If you’re going to teach a course on wilderness living skills, you should have lived in the wilderness for at least a short period of time. The term is too often embraced by those who want to sell skills classes, but have no experience actually living outdoors with no infrastructure. Let the buyer beware.
Reality check: If an instructor hasn’t lived in the wilderness, they can’t teach you how to do so.
Comments on this entry are closed.
From your friends across the pond, we say here,here!
Wilderness living skills are skills used to live in the wilderness. ‘Wilderness’ may be a contested term, but it is not your back garden, or 5 acres of woodland in the south of England.
I see your ‘you should have lived in the wilderness for at least a short period of time’ and I raise you…. ‘you should have multiple experiences living in wilderness, where you have relied on your skills for real’ – this is where the ‘wilderness’ comes in; it makes necessary the reliance. You would not likely enjoy an operation on your heart by a surgeon who has reduced a dislocated shoulder once, and so it should be with wilderness living skills instruction; the ‘wilderness’ does after all pose the same ultimate risks and deserves the same respect.
I do enjoy your reality checks – Thanks Tim!