“Training Should Teach Realistic Skills Needed for Survival”
Modern Wilderness Survival Teaches the Skills Needed to Survive through a Short-Term (1 to 4 Days) or Medium-Term (4 to 40 Days) Survival Situations. These skills are taught with a science-based approach and designed to eliminate potentially life-threatening survival situations. It should teach you the real skills needed to survive being stranded in the wilderness, not skills that you are unlikely to be used/require or skills that are very hard to master or use under poor conditions.
This form of training emphasizes Short-Term Survival Techniques. Concentrating on basic practical Life-Saving Skills. Survival Skills taught include Survival Physiology & Psychology, Clothing, Fire Lighting, Shelter Building, useful Survival Equipment or Critical Items, and the Preparation to survive potential survival situation. Medium-Term Survival Techniques are dealt with as well including Resource Scarcity, Camp Setup, Fasting, and Hygiene & Sanitation while awaiting Rescue. Avoiding or mitigating a survival situation should always be part of the preparation when travelling into the wilderness and therefore part of the training involved.
Many skills taught on survival courses are often unneeded or of little use in the short or medium term. Some skill sets like Tracking or Escape and Evasion have nothing to do with wilderness survival. These may be interesting skills to learn and part of the overall outdoor education skills that could be studied by those wishing to master outdoor living. They simply not core survival skills.
Wilderness travel skills and basic tool building are often taught on courses, but always with the emphasis in practical useful skills that may be needed to survive. Modern Wilderness Survival is all about teaching the proper skills required to survive an unexpected wilderness emergency or survival situation, i.e. Skills Needed for Survival.
- BWI’s Philosophy on Modern Survival Instruction [Video]
- What Skill Set Does Outdoor Survival Entail? [Audio Podcast]