I just lately had the chance to attend Raven Wilderness College’s Wilderness Survival 1 course over the weekend the place I joined a bunch of outside fans as they launched into their journey to changing into expert survivalists. The course covers important abilities that may not solely save your life in a wilderness emergency but in addition lays a stable basis to develop upon.
About Jeff Hatch and Raven Wilderness College
Raven Wilderness College was based by Jeff Hatch in 2015. Jeff is an skilled out of doors adventurer and wilderness first responder who developed his skillset by studying from a number of the most outstanding names in wilderness survival together with Ray Mears, Lars Falt, and Mors Kochanski
All lessons are designed to create immersive expertise in a wilderness setting the place college students can be taught to grasp, respect, and make the most of the atmosphere round them to deal with difficult emergency conditions. The programs will not be simply designed to show exhausting abilities, but in addition to foster adaptability when dealing with the various surprising variables that may happen in a wilderness emergency.
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Raven Wilderness College at the moment affords quite a few lessons together with three ranges of wilderness survival in addition to specialised programs in land navigation, foraging, and wilderness medication with many new choices at the moment in improvement.
Along with Jeff, Raven Wilderness College has a number of different instructors and apprentices who assist make every course a worthwhile studying expertise for all who attend.
The Instruction Staff for Raven Wilderness College’s Wilderness Survival Class
From left to proper Thomas Meyer, Jeff Hatch, Avery Sharp, Nunzio Bruno
Location
Raven Wilderness College is housed in Wolcott, Connecticut inside Indian Rock Protect. If you’re not from Connecticut likelihood is you’ve by no means heard of Wolcott, however the location is good for these residing in New England and the Mid-Atlantic Area. Being centrally situated between New York Metropolis and Boston Raven Wilderness College is roughly a 2-hour drive from both metropolis.
The Wilderness Survival Class. The youngest participant was simply 8 years previous, however he was desperate to be taught!
The Wilderness Survival I Course Expertise
Raven Wilderness College’s Wilderness Survival I course is designed to offer college students with tangible abilities that may finally save their life in a wilderness emergency. These abilities embody correct instrument choice, security, and use in addition to important hearth, water, and shelter abilities. Every lesson all through the course is designed to construct upon the beforehand utilized abilities, giving college students ample time to apply abilities in quite a few eventualities whereas having an teacher information them. Upon the completion of all the teachings the scholars are put to the check, requiring them to make use of all that they’ve discovered to finish a last problem on their very own.
Whereas this course covers the “fundamentals” Jeff’s presentation is something however primary. Each lesson is full of not only a tangible talent, however the causes behind why the talent is essential and backed up by experiences in Jeff’s personal wilderness adventures. Even with the large quantity of knowledge being offered, every lesson appears like a dialog permitting loads of scholar questions and participation within the studying expertise.
Every lesson began with the sharing of data and abilities demonstrations by Jeff and his apprentices and was adopted by sensible workouts the place college students carried out the talents they simply discovered and permits for ample time and assist to verify every scholar will get it proper.
Security Temporary and Gear Test
The Wilderness Survival 1 course began with everybody assembly in a classroom on website to cowl important security info and guarantee every scholar introduced correct gear of their packs. Raven Wilderness College had loads of gear available for college students to borrow within the occasion they forgot one thing or introduced one thing that will not work properly within the class.
The protection transient ended with a dialogue of the survival mindset and detailed the significance of remaining calm, succesful, and conscious. A lesson that was bolstered all through the times actions.
Into the Woods
After the protection transient we took a brief hike into the woods to a wilderness camp space that includes a teepee, hearth ring space, and a few bushcrafted picket stands. This space served because the “classroom” for the day’s actions. There was loads of room for the 9 college students, three apprentices, an superior canine, and Jeff to situate comfortably all through the day.
Knife and Software Expertise and Security
The primary lesson at wilderness camp detailed the best way to choose a out of doors knife. Jeff emphasised the significance of a robust full tang blade that would stand as much as the trials of exhausting use duties like batoning wooden. He mentioned the values of a scandi grind blade, high quality metal, and correct sheath retention. From there he additionally coated using saws and axes whereas demonstrating correct knife use strategies together with protected slicing, primary notches, and methods to make the most of a small knife to do bigger duties. The Demonstration portion wrapped up with the creation of tent stakes and knife upkeep utilizing a leather-based strop.
The scholars have been then tasked with utilizing knives and saws to take down saplings to create tent stakes and excellent their notch carving strategies.
Paracord Administration and Makes use of
Subsequent up was paracord administration. Jeff demonstrated the best way to reduce paracord into useable lengths and needed to create neat bundles for storage to keep away from tangles. From there he additionally demonstrated the best way to use loop-to-loop connections to mix shorter lengths of paracord collectively if wanted.
The worth of this lesson was rapidly realized when college students dug into their baggage to tug out paracord and almost each scholar had a tangled mess of wire that wanted to be untangled, reduce, and bundled.
Fireplace Craft
As soon as paracord administration was full we moved into hearth craft. Jeff mentioned the best way to discover dry wooden in moist environments and demonstrated the best way to create a mattress for hearth on damp floor. The ideas of tinder, kindling, and gasoline have been mentioned intimately and correct hearth beginning utilizing a ferrocerium rod was demonstrated. Jeff additionally coated the ins and outs of fireplace security and the significance of creating certain the hearth was extinguished after use.
Now it was time for college students to start out their very own fires, and so they set off into the woods to collect birch bark for tinder and dry wooden for kindling and gasoline. They practiced batoning with their knife to create the mattress for his or her fires and started to assemble their hearth.
As anticipated, the scholars struggled to get fires began – whereas an skilled ferro rod consumer makes it look straightforward, college students lacked the finesse when sparking the rod and lots of didn’t course of their willow bark fantastic sufficient to spark. Jeff and his apprentices noticed every scholar and after a while stepped in to supply recommendation however ensured every scholar was in a position to get the hearth began on their very own.
The satisfaction the scholars skilled once they lastly obtained their fires began could possibly be felt throughout camp, however that second of satisfaction was reduce brief when nature does what it usually does – throws us a curve ball!
An Sudden Problem
Rain began coming down and Jeff used that chance to problem college students to adapt and preserve their fires going whereas all through lunch because the rain got here down. The scholars, with some ideas from the instructors, efficiently saved their fires going throughout lunch, with one group efficiently heating their lunch over the hearth utilizing a easy stick and pot hanger.
Water Purification
After lunch the rain let up and we took a brief hike to a stream the place Jeff coated a number of the hazards in water sources, basic sourcing practices, prefiltering, and boiling water. He additionally demonstrated using a prefilter and the way a Grayl water filter bottle works.
College students have been requested to collect water of their steel water bottles for later use and we then hiked again to wilderness camp.
Shelter Constructing
After we returned to camp we moved into shelter constructing. Jeff did an incredible job discussing the significance of shelter and the threats of publicity in a wilderness survival state of affairs. Jeff detailed the significance of making an insulating layer from the bottom, particularly in chilly and moist environments.
For the needs of this course shelter constructing was restricted to utilizing a tarp, paracord, and the picket stakes that have been made earlier within the course.
Jeff and his apprentices constructed a plow shelter and an A-Body shelter. Throughout every construct completely different knots and hitches, together with Jeff’s personal “Hatch Hitch” have been demonstrated intimately. The instruction staff additionally demonstrated the best way to construct and join a number of shelters to preserve cordage.
The scholars got down to apply constructing their very own shelters and Jeff went round to every scholar serving to them get their knot and hitch strategies dialed in.
The Closing Problem
After a full day of studying and apply, the time got here for the scholars to place their newfound wilderness survival abilities to the check! Jeff broke the scholars into teams and tasked every group with constructing a practical shelter, constructing a fireplace, and bringing a container of water to a rolling boil and safely eradicating the water from the hearth. They got simply over an hour to finish this process.
Every group got down to establish a protected location to construct their shelters and collect supplies. It was nice to see every group utilizing teamwork to interrupt down duties to particular person group members to finish all their duties within the given timeframe.
On the finish of the allotted time every group had efficiently accomplished all their duties and what began as a bunch of outside fans ended and a budding group of wilderness survivalists!
Debrief
After the ultimate problem all fires have been correctly extinguished, shelters have been taken down, and the wilderness camp was cleaned up. We hiked again to our start line within the classroom the place Jeff debriefed the group as to what they discovered for the day and the subsequent steps they may take to enhance their abilities. He answered all of the questions the scholars had and ended up demonstrating and working towards a number of extra knots with the group.
Closing Ideas on Raven Wilderness College and Wilderness Survival I
General, Jeff and his staff did an incredible job getting very important wilderness survival info and abilities to a category of out of doors fans that wished to take their passions to the subsequent stage. Whereas the course centered on the fundamentals, it left college students with tangible abilities that can be utilized in a wilderness survival situation and created a stable basis wherein they will construct upon. Every lesson was fastidiously crafted to attract upon Jeff’s coaching and private expertise which helped drive house the significance of every talent. The educational atmosphere was welcoming and free from judgement. The scholars have been at all times inspired to ask questions and share their experiences – and in some instances their lack of expertise!
If you’re a novice Wilderness Survival I is a good place to start out. Raven Wilderness College affords extra superior lessons for these with extra expertise and from what I found in dialog with Jeff and his staff, increased stage lessons push college students to additional develop their skill to adapt to the unknown and survive with restricted sources and improvised instruments. Personally, I’m trying ahead to seeing a few of these extra superior programs in motion!
Do you need to develop wilderness survival abilities? Take a look at all of the course choices with Jeff Hatch on the Raven Wilderness College!
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