The Friluftsliv Forest program that Tim and I talked about on this episode of the JMB Podcast is now open for registration.

There are professional training programs where you can travel to and immerse yourself in the long-term experience of living, teaching, and guiding outdoors. We’ve been running long term immersion programs at Jack Mountain for the last twenty years. One of the things we’ve learned is that not everyone can carve out nine straight weeks for a course like that. Having students come and live on our property for an extended period of time allows for really in-depth knowledge but we want everyone to be able to achieve these goals locally as well. we want to give future students the opportunity to do that even if they can’t take 9 weeks out of their lives. So we’ve started building something that a bit of a hybrid of a few things we’ve been doing.

1. One weekend a month.

This format isn’t anything groundbreaking. Students will come to the SOTF campus for a weekend, and get face to face instruction, and the opportunity to use the skills they learn during their time with us.

2. Online/Distance learning

One weekend a month isn’t enough to cover all the topics we’d get to on a nine-week semester, however, paired with at-home instruction through our social network, we can cover a lot of the academic work while we aren’t together, then devote the weekends to learning the hard skills, like axe use, safe carving skills, etc.

3. Culminating experience

This aspect is what will set our time together on the program apart from other long term programs. Having the opportunity to put the skill set, and gear you’ve made into practice on a trip in the field is where those skills become your own. This course will end with a trip up to northern Maine to the JMB field school, and time out on a remote river, living with the systems you’ll learn in our time with us.

If you have questions about the program, get in touch with me, or check out the course site here.