Why winter outdoor survival classes in the sunny South?
One reason: the Blizzard of '93. To this day I distinctly remember it. I had just moved to Asheville, N.C. It was March. One night in the middle of the month big, fat snowflakes started falling. Lots of them. By the next day, two feet of snow had covered up the ground, roofs, parking lots, shrubbery, woodpiles, small cars, and all manner of things in my new home city. At the time, it was more snow than I had ever seen. Some peaks of the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina had five feet of the white stuff piled up. As the huge swath of cold and snow traveled from the Gulf of Mexico up the Eastern third of the nation it created snowy havoc from as far south as Georgia all the way to Canada. Before it was over, more than 300 people had died.
Don't think seriously hazardous conditions can't happen in the South. It happens even down here in the Peach State, especially in the mountains.
That's one way to answer why there are winter outdoor survival classes in the South. Another way, as Mark Warren, Director of Medicine Bow Ltd. of Dahlonega put it:
"A lot of people have asked me why winter survival skills are needed in the South. The answer is: humidity. Our moist climate intensifies cold. And, truthfully, it really doesn't matter how cold the thermometer reads. Once your body drops into hypothermia – even into the 50's in wet weather – without the help of external heat you are out of luck. Wet-weather fire-making skills, for instance, could save you."
Here are three places in the South where you can learn how to save your hide even in the worst kind of life-threatening cold.
If you want to learn how to survive in a hostile winter, who better to learn from than a man who lived in the North Georgia mountains in a tipi for nearly two years. That was a ways back, but Mark Warren has only learned more and more about dealing with Mother Nature since then and about how to teach others the same skills. In January and February, he offers classes in building shelter, building fires and outdoor cooking, among other things, including the study of edible and medicinal plants, wildlife and more. Warren has been a national champion canoeist and a world champion longbow archer during his remarkable life.
Medicine Bow, 104 Medicine Bow, Dahlonega, 706-864-5928, medicinebow.net
Campcraft Outdoors is operated by Dr. Jason Hunt in scenic Henry County, Kentucky. The outfit holds its courses on a 123-acre farm with a landscape that includes fields, wooded area, creeks, ponds and an abundance of wildlife. Hunt trained with the acclaimed Pathfinder School and became designated a Master Pathfinder Instructor. He's got search-and-rescue experience, EMT training, Wilderness Emergency Care training and more. He has a highly skilled cadre of other instructors, as well. Campcraft teaches a Winter Survival Course in mid-December, a special Northwoods Survival class with Larry Roberts from Season 2 of the History channel's "Alone" series, and other offerings. The Campcraft gang will teach you how to hone the crafts necessary to keep your tush from freezing off in the wild.
Campcraft Outdoors, 10931 Bethlehem Road, Bethlehem, KY, 502-667-2276, www.campcraftoutdoors.com
Richard Cleveland heads up an outfit near Asheville that boasts a remarkably talented group of outdoor experts, most notably Cleveland himself. During the past 25 years, Cleveland has taught nature awareness and survival skills to thousands of people of all ages. He offers private instruction in winter survival skills and would do a special group winter survival skills class if enough people requested it. Students of such a class would learn how to make fire by friction, how to make a warm shelter, how to gather wild foods and medicines, find clean water, and cook and preserve food without modern conveniences. The rest of the year, Earth School offers a variety of outdoor skills classes.
Earth School, 30 Westgate Parkway #164, Asheville, NC, 828-747-3207, www.lovetheearth.com
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