PK Podcast 042: Mors Kochanski, Northern Bushcraft Legend
Mors Kochanski joins me for a conversation about wilderness living skills, bushcraft and survival. Mors explains his background in these subjects, going right back to his school days, along with learning from his mentor Tom Roycraft, through Mors’s own unique contributions and inventions, including the super-shelter. Along the way we cover a lot of fascinating ground.
Mors has been a wilderness living skills instructor as long as I have been alive, initially under the mentorship of Tom Roycraft and later under his own steam, including holding an associate professorship at the University of Alberta. In the 1980s he wrote a book originally titled Northern Bushcraft, later retitled to just Bushcraft. His saying of “The more you know, the less you carry” has become a watchword of bushcraft.
I was long aware of Mors and I had pored over his book but I first had the opportunity to meet Mors about 10 years ago, in the late 2000s when he visited the UK. I have not had the opportunity to spend significant time with him since then, although we have communicated.
In June 2019 I was fortunate enough to fly to Alberta, Canada for the Global Bushcraft Symposium, where I was honoured to be invited as a keynote speaker. This was exciting enough for me but more exciting still was to have the opportunity to spend some time with Mors and the other elders of bushcraft, survival and traditional skills.
As well as various ad-hoc conversations, I took the opportunity to sit down with Mors to record a podcast and I present this recording to you here.
Our conversation forms Episode 42 of the Paul Kirtley Podcast…
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Links Relevant To This Podcast
morskochanski.comMors Kochanski on FacebookKaramat Wilderness Ways Karamat on YouTube
Thanks For Listening!
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Watch A Video Of This Interview!
I don’t normally video my podcast interviews but since this was a special one, I did. You can click on the link below and go straight to the video on my YouTube channel…
Mors Kochanski In Conversation With Paul Kirtley At The 2019 Global Bushcraft Symposium [Video]
Get Mors’s Books…
Mors Kochanski – Bushcraft
Mors Kochanski – Basic Safe Travel and Boreal Survival Handbook
Mors Kochanski – Grand Syllabus: Instructor Trainee Program
And Finally…
Finally don’t forget to leave an honest review & rating on iTunes or on Stitcher.
Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of this podcast and I read each and every one of them.
Related Material On Paul Kirtley’s Blog
PK Podcast 041: Dave Canterbury On Re-enactment, Bushcraft And Survival
PK Podcast 040: Miles Irving On Wild Foods, Foraging, Health And Connecting With Nature
Campcraft And Cookery Overnighter With Mike Pullen From TA Outdoors
PK Podcast 036: Mors Kochanski And Jon McArthur On The Global Bushcraft Symposium
5 thoughts on “PK Podcast 042: Mors Kochanski, Northern Bushcraft Legend”
I enjoyed this interview. It was good the way he explained some points through tales. He did kinda skip over females making it out in nature, unless that was just his mindset when he was younger as he mentioned it around that time. I could relate to his wee gang in his younger days as i also had one with a few close friends. Of course it was all to do with outdoors/braes/local river, building shelters, catching/foraging for lunch, freedom, new daily adventures and getting muddied up. We never hung about town, that would have been too boring and tame lol. Must be amazing to get among some of these people and soak up their experience/s. Even though i know it is a different cold over there i still wouldn’t fancy -60 oh no loll He states he has not had to put his skills to task in a real life situation when you asked him but now i have to ask you Paul, have you had to use your skills for real? Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Paul! for publishing these interviews. Guys like these are a real treasure.
Thanks Bobby. I’m happy your appreciate these sessions.
Warm regards,
Paul
Hi Paul. Great stuff. I have heard mors tell these stories many times over the years, however, it has been a long time since Mors has been able to weave the stories together in such a smooth and eloquent way. PURE GOLD. THANK YOU. You really caught Mors at his best in this podcast, and we are so gratefull. This podcast will go down in history as classic Mors.
Cheers
Dale
Hey Dale,
Thank you for your comments. You know Mors far better than I do and I’m glad you appreciate this session with him. It means a lot.
Warm regards,
Paul