Summer Wilderness Skills School

Our summer course is a complex mixture of skill acquisition and true survival, modelled after Survival Guild Finland's benchmark course. It incorporates an A to B journey through true arctic wilderness (for instance, Palojoki - Kultima - Salvastunturi - Galdotievo. Participants rely almost solely on food that they can find from nature and they sleep in self-made shelters without sleeping bags (apart from on the pre-and post-course nights, which are spent in a traditional farm kota)

Whilst at the start and end of the course, you will enjoy the full bounty of what the area has to offer in terms of local cuisine, during the course itself you will follow the model of the Finnish survival guild courses and you will literally live off the land, eating only that which you manage to hunt, fish or forage.

During the course, therefore, you will no doubt go hungry and linked to this, experience the discomfort of your body's personal adjustment in terms of lightheadedness, headaches and hunger pangs. At the same time, you will be acquiring core survival skills like making shelters the traditional Lappish way, accessing safe water, making fire from different materials and in different ways, and finding food.

FYI: Since your nutritional needs are not likely to be adequately met during this week and the nights are likely to be cold, you need to be healthy going into this and not require regular medication or regular meals.

Your permitted kit list can be found here:


3-day Summer Bushcraft Course

>General Information

Programme Duration: 3 days

Availability:Summer

Price: €595 Price includes: 2 nights farm, 3 nights nature, 1 night hotel


1 Week Summer Bushcraft Course

DAY 1 – INTO THE WILD

DAY 1 – INTO THE WILD

We will be dropped off at the end of a trail head to hike into the remote Palojoki cabin. This evening will provide a gentle introduction to being out in the wild. There, by a glistering river, golden eagles may glide above you and elk disappear in the distance, you’ll come across with flora surprisingly rich in edible plants.

Although this is an ecosystem in which the Arctic Big 5 rule - brown beer, wolf, lynx, wolverine and elk - game, in terms of willow grouse, elk and mountain hare, can be challenging to find. FYI: reindeer are never 'wild' since all are privately owned, so these can not be considered game. Reindeer are the only semi-domesticated animal which naturally belongs to the north. Reindeer need extensive, undisturbed areas around the year, hence you can be assured, where the reindeer is, there’s tranquillity. It takes little to realise how important it is for this wonderful animal and his herder engaged into this lifestyle, to keep the wilderness quiet and unspoilt. It is their land we wander on, without wanting to leave a track behind.

The waters, however, are both pure and rich in salmon, trout, perch, pike, grayling and white fish. Similarly, the swamps and backwoods are the home of vitamin-rich superfoods like blueberries, lingonberries, cloudberries and cranberries. Later on in the season, the forests are filled with wild herbs and mushrooms.

Life here is very season and completely ruled by Mother Nature. This is a world far from television, smart phones, and other electronic devices, (although the instructors will carry sat phones in case of emergency). You won't cover a great deal of distance during this course, but you will still discover an ever-changing landscape as you hike out of the primeval boreal spruce forests of the far north into areas of open arctic tundra.

Navigation is crutial for survival in any ecosystem. Two checkpoints will take you to pre-made forest shelters / snow-shelters so we will also have a chance to talk through the tools which Finns take with them into the wilderness in case they are caught out and need to make an emergency shelter quickly.

DAY 2 – SURVIVING IN THE ARCTIC

Since this product is build around one of the great wilderness rivers of the north, we will spend a little time preparing fishing equipment the traditional way and then using it to (hopefully) source the ingredients for that evening's meal. This day's lesson on the art of building fires will be the first of many and we will also work together on cleaning and cooking the fish and collecting some wild herbs to eat with it. For those with energy to spare, an evening hike to find a desert of natural superfoods, will be on the menu.

DAY 3 – NEVER-ENDING WILDERNESS

Today will be a day of getting to grip with the fundamentals of navigation using both modern tools (compasses and GPS units) and natural signs and clues. Some of the rapids en-route require earlier experience, and we may have to be prepared to carry our rafts and kayaks.

DAY 4 – NIGHT IN THE BILLION STARS HOTEL

Today is about learning basics about using a compass and reading terrain maps. The day has come to put your survival skills into action. After finding a perfect spot for the night, and learning how to make a shelter against rain, sun, wind and insects for the night, we surely know to take everything with us the day after. While catching some food for the night and enjoying the sunlit night, it’s easy to loose track of time.

DAY 5 – BACK INTO CIVILISATION

As we reach our van waiting for us by the road we left it some days before, you may feel that while all looks familiar, the world is no longer the same place. It’s the connection you made with the nature, and the disconnection with the civilization. Much later you realize your smart phone is still off, and it may as well stay so.

General Information

Standard Programme Duration: 7 day package

Availability:Summer

Price: €1200 Price includes: 1 week package (5-day course): 2 nights on the farm, 3 nights in nature, 1 night in a local family-run hotel

Shorter 3-day course option

Programme Duration: 5 day package

Availability:Summer and Autumn

Price: €595 Price includes: 5-day package (3-day course): 1 night on the farm, 1 night in nature

2-day course option

Programme Duration: 2 days

Availability:Summer and Autumn

Price: €350 Price includes: 5-day package (3-day course): 1 night on the farm, 1 night in nature