Spring Mountain Survival Course

Take Survival Training this Spring

The Spring Mountain Survival Course (SMSC) is a world-class professionally taught Modern Wilderness Survival Course, designed to give you the knowledge you need if stranded in the Mountains of Canada. If you are a Hiker, Backpacker, Traveller or GSAR Volunteer in British Columbia or Alberta, then this is the professional Wilderness Survival Training you need to take. It will provide you the skills and ability to survive comfortably when stranded in the Montane or Temperate Rain forests of your province or elsewhere in the any Canadian Mountain environment.

We will begin the course at our base camp, in the Columbia Mountains near Boswell, B.C., at an elevation of around 600m. We will spend three days and nights learning mountain survival skills. This “Temperate Rainforest” in spring is a wet, moisture-filled environment. This forest provides a great training environment filled with cedars, fir, larch, birch, willow and pine. We will spend some of our time exploring and collecting firewood, saplings and other useful plants in this forest.

We will concentrate during these three-days on teaching the fundamental survival skills you need to learn including, safe tool use, fire lighting, cooking over a fire, shelter building and water purification. During this time, you will live in a rustic camp. Each participant will build and live in a number of single-person and double-person shelters with a shared fire. Fire management and cooperation with the individual on the other side of the fire are essential skills you will be learning and practicing.

"…talks about the task, then does the task, then gives you the time to complete the task…" — Former Student

We will then leave our base camp on day four and move as a group by vehicle to a higher elevation area to build a new camp and spend the night in higher terrain, normally near snowline. In this new area, we will quickly see the differences due to elevation and slope. Here we will ensure you can survive and thrive if stranded. We will have a chance to see and understand northerly and southerly facing slopes, higher terrain changes and a walkabout in the “Sub-alpine Forest” of the Columbian Mountains. We will finish the course off with a wrap-up and debrief back at the base camp.

This survival course gives you the skills and confidence you need for survival in the Canadian mountains or another montane environment. To register in this 5-day course, you need to first complete the Online Survival Core Seminar and read Canadian Wilderness Survival before the course starts.

Field Training Skills Covered

Spring Mountain Survival Course Fine Print

• Cost Includes: Instruction, Course Materials; a Survival Knife, Fire Lighting Kit and the use of various materials, shelters, tools and cooking pots during the course.
• NOT Provided: Transportation, Food, Personal Gear, Boots and Clothing.
• Please Ask Questions before you arrive to Avoid Problems.