Outdoor Survival

Most people think that being prepared for catastrophe means stocking up on MREs and building a bunker in their backyard, but this approach leaves you vulnerable in the real world of car accidents, natural disasters, grid failures, and global pandemics. Prepared overturns today’s paranoid survival wisdom and teaches the foundational skills of preparedness that will not only help you build situational awareness and achieve greater mobility but that will also help you build resilient mental habits.

"Feeder" mindset means being in control of a situation, proactive rather than reactive. It is an optimistic outlook that reframes any situation as a learning experience. Kevin Estela teaches survival skills from this feeder-based perspective, which is what separates his teaching style from other wilderness instructors. Kevin has written the quintessential guide for an outdoor enthusiast's "bucket list" of skills - how to make a fire, build a shelter, gather food, find water, use a knife correctly, and make cordage.

The ultimate resource for experiencing the backcountry! Written by survivalist expert Dave Canterbury, Bushcraft 101 gets you ready for your next backcountry trip with advice on making the most of your time outdoors. Based on the Five Cs of Survivability - cutting tools, covering, combustion devices, containers, and cordages - this valuable guide offers only the most important survival skills to help you craft resources from your surroundings and truly experience the beauty and thrill of the wilderness.

In this valuable guide, survivalist Dave Canterbury goes beyond bushcraft basics to teach you how to survive in the backcountry with little or no equipment. Using the foundation you learned in Bushcraft 101, Canterbury shows you how to completely immerse yourself in the wilderness with advanced bushcraft and woodcraft techniques. He covers crucial survival skills like tracking to help you get even closer to wildlife, crafting medicines from plants, and navigating without the use of a map or compass.

When Geraldine "Gerry" Largay first went missing on the Appalachian Trail in remote western Maine in 2013, the people of Maine were wrought with concern. When she was not found, the family, the wardens, and the Navy personnel who searched for her were devastated. The Maine Warden Service continued to follow leads for more than a year. They never completely gave up the search. Two years after her disappearance, her bones and scattered possessions were found by chance by two surveyors.

This true-life wilderness survival epic recounts 17-year-old Alex Messenger's near-lethal encounter with a grizzly bear during a canoe trip in the Canadian tundra. The story follows Alex and his five companions as they paddle north through harrowing rapids and stunning terrain. Twenty-nine days into the trip, while out hiking alone, Alex is attacked by a barren-ground grizzly. Left for dead, he wakes to find that his summer adventure has become a struggle to stay alive.

David Roberts, "veteran mountain climber and chronicler of adventures" (Washington Post), has spent his career documenting voyages to the most extreme landscapes on earth. In Limits of the Known, he reflects on humanity's - and his own - relationship to extreme risk. Part memoir and part history, this book tries to make sense of why so many have committed their lives to the desperate pursuit of adventure.

After her plane crashes, a 17-year-old girl spends 11 days walking through the Peruvian jungle. Against all odds, with no food, shelter, or equipment, she gets out. A better equipped group of adult survivors of the same crash sits down and dies. What makes the difference?

Survive the unexpected. Statistically, you're more likely to die from a vending machine than a shark. But, Rob Nelson knows many shark survivors. His college girlfriend was attacked by a crocodile and his roommate, a grizzly bear. His wife was sucked by a wave down a blowhole, he was left stranded at sea after a storm sank his sailboat, and the list goes on and on. To Rob, these "improbable" altercations are "random acts of nature," and he's learned how to survive them.

If you found yourself suddenly thrust into the wild without any modern conveniences like electricity, running water, Wi-Fi, or Google - would you know what to do? In a pandemic-induced post-apocalypse, do you know what your first priority should be? If your caving, camping, or hiking adventure goes haywire, how would you ensure your survival? By a former army ranger and Green Beret, this survival book provides crucial information alongside a logical, systems-based approach to survival and preparedness.

Ross Edgley famously ran a marathon pulling a 1.4-tonne car and climbed a rope the height of Everest (8,848 m), after living with Yamabushi warrior monks in Japan and partaking in Shamanic pain rituals with fire ants in the Amazon jungle. On his epic 1,780-mile journey around Great Britain, which lasted 157 days, Ross swam through giant jellyfish, arctic storms, ‘haunted’ whirlpools and polluted shipping lanes, going so hard, and so fast, his tongue fell apart.

Combining accounts of legendary mountain ascents with vivid descriptions of his own forays into wild, high landscapes, Robert Macfarlane reveals how the mystery of the world's highest places has come to grip the Western imagination - and perennially draws legions of adventurers up the most perilous slopes. His story begins three centuries ago, when mountains were feared as the forbidding abodes of dragons and other mysterious beasts.

Lost on Purpose is the nonfiction adventure narrative of a former technology executive who took leave of the real world to reinvent himself as a 21st-century mountain man. In October-November 2013, Patrick Taylor crossed the Rocky Mountains alone on foot. He passed through one of the largest wilderness areas in the lower 48 to reach and retrace the route of Lewis and Clark in the winter. The sacrifices - vocationally, financially, emotionally - are measured against the benefits by the author in a refreshingly honest, humorous, and inspirational fashion.

Growing up in Yakima, Washington, Noe Álvarez worked at an apple-packing plant alongside his mother. A university scholarship offered escape, but as a first-generation Latino college-goer, Álvarez struggled to fit in. At 19, he learned about a Native American/First Nations movement called the Peace and Dignity Journeys, epic marathons meant to renew cultural connections across North America. He dropped out of school and joined a group runners, all fleeing difficult beginnings. Telling their stories and his own, Álvarez writes about a four-month-long journey from Canada to Guatemala.

In 1996, Beck Weathers and a climbing team pushed toward the summit of Mount Everest. Then a storm exploded on the mountain, ripping the team to shreds, forcing brave men to scratch and crawl for their lives. In this powerful memoir, Weathers describes not only his escape from hypothermia and the murderous storm that killed eight climbers but the journey of his life. This is the story of a man's route to a dangerous sport and a fateful expedition, as well as the road of recovery he has traveled since.

On a beautiful summer afternoon in 1998, Dan Stephens, a 22-year-old canoeist, was leading a trip deep into Ontario's Quetico Provincial Park. He stepped into a gap among cedar trees to look for the next portage - and did not return. More than four hours later, Dan awakened from a fall with a lump on his head and stumbled deeper into the woods, confused. Three years later, Jason Rasmussen, a third-year medical student who loved the forest's solitude, walked alone into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on a crisp fall day.

In July 1973, Bob Tininenko, his wife Linda, and his brother in-law Jim Fisher set sail from Tacoma, Washington, on a 31-foot trimaran, down the West Coast to Costa Rica. The journey was expected to take a matter of weeks, but 10 days into the cruise, the party encountered a freak storm off the coast of Northern California. When gale-force winds and 50-foot waves capsized their boat, the voyage became a nightmare. For 72 days, the trio was lost at sea. Challenged by nature and compromised by a bitter rivalry, their courage and will to live was put to the ultimate test.

Trapped in a job he hated and up to his neck in debt, Guy Grieve’s life was going nowhere. But with a stroke of luck, his dream of escaping it all to live in remote Alaska suddenly came true. Miles from the nearest human being and armed with only the most basic equipment, Guy built a log cabin from scratch and began carving a life for himself through fishing, hunting, and diligently avoiding bears. Packed with adventure, humor, and insight, this is the gripping story of an ordinary man learning the ways of the wild.

The graphic, coming-of-age tale of a modern Eskimo lad and his consuming vision quest and harrowing struggle for survival. Troubled by changes in his Alaskan village, 14-year-old Russell Suskitt seeks the counsel of the village elder - and only dog team owner. After his training in the ancient arts of hunting with bow and lance, handling sled dogs, and surviving arctic dangers, Russell embarks upon his lonely search for Eskimo manhood.

Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834 and published in 1840. While at Harvard College, Dana had an attack of the measles that affected his vision. Thinking it might help his sight, Dana, rather than going on a Grand Tour as most of his fellow classmates traditionally did (and unable to afford it anyway), and being something of a nonconformist, left Harvard to enlist as a common sailor.