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Skills Courses

BOSS Skills courses offer students the opportunity to learn basic and advanced primitive living skills in an intimate setting under expert guidance. Some of BOSS's most-skilled instructors will teach you primitive survival skills like cordage, fires, shelters, awareness, and flintknapping (turning rocks into cutting tools). Instruction is hands-on and class sizes are small to ensure good supervision. A wilderness cook-area is set up for meals, as we want you to focus on the skills and be prepared to learn from dawn until dusk. No previous outdoor skills or knowledge is needed.

Why struggle to make a friction fire when today we have matches and lighters? Why try to create an obsidian knife when steel blades are so easily bought? Is there any benefit to making a shelter from natural materials instead of using a lightweight tent? At BOSS, we firmly believe that there is tremendous value in understanding traditional wilderness skills and having the compentency needed to make do without modern gear.  On the simplest level, a person who is not dependent on modern gear will be comfortable under any conditions. (You never know, after all, when you might be put into a situation without your equipment.) But on a deeper level, there's something to be gained from an appreciation of primitive technologies and the ingenuity and artistic beauty of traditional crafts.

BOSS Skills courses teach you traditional wilderness skills that are not dependent on modern technology. The natural world can provide for many of your needs, and your BOSS Skills course instructors can show you how. Even if you never need to use the wilderness skills we teach you, you will appreciate knowing them.

BOSS Skills courses are typically taught out of the Durfey Creek basecamp, situated in an aspen meadow at 9,000 feet above sea level. Sleeping on the ground in group shelters built by those who have come before you, you will spend each day in classes structured to teach you the most we can during our time together. Evenings are typically spent around the campfire, reviewing the day's lessons and relaxing.

BOSS Skills courses are offered in three formats: a 7-Day Primitive Living Skills course that teaches basic skills, a 14-Day Extended Primitive Living Skills course that teaches basic and more advanced skills, and the annual Slickrock Gathering that offers students the chance to focus deeply on one specific skill (called a Pathway) for an entire week.