Is the whole survival thing a sham? Steve Rinella, host of the Travel Channel’s show The Wild Within says so about the made for TV survival episodes in an article in the May/June, 2011 issue of Mother Jones. Written by Brian Kevin and titled “Savage Love: How the larger-than-life bushmen of cable TV are creating an audience of armchair anthropologists,” the article examines the cultural fascination of survival on TV and tries to answer why people are so interested.
I spoke with Brian and am quoted in the article. Here’s my take on why such shows are so popular (from the article):
“Smith theorizes that traditional skills have an increasing allure for Americans who feel alienated from the processes of filling their own basic needs – folks who can text, tweet, and play Bejeweled simultaneously while going through airport security, but would be at a total loss to start a fire.”
It’s a good read in the current print issue of Mother Jones.
The Jack Mountain Bushcraft School was recently listed as one of the top five survival schools in the USA by Tony Nester, Outside Magazine’s survival guru and the owner of the Ancient Pathways school in Arizona. Tony is well respected in the industry and has two decades of field experience teaching survival and bushcraft.
To receive an honor like this from an unknown journalist is great publicity. To receive it from one of your peers in the industry is a great honor.
Read more at Outside Online’s Survival Guru.
I’ve had the good fortune to be featured in a bunch of media outlets over the years, and while it’s always nice to see your name in print, when your peers write about you it means that much more.
This month I’m the featured guide in the Maine Wilderness Guides Organization newsletter. Since it’s not online I can’t post a link. From the article:
Tim represents the best qualities of the new generation of Maine Guides. Not only is he a Master Maine Guide, a licensed hunter, trapper, and fisherman, but he is also a naturalist, an excellent photographer, a media consultant, writer, and teacher.
Most survival advice available in the press is dubious at best, written by professional writers and not seasoned instructors with field experience. Thankfully Outside Magazine decided to hire Tony Nester of Ancient Pathways to answer their reader’s questions on their Survival Guru blog.
Tony’s got two decades of experience teaching in the field, has written several excellent books, and is just a good guy. And I’d say this even if he didn’t list us in a recent post on edible wild plants.
I’ve been trading emails with Taj Forer for a few months, and last weekend we finally got together. Taj is a photographer and one of the founders of Daylight Magazine. We discussed a project he’s working on documenting traditional wilderness skills and made plans for him to join us for some of the spring bushcraft and canoe expedition semester starting in mid-April.
I’m excited about the project as our goals of passing on culture and knowledge that’s becoming increasingly rare are in alignment. We also got along well, so I think it will be a lot of fun.
The project will also be a demonstration of our commitment to artists. If you’re an artist and we can help you out, let us know.
I was recently interviewed by Iain Haywood at ooh.com. You can read the piece here. In addition to some nice photos of Ernie Davis and David Bosum, I’m quoted on educational philosophy:
“At its best, teaching should be invisible; a person who learns from a mediocre instructor will realize how talented their instructor is. The person who learns from an excellent teacher will realize how talented they are.”
Yesterday I received a dvd copy of a television show shot a year ago called I’ll Try Anything Once and featuring Touré and myself, with a guest appearance by Don Merchant. I spent several days teaching Touré the skills of winter survival, culminating his 24-hour solo in the winter woods. I hadn’t seen any footage of the show, but it turned out beautiful.
I can’t post any of the footage because the show hasn’t aired yet in the US, but is has showed in Canada, Brasil, Saudi Arabia, some spots in Europe and a few other places. I’m not privy to the workings of distribution contracts, but hopefully it will be released here and you can check it out.
In the February issue of Men’s Fitness we’re featured in an article titled “Surviving The Elements” (“When Tragedy Strikes” in the print edition) by Jesse Huffman. We offer some survival advice to hikers and snowshoers.
Read the article here.
Jack Mountain was featured in an article titled Extreme Survival Schools by Scott Bowen that hit the web on October 15.
From the article; “The instructors at Jack Mountain Bushcraft can teach you everything from how to live happily in the woods with nothing but a knife, to proper snow-shoeing techniques, to the art of tracking (because tracking leads to eating).”
The photo they used is of longtime friend and instructor Jeff Butler of Northwoods Survival paddling across Chamberlain Lake in the morning mist on a 2006 guide training course.
You can read the article here, but be advised it is part of a slide show and will change after a few moments.
