Winter Outdoor Survival

The Winter Outdoor Survival spent this past weekend out at the A.L. Mickelson Field Station practicing surviving over night.  25 students were tasked with scenario that they were stranded and needed to survive the night, creating a shelter, staying warm and as happy as could be.  While not a true survival situation, the students were at most a couple hundred yards from lodge and were able to come in and eat dinner, it is a fairly effective course in showing the students that a little planning goes a long way in staying comfortable when you are lost in the woods.  We had a couple of nice snow caves and the remainder of the class used sticks, tarps and snow to construct their shelters.

Another part of the course is the ability to start a fire when it counts.  The goal is one match.  Students practice throughout the day, then in the evening, when it is harder as the temps drop and humidity comes up, they are set to start their fires.  It is an awakening when they have no problems during the middle of the day, but when the pressure fires would not light.  The perfect example of experiential education, no matter how many times you tell someone to plan ahead, find your supplies, keep them packed up and dry, it is not until they try it first hand they realize how important it really is.

Saturday started off decent enough with a few snow flurries, but turned into quite a snow storm.  It was nice as the temps stayed in the mid-20's.  That evening however the clouds cleared out and the students were left with single digit temps, the perfect conditions to really see how well they constructed their shelters.