Winter Wonderland: Modern Winter Survival Skills
Class limited to 12 students
Not offered for 2024. Please check back next year!
Tuition:
Instructors: Cody Lundin and Mark Dorsten
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Click here for wait list options if course is labeled "full"
Learn to be comfortable in the cold! Exposure to extreme cold can kill the unprepared within hours. Knowing what to do can be a lifesaver in defeating hypothermia, the world’s biggest outdoor killer. Challenge yourself by adapting to old man winter in the beautiful mountains of northern Arizona. Your adventure begins in a fully furnsihed cabin that will serve as our base camp for the course.
The Winter Wonderland course is loosely based upon Cody's Winter Survival Skills class he developed and taught at Yavapai College since the early 2000’s. Similar to the college class, part of our training will be classroom based inside the cabin supplemented with numerous day trips to the surrounding mountains for plenty of hands-on experience. Regardless of our cabin base camp, please remember that winter training is always a challenge, thus the Winter Wonderland experience is an “adventure” class. Two hot, hearty meals a day are included. Come and join us around the wood stove for this intimate look at the winter season!
Experience Cold Weather Clothing Systems: choosing your clothing for fit and function, the European layering method, insulation types, clothing material properties, using "sock shoes," vapor barriers, what, where, and how to wear winter clothing for maximal results.
How Cold Affects Your Body: the physiology of heat loss and gain, short and long term heat production methods, how your body produces heat and how to increase its production, food nutrition and frequency as energy, macro and micro nutrients, basal metabolic rates for men and women, diet induced thermogenesis, designing cold weather food packs.
Building Shelter: where, what, why and how to build winter shelters including quinzhee, hole in the snow, snow trenches and super shelters.
Getting Water: from snow and ice, preventing dehydration, water disinfection methods, flavoring options, maximal hydration tips, body water requirements in the cold.
Defining Winter, Winter Ecology, and Winter Injuries: selective criteria for environmental adaptations to cold, the five vectors of winter, winter plant identification, preventing sun and cold injuries, frostbite, snow blindness, trench foot and hypothermia.
Properties and Uses for Snow, Winter Travel, attracting Search and Rescue, Safe Knife Use, Winter Survival Kits, and more. Discover what works to keep you warm and dry to establish wintertime as your new comfort zone! (minimal hiking required)
Please note: While every effort is made to cover the skills outlined, some skills may change depending on material availability, weather conditions, or any other reason. Your understanding is appreciated.
"I have taken 5 of Cody’s courses. Both the adventure and skill courses which include 3-2 day, 1-4 day, and 1-9 day. The skills I have learned have been invaluable to me in surviving in the wild. If you are looking for a school where the learning is fun, the instructors are knowledgeable, being in the field is challenging, and your fellow students are serious about learning then the Aboriginal Living Skills School is where you should go."
John Sweatt, CO. “Winter Wonderland” 2014 alum.
