14-DAY PRIMITIVE LIVING INTENSIVE
14-day Primitive Living Intensive
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live as your ancestors did generations or eons ago? How would the community in a hunter gatherer society operate? This primitive survival course goes beyond the basics and gives you a real primitive living experience.
Tuition – $3980
About the Primitive Living Intensive
The 14-Day Primitive Living Intensive was built to investigate and experience life from the past. We have called upon the school’s most experienced instructors to create a course that will focus on the life of the ancient societies of the Four Corners region (known at times as Ancestral Puebloans, Anasazi, and other names). While this course is less physically intense than the traditional BOSS Field Course, there will be physical challenges, and this experience will provide an authentic experience all its own.
The BOSS Primitive Living Intensive teaches everything from short-term survival skills like fire and shelter to the skills you need to thrive long-term: edible plants, trapping, hide tanning, pottery, textiles and more. Instruction is thorough, intensive, hands-on, and contextual.
Course highlights
- You and your course mates will rely on one another to truly live off the land, working together to gather food, make shelter, and complete an ambitious list of necessary primitive skills projects.
- Live and travel as a primitive village between two or more base camps in the beautiful territory surrounding Boulder, UT.
- Learn and practice primitive and traditional living skills from master instructors.
- Dive deep into the foundational and advanced skills that would have been necessary for a primitive village to survive, such as friction fire (bow drill and hand drill), primitive shelter, foraging, trapping, fishing, primitive pottery, hide tanning, and more.
Know More, Carry Less
In line with the BOSS Positive Impact philosophy, the 14-day Primitive Living Intensive course emphasizes the use of renewable, natural, and local resources. Tents, sleeping bags, stoves, backpacks and many other “essential” pieces of outdoor equipment are replaced with their primitive counterparts: an animal fur, a natural shelter, a gourd canteen, a campfire, etc. The skills we teach you allow you to live at length in the wilderness without relying on modern gear.
14-day PLI Course Location
The course begins in Boulder, UT and uses basecamps on Boulder Mountain and in The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, with possible additional day trips into the surrounding areas. These locations provide students with varied and spectacular scenery.
Instruction is primarily focused in the basecamp areas, but some hiking may be necessary to acquire materials, food, or information not immediately available. Students should plan on bringing hiking boots suitable for day trips over varied terrain which may include knee deep water, sand dunes, boulder fields, thick brush, boggy areas, and slickrock. Be advised: our basecamps are simple teaching areas in a pristine environment—without electricity, telephones or modern buildings.
Learn by Doing
We strongly believe in learning by doing. While at times, instruction will be done in lecture format, it will be done in the field where students can see what they are learning in situ and can practice their skills in a natural environment.
BOSS courses feature a student-teacher ratio conducive to hands-on instruction. Our Primitive Living Intensive may have up to 12 students and 3-4 staff. This ensures that our staff are available to students to help guide them through the lessons as needed.
Prerequisites
- Some prior camping or outdoor experience is recommended but not required.
- BOSS requires that all Primitive Living Intensive course applicants undergo a complete physical examination and receive their physician’s approval in writing prior to final acceptance on the course.
- Students must be 18 years of age or older.
Upcoming Primitive Living Intensive Courses
Sep 22 to Oct 5
$3980 – Space Available
See more courses
Interested in life-changing skills?
The Boulder Outdoor Survival School has delivered primitive skills courses to adventurous people since 1968. Our survival instructors are some of the most experienced and competent in the world. The challenges our BOSS survival skills courses offer aren’t for everyone, but if you’re the right person and it’s the right time for you, we promise world-class skills instruction, challenge and real experience in primitive living.
