Take Survival Training this Spring

"I would recommend this to anyone who wants to push themselves and challenge their skillset. Highly recommend this course, especially to wilderness first responders." — SMSC Graduate

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 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, yew, birch, willow and pine. We spend time exploring and foraging in this forest for firewood, saplings, cordage, shelter materials and plants.

"The dirt time you get in the critical skills of fire lighting & shelter building truly you have the time to "master" these skills." — SMSC Graduate

"The course is well organized, planned and executed. Practical survival training, critical thinking and correct application of skills and resources." — SMSC Graduate

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.

On day four, we leave base camp and move by vehicle to a higher elevation to build another camp. Here we spend the night in higher terrain, near snowline. In this area we will quickly see the differences in 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 with a wrap-up and debrief at base camp.

This survival course gives you the skills and confidence you need for survival in the Canadian mountains or another montane environment. Before registering, please complete the Online Survival Core Seminar and read Canadian Wilderness Survival.

"Both men are walking encyclopedias of knowledge in their respective areas of expertise. Listen well as there is immense amount of information." — SMSC Graduate

Field Training Skills Covered

Knifecraft

Safely using a Survival Knife
Basic Knife Handling
Sharpening Board & Knife Sharpening
Wood Splitting with a Survival Knife

Building & Using Survival Tools

Build & Use a Baton
Build & Use Wooden Tools
Notches & Try Sticks
Useful Knots
Using a Bow Saw
Safe Falling of Deadfall Trees
Improvised Bindcrafting
Making Cedar Cordage

Water Purification

Safe Water Collecting
Purifying Water

Fire Lighting

Proper use of Lighter and Matches
Using Artificial and Natural Tinder
Finding Natural Fire Lighting Aids
Extensive Fire Lighting with a Striker
Standard and Survival Twig Bundles
Getting a Fire Started
No-Evergreen Fire Lighting

Fire Management

Keeping a Fire Burning
Selection of Proper Fire Wood
Fire Management Skills
Coal Management
Restarting a Fire

Shelter Building

Debris or Sapling Shelter
Single Super Shelters
Various Improvised Shelters
Building a 4-Finger Bough Bed
Building Wall & Roofs using Natural Material
Build various Survival Shelters

Signalling for Help

Signal Fire Twig Bundles
Building & Lighting a Signal Fire
Building Ground-to-Air Signals
Using a Whistle for Signalling
Safe use of Flares
Using Modern Signalling Devices in the wilderness correctly

Hiking & Camping Skills

Packing for Hiking & Survival
Survival Camp Locations in the Mountains
Safe Spring and Summer Mountains Travel
Safe Water Crossing
Build a Walking Staff
Setting up a Guyline
Building Cooking Cranes
Cooking over a Fire
Cooking with a Stick Burner

Montane & Temperate Rain Forest

Trees of the Montane Forest
Trees of the Temperate Inland Rain Forest
Useful plants of the Montane Forest
Safe Camp Locations in the Mountains
Use and Identification of Aspect/Slope

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