About the Course
If you want to combine the use of map and compass with the art of desert and canyon travel, we have a course just for you: The BOSS 14-Day Desert Navigator.

The course starts with an intensive in traditional living skills and map and compass work. Our goal: each student will be proficient in all aspects of map reading, including map color & symbol significance, contour lines / intervals, scale, margins, and trail selection. We'll learn declination, magnetic fields, and how maps and compasses should be used on the trail. We'll learn UTM, Lat. & Long, and Township & Range coordinate systems, and how each offers different advantages and disadvantages when it comes to successful navigation.

Then the fun begins as the staff steps back and provides only coordinates to the next destination. From this point on, you will need to successfully navigate across the desert to reach your food, water and the next cache's coordinates.

The final challenge: a three-day solo expedition to test your hiking, navigation, and orienteering skills.

On all BOSS Field Courses, students learn the basics of map reading, navigation and orienteering. However, not all Field Courses provide students with enough time to master the details of land travel. Therefore, we've created this Explorer Course specifically to help students master the use of maps and compasses on the trail. The 14-Day Desert Navigator Course combines the low-tech desert travel of our Field Courses with the challenge of mastering navigation and orienteering skills.

Prerequisite for the Navigator Course
BOSS strongly suggests that students on the Desert Navigator course possess a certain level of comfort in the wilderness and a certain degree of competency and proficiency with primitive survival skills prior to taking this course. These skills can be obtained on the longer Field Courses at BOSS, or elsewhere. If taken at BOSS, the suggested courses should have been completed within the past 5 years. If you prefer, it's possible to take both the primary and advanced course within the same season at BOSS.

This prerequisite is suggested so that all students enter this course with a clear understanding of the primitive lifestyle and the skills that are needed to successfully travel lightly and quickly in the wilderness. If you have more questions about this, please contact us.

Course Content
Skills taught on the 14-Day Navigator Course vary with each group's needs and desires. However, we hope to teach everyone the basic and advanced skills of navigation, orienteering, and desert travel so that each person gains a level of comfort and competency to use these skills on his or her own. Fire construction, shelter construction, water procurement and purification, campsite selection and other skills taught on our Field Courses will also be covered.

Phase	Length	Description
Orientation	1/2 day	1/2 day of introductions, skills & safety instruction, and equipment review.
Basecamp	3 days	The next 3 days of the course give our staff a chance to evaluate each student's skill and, when appropriate, move on to the next challenge of the course. This section of the course is held in a basecamp to maximize learning prior to the phases ahead, in which you'll be hiking.
Group Expedition	3 days	3 days of instruction and acclimatizing to the desert environment, eventually arriving at a camp/cache. Desert-travel skills, fire construction, shelter, observation skills, navigation, orienteering, and water location are learned.
Student Expedition	3 days	3 days of instructor-free travel as students put their newly-learned skills to use. Each group is responsible for arriving at the final destination using a predetermined route.
Skills Evaluation	1/2 day	Students are given a chance prior to their Solo to review skills with the staff.
Solo Expedition	3 days	Having successfully completed the student expedition and review/evaluation, each student will face the challenge of 3 days alone on a specific route through the desert.
Graduation		A celebratory graduation ceremony.

About BOSS
Since 1968, BOSS Courses have set the standard for low-technology camping and desert hiking techniques, where instruction is conducted with minimal intrusion of modern technology in environments that allow course content to be experienced first-hand. Our commitment to quality and to our core philosophies has earned BOSS its reputation as the survival school to go to when you want to learn from the best in the industry.

Less is More
In line with the BOSS Positive Impact Camping philosophy, the Desert Navigator Course has a decided emphasis on using renewable, natural resources. Tents, sleeping bags, stoves, backpacks and many other "required" pieces of outdoor equipment are replaced with their low-tech counterparts: a poncho, a blanket, a campfire. The motto here is "Know more, Carry less" and we'll explore how traditional cultures lived comfortably without all the modern gadgets like watches, radios, cellphones, etc (which are not allowed). Come learn how back-country travel can be a less intrusive and more harmonious experience.

Course Location
This course will occur in the canyons and on the mesas surrounding Boulder, Utah. All 14 days of the course are in the field, where students learn traditional living skills and the arts of orienteering.

The BOSS Challenge
On the BOSS 14-Day Desert Navigator Course, students hike long distances over the rugged terrain found in Southern Utah's desert canyons, sometimes 10 or more miles in one day. The combination of high exertion and moderate rations usually leaves students 5 to 7 pounds leaner at the end of the course. However, please note that rations on the Desert Navigator course will be larger than those on our Field Courses, and there will be no Impact phase at the beginning of the course.

Health & Safety
BOSS requires that all Explorer Course applicants undergo a complete physical examination and receive their physician's approval in writing prior to final acceptance on the course.

Please keep in mind, despite your physician's approval and BOSS's acceptance of you on the course, there are no guarantees.  Health and participation risks (inherent and otherwise) remain. It's up to you and your physician to determine if a BOSS course is an appropriate choice. All participants must be aware of these risks and embrace them. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Age
Due to the Solo expedition on Navigator courses, you must be at least 18 to participate in this course.

Food & Diet
All students are provided with BOSS food packs which consist of basic staples such as lentils, rice, quinoa, carrots, potatoes, onions, rolled oats, wheat flour, powdered milk, etc. During fire-ban seasons, these rations are modified to include instant soups and meals which do not need a fire to be eaten. Either way, the food packs will provide a student with approximately 1500 calories per day — enough to keep you healthy and active for the duration of the course. Students who wish to supplement their diet with wild edibles may do so in a responsible manner (permits may be required and can be purchased in advance). Students with allergies or dietary restrictions should contact our office for additional information.

2010 Dates & Prices

14-Day Desert Navigator

DN-10

June 6 - 19, 2010

Utah

$2295

Course dates and prices are subject to change. Space is limited on each course, and registrations are made on a first-come, first-served basis. Please go to the Registration page for more information.