Interest in Survival Skills Is Rising, Experts Say

Boundless fans have known this all along, of course. Now, the rest of the world is catching up. “It taps into something transcendental, spiritual," says instructor Dug North. "The first time you start a friction fire using two sticks, it’s the closest thing to magic that I know of.”

Recommended Reading: A Survival Instructor’s Library

"It could take a lifetime to read all the books out there dedicated to survival in the broad sense of the word, but that isn’t what my students want to hear, nor do they have time to read everything,” Kevin Estela writes. Here’s his top 12 picks.

Spotlight on Fieldcraft Survival

Your brain is, without a doubt, your best survival tool. However, it, too, needs to be trained. “Fieldcraft is an all-encompassing term for different outdoor skills pertaining to navigation, personal camouflage and concealment, first aid, combat casualty care and various survival aspects.”

Listen & Learn

Fieldcraft survival also has a podcast. Hear Mike Glover and Kevin Estela sit down with survival experts to get the lifesaving lessons on tactics, defense, gear, fitness, overlanding, mobility, military, and more.

Don’t Rely on Hollywood for Wilderness Survival

We first learned about Survival Med from a friend who lives near Big Bend National Park, where the wilderness can get pretty dangerous. Founded by an MD frustrated with seeing emergency room cases where injured folks had relied on “Hollywood fictions,” Survival Med offers location-specific, online training for outdoors enthusiasts and first responders.

Street Survivors: Basic, Proven, and Practical Survival Skills from the Homeless

Bryan Dumas decided to pound the pavement in Denver and the urban sprawls of the greater Los Angeles area to learn a bit more about some urban survival methods, both proactive and preventative.

6 Pillars of Survival

How much food should you store? What do you do if you run out of first-aid supplies? Our editorial team has answers to these and other questions.