NW Arkansas – Core Survival (Level 1)

Wilderness Survival

Fieldcraft: Core Survival takes you through the four basic necessities: shelter, water, fire, and food (plus a few bonus tips). This class is for everyone! Whether you are just beginning your journey of exploring the outdoors or, you’re seasoned in the wilderness, this class has something for you! The class is held in a well-manicured location within a controlled environment perfect for throwing out a tent and camping! The pace of this class is very manageable and is suitable for all.

During this class, students will learn knife skills & blade safety concepts to build a primitive shelter, insulating and waterproofing techniques, multiple useful knots and examples of tarp shelter setups. Multiple fire-starting methods will be explored, including an introduction to bow drill fire, ferro rod, as well as many other methods. Students will also learn water procurement and filtration, how to make a primitive trap, wilderness first aid as well as becoming familiar with local plant life that can be beneficial for nutrition or medicine.

Student Outcomes

Upon completion students will have the knowledge to:

• Provide for your most essential survival needs.
• Think strategically about steps necessary to staying alive.
• Take action to save their lives and those of their party should they ever become stranded in the wilderness.

This class takes place in the outdoors and is very hands-on. Nothing can replace hands-on experience and we specifically have you make your own fire using multiple methods because we want you to fully understand the process and be able to recreate it on your own when you go back home.

Some elements of this course are discussion-based and instructor-led presentations in order to relay critical information but, our intent is to make sure you get plenty of hands-on experience actually doing things with your own two hands.

Camping or Glamping—It’s Your Choice

Make this the experience you want it to be! You are more than welcome to camp on-site at no extra charge. If you want to spend the night in a hotel (or at home for local students) and come back for class the following day well rested, do it! Bring steaks or burgers to cook over the fire if you want (we have a charcoal grill on site as well). Make yourself as comfortable (or uncomfortable) as you want because at the end of the day, it has zero impact on the material we are going to teach you or the skills that you will learn during this class. Come to this class expecting to have fun and to learn a lot!

Instructor: Matt Tate

Recommended items:

• Folding chairs
• Comfortable outdoor clothing (shorts, tennis / hiking shoes, ball cap)
• Sunglasses
• Rain gear
• Bug / tick spray
• Flashlights (headlamps)
• Tent / hammock / sleeping gear, etc.
• Food & Cooler, snacks, gatorade, etc.
• Water bottle (there will be a water refill station on site)
• Fixed-blade knife
• Folding saw (as long as a couple students have these, they can be shared with the group)
• Gloves (optional)
• Sunscreen
• Note pad & pen / pencil

Note: Feel free to bring any survival gear you own but haven’t yet tried out. This is a great time to test out water filtration systems, etc. that you may have stored in your bug-out bag.

There will be a porta-potty on location.

The historical War Eagle Mill is less than a mile from our base camp. It is a great place to check out and they have all sorts of goods for sale in their gift shop from their traditional milling process done on site.
They also have a sandwich shop upstairs.

Bonus: We will discuss survival packs, gear, bags and the minimum survival gear that you should always carry with you.