The ability to light a fire is an essential wilderness skill. Whether you are practicing your bushcraft skills in the local woods or planning an expedition, fire-lighting skills should be at the top of your list. There are many ways to light a fire but the humble match is often overlooked in favour of more impressive skills…
Nobody heads out into the wilds expecting to be the recipient of a search and rescue operation. Most people don’t think it will ever happen to them. But you only need to Google ‘lost hiker’ or ‘missing hiker’ to get a sense of how many people for whom it becomes a reality. A famous case, recently popularised further by the film 127 Hours, is that of Aron Ralston who became trapped by his arm…
Winter camping in the northern forest can be an amazing experience. Also known as the boreal forest or the Taiga, the environment is simply beautiful. In many ways travel in the northern forest is easier in the winter than in the summer. The swamps and lakes are frozen and passable, as are the rivers which become your highways. There are no mosquitoes or other biting insects. The winter, however, brings its own specific complications and hazards…
Having been given a copy of John ‘Lofty’ Wiseman’s ‘SAS Survival Handbook’ when I was 13 years old, I spent a disproportionate amount of my mid-teens devising ingenious ways to cram more and more survival kit into a tobacco tin. At the weekend I’d go…