Winter is a season of narrow margins in the north woods. The cold and snow quickly magnify accidents and poor decisions into life-threatening situations, and the stranded traveler quickly learns that the skills that served him or her well in warmer weather are sorely lacking when the temperature is frequently below zero degrees Fahrenheit for weeks at a time. But for those who would learn the skills of winter it is a magical time, when all the bugs and people have gone away for the season, leaving the quiet bush to those who would venture forth armed with knowledge and experience. You can gain both knowledge and experience in our Advanced Winter Survival Course.

With our practical, hands-on approach you'll develop knowledge and experience that will serve you well whether you're forced to spend a night out at the end of hunting season or are planning a multi-week snowshoe trip through northern Maine.

This course runs the two-days immediately following our Winter Survival Weekend Course, and is the natural extension of it. Participants are strongly encouraged to take the weekend course first, as there won't be any repeptition of material.

Course Content

• Defining survival and survival priorities
• Fire: 5 stages of fire, 1 match firelighting, lighting a fire by friction, percussion, refraction and modern firelighters
• Shelter: Concepts of shelter, hoop house, quad pod, dome, emergency open shelters that will keep you alive at 40 below zero and the role of snow as an insulator and when and how to construct snow shelters
• Water: The role of hydration in survival, winter water sources, melting snow
• Sleep: The importance of restful sleep in survival
• Dressing for the outdoors: The role of clothing in survival and such topics as the difference between wet and dry cold and appropriate footwear for each
• Tools: Knife, axe, saw, and ice chisel
• Identification of Useful wild plants of winter
• Identifying and understanding animal tracks
• Locating and building effective traps and snares targeting animals for food
• Ice fishing with modern and improvised equipment
• Safe travel on ice
• Living on snow shoes
• Methods of increasing one's acclimatization to the cold
• Examination of myths and inaccuracies on winter survival that are prominent in the literature

Participants will have the opportunity to build a shelter and spend several nights in it, build a bush bucksaw, build a pair of emergency snowshoes and a simple but effective snowshoe binding, build a packframe and much more.

NOTE: No fish and game laws will be broken during the course. Snares will be constructed, explained, then taken down as snaring small game is illegal in New Hampshire. Ice fishing will only be carried out by those with a valid NH fishing license.

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