Wilderness Survival Skills

Learn to Survive in the Wild at NOC!

NOC's SOLO Wilderness Medicine instructors are teaming up to offer this one-time course on Wilderness Survival Skills in April 2010. Whether you're planning to audition for an episode of Survivor or just want to improve your wilderness aptitude, this workshop is bound to be an exciting weekend! As with all NOC SOLO Southeast courses, we'll spend some time in the classroom, but the bulk of our learning will take place in scenarios in the Nantahala National Forest surrounding NOC.

Survival School Instructors

Survival School Itinerary

Day 1 – Keeping a Clear Head
Introduction 6-9pm
Group gives introductions of their experience and skills, followed by a survival quiz and a psychology of survival talk and case studies.

Day 2 - Wilderness Survival Basics
Food, Water, Fire, Shelter – which comes first, making a plan
Water Collection (pit/rain/condensation traps, digging, damming)
Water Purification and Filtration (bandana, foliage, iodine, chlorine, pumps, boiling)
Food 1 – trapping (snares, pitfall traps, deadfall traps, fishing) tracking
Food 2 – edible plants, taste test, cooking methods
Fire – fire starting kit, finding dry wood, location, LNT, one match fire, flint and steel
Shelter – location, examples (poncho shelter, natural shelters, lean-to, leaf shelter, insulation and animals)

Day 3 - Getting out Alive
Calling for help
Basic signaling using fire or sound, international distress signals.
Leaving notes or signs
Logical movement (down and towards water source)
Building Survival Kits
What to pack, how many people, how long, weight.                   
Choosing a knife – size, weight, quality, function, ability
Navigation - using the sun, navigating by watch, using a compass, pacing, jungle navigation
Navigation/Orienteering - moving through mixed terrain, crossing rivers, weather patterns, using your senses
Staying Alive – health issues
1. Maintaining good health
2. Medical emergencies
3. Bone and joint injury (basic splints)
4. Bites and stings
5. Wound management
6. Environmental injuries

Contact Us

Call SOLO Southeast at NOC, 888-905-7238 ext. 7190.