first Day! good survival schools???

**DOGMAN** · 04-29-2008, 12:52 PM

"have reality set in"... Grundle, what is reality? Fears and reality are subjective. But, I have had guys freak out that have been guiding for a couple of years- and I have seen newbies just melt down. But, usually they work through it.

I try to do a fairly extensive interview before I hire someone- and then take newbies out on a shakedown. But, honestly I have hired guys without hardly talking to them or ever even seeing them until they showed up- just because I needed the help. In reality people aren't lining up to take this kind of work these days. Sometimes it is damn hard to find employees. It is hard to really figure out how people deal in stressful situations until you put them there.

I really try to talk to prospective guides and figure out what is "stressful" to them before hiring them on- try to figure out there mentality. Because, what is stressful for one person, may not be stressful for another. An example...Imagine.. being deep in a Wilderness area and having no food or water, having darkenss setting in, its 10 degrees, and your not sure where you are- is that a stressful situation or not? its all mentality and perspective. It doesn't have to be a "crisis situation". It's really just how you look at things. Thats what I try to get out of new guide prospects...figure out there perspective on things- try to understand "their" reality

**grundle** · 04-29-2008, 04:00 PM

Musher: I think you mainly addressed my questions, I should have been a little more clear when I mentioned "reality" setting in. I suppose I was thinking of someone who got on a roll watching survivorman + man vs. wild and thought to himself "I can do this!"

So he signs up for your outfit and a week later realizes that he doesn't have his cheezy poofs, his television, or twinkies to fall back on. It was a passing thought, because scrubs like that try out for the army all the time and end up going awol, heading to the brig, or getting not so honorably discharged. They had a novel idea of what the wilderness would be and when it turned out to be hard work they flaked.

I guess that is what I was asking, but one thing you said made sense to me. There is not exactly a line of people begging to go and do what you do. Were it not for my family situation I would be one of them, but unfortunately it is not the case.

**Jeremiah Johnson** · 04-29-2008, 04:01 PM

los angeles

**Jeremiah Johnson** · 04-29-2008, 04:02 PM

...los angeles, you know a place?

**tunick001** · 04-29-2008, 05:08 PM

I know of a excellant survival school. But its pretty far, in New Jersey. Maybe you could check it out on a vacation or something. It the Tom Brown Jr. school - http://www.trackerschool.com/

**tunick001** · 04-29-2008, 10:09 PM

Originally Posted by remy

...indeed i know a place.

The Alaska thing sounds great...kind of...well not at all...loll
Although i am sure you would learn a great deal of basic survival skills, if you live in LA, you are also going to miss a great deal of knowledge based on your location. For example, knowing edible plants of Alaska, while living in LA is quiet frankly useless.

So...i recommend you learn "local" skills.
We can talk if you want...i am somewhat "in the business"...although my end of it is more tactical and revolves around survival psychology, communications, weapons training, contingency plans, survival strategies for urban life...etc...

School you might want to check out:

Christopher Nyerges and his associates have been conducting field trips, seminars, and classes since 1974. Over 30 000 people have attended these workshops on wild food identification, survival skills (urban and wilderness), energy self reliance and more.
School of self-reliance
Box 41834, Eagle rock, CA 90041
www.ChristopherNyerges.com

You can buy his book to start with (how to survive anywhere, a guide for urban, suburban, rural, and wilderness environments.), and his classes are pretty cheap...an outing about edible plants is about $20, and a day of advanced survival skills is about $50...and classes are during the week end.

Man, I'm going to have to try him. Thanks for the link.