Hello everyone, it’s been a while.

We’ve been pretty busy this year with our semester programs at Jack Mountain, as well as getting our southern Vermont campus set up for the FFP. Last weekend I took a break from the fall semester to run the first weekend of the friluftsliv program.

For folks that don’t know about it, the FFP is a one weekend a month program that’s set up to allow people who can’t take nine weeks off for a semester to participate in an outdoor, immersion-style program. Over the course of a year, students will come to learn the skills they need to participate in a two-week expedition to the North Maine Woods. This includes everything from safe and effective axe use, reading the weather in real-time, and learning to handle a canoe using a pole and paddle.

The first weekend was a great time. Students successfully lit bow-drill fires, felled their first trees with an axe, and learned a whole lot about our cooking systems. It was an enjoyable time for me, after spending two years planning this program, to finally get to see the course work that’s been available to semester students at Jack Mountain be available to people that can’t take nine weeks out of their lives.

We’re still accepting applications for the course, but only up until the end of October, as after the third weekend of the course, the catch-up work will be too much. If you’re interested in joining us for the next weekend, get in touch soon, as space is limited.