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I'm new to hiking and am interested in an outdoor survival class. I've searched but can't find anyone or any organization who provides a class. Does anyone here know of any? Thanks in advance!

Suggest you obtain a copy and read (and practice the skills) the following books, Desert Hiking by Dave Ganci; 98.6 Degrees The Art of Keeping your pumpkin Alive by Cody Lundin and Compass and Map Navigation by Michael Hodgson.

many of the local community colleges offer outdoor classes of many types, survival and sustenance of course being one. Check it out, they are cheap (like $50) and fun! Non credit but you learn much.

Also Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wilderness Survival is a good book as well. Make sure you practice what you learn. Survival skills are useless if you can't quite recall them in a survival situation.

ASU's rec department offers a survival class. I took it a couple years ago and the skills have yet to let me down. Matt said it though, you have to practice them or they're useless.

In response to 5 keepers' reply:
I agree with everything that has been said. I especially like Cody Lundin's book. He teaches in Prescott. Lots of practical advice.

As you learn survival skills, roleplay them as you hike. Drill on them. Play with them. Use Mnemonics (sp?) or acronyms or whatever helps you to remember. As you are hiking think "OK, what if ..."

MAKE SURVIVAL A HABIT!!

I should probably copyright that.

I also took the Outdoor Survival class offered by ASU and can honestly say that I got far more valuable knowledge out of this class than I did in any other during my 4+ years earning a degree there.

The prof was (and I imagine still is) a guy named Kozac (this was an abbreviation of his last name, something like Kozacewiecz, that we all knew him as.) He is a great guy with an incredible wealth of knowledge about the outdoors. (He used to be the guy that the Rangers would drop into the AZ wildnerness from a chopper to find lost hikers for the state.)

The class culminates in an overnight camping trip to, in my case, the Mogollon Rim where we practiced various forms of fire-starting, signaling, map/compass work, GPS navigating, shelter construction, trapping/hunting, and general team-work.

I would imagine that the ASU class is slightly more expensive than books or alternative courses at comm colleges but, for my money, it was worth every bit. I have used knowledge/skills that I learned in that class on almost every camping/hiking trip since and felt an undeniable rush of achievement every time i did.

Best of luck in your search, hope this helps.

Is this the class where they designate a "team lead" and you have to direct the others on your team? Also, don't you have to write a paper in this class?

No, the class does not have team leads and yes you do have to write a paper; but seriously, its a survival class the paper wasn't that hard...


I took the class with cozak too, where was your field trip? was it right out on the rim or was it closer to clints well?

Okay- now I'm interested! Matt- can you tell us what was the class called exactly, and what department- I want to check out the schedules and see if it is offered next fall or spring. I'm still looking for a good class on land nav- I missed the last Phx Mountaineering opportunity- is there a significant portion of time spent on map and compass skills in the class?

Thanks for all your help guys!

Mike

I'm startin ASU next semester so I might have to look into this as well....

I think the class was REC 340 and was called "Outdoor Survival". It was a fairly comprehensive course. We studied edible plants, firestarting, how to react to an emergency, water survival, map reading, how to find water in the desert, how to build make-shift shelters, etc. The class ended with two field trips, one of which was mandatory. There was a paper and a presentation on the paper, but the topic was self chosen except that it had to do with outdoor survival. There were also a couple tests, but they were mostly on stuff people who spend a lot of time outdoors know already (at least to some degree).

Cool- thanks for the info Matt! My wife starts a FT job with ASU in July- which is going to give us both GREAT cost reductions per credit- so- I'm gonna do it if it is offered! I was looking into, ya know, math and english, and stuff, but who needs that!

EXACTLY what I did. I worked for the University system (U of A up here in Phx) and got to take that class for about $40. Also you have to enroll as a non-degree grad, adding about $50 to that. Still a bargain. Apply to be a non-degree student, then in the class, then just submit the tuition reduction form on time and it's practically free. And since you're not taking it for the credit, you don't have to sweat the paper. Just write something intelligible.

Took that class with Kozak last spring. He was a fun guy. We didn't spend long on map and compass navigation, but long enough to figure how to use the thing, adjust for declination, take a bearing from a map and triangulate a location.

Good luck and have fun!

I found several hiking, backpacking and camping courses at GCC for anyone who is looking for a community college course. They are short classes, almost like workshops.

http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/fw/activity/hbc_fall.html

I'm sure some of the other community colleges have similar courses.