1, 3 and 4, we will spend our time outdoors. The navigation on Day 2 will be indoors in a classroom.
Compasses will be provided for the navigation portion. We will also have a small selection of compasses for sale at the workshop.
Lunches, snacks and water should be packed and brought for each day.