Woodsmoke's Bushcraft News
Check
out Charly as she tackles the challenge that is the Woodsmoke
Woodlander!
A short video diary recorded on a Woodlander during 2008.
A short video diary recorded on a Woodlander during 2008.
Challenge Charly 16 - Bushcraft & Survival Course
NEW EXPEDITION DETAILS NOW AVAILABLE!
Join us on an inspiring two-week snowshoeing expedition, traversing frozen waterways,
through the uninhabited interior of Maine’s taiga forest. Travelling on
foot we will use traditional clothing and equipment, pulling all our
equipment and supplies on toboggans through the winter wilderness of
the Maine North Woods.Accommodation will be in wood-heated canvas tents. The days will be spent trekking through breathtaking scenery, and the nights enjoying classic pioneer trail food, good company and watching the aurora borealis. Co-led by Garrett and Alexandra Conover - internationally renowned experts in traditional winter travel skills and authors of the Snow Walker's Companion.
Click here for more details about the North Woods Winter Skills Adventure, a fully comprehensive expedition briefing pack (pdf) can be found at the bottom of this page.
A Big Thank You...
A massive thank you from Lisa to all of you who took the time to complete her Wild Foods questionnaire to help with her Ethnobotany masters research. In less than a week she had received well over 100 replies and lots of supportive emails!
Lisa is featured in this months Trail Magazine as one of the contributors in the 'Mountain Genius' article - dispensing her sagely wisdom about a number of topics from friction fire-lighting to making snow-holes.
Ben also has a short interview about his thoughts on lightweight backpacking.
Ben, Lisa, Matt and Steve recently completed their 'Advanced Medicine for Remote Foreign Travel' certificates by attending the Wilderness Medical Training, Far From Help II module in Oxford. 
It is an advanced first aid certificate the is designed for expeditions
that go beyond the reaches of immediate help and involves a number of
valuable lifesaving invasive techniques, such as delivering
Intra-Muscular injections and inserting cannulae to administer fluids
via a drip. The guys at WMT are superb, excellent instruction liberally laced with humour - a highly recommended course!
The first part of this course - Far From Help I - is one of the modules of our Expedition Skills Training course.
Ben was commissioned to write a four page article featuring low-tech bushcraft equipment and expedition kit for the March edition of Geographical Magazine.Geographical: What's the one piece of kit that you wouldn't be without?
Ben: My knife. As a mammal, we are the only apex predator without natural weapons. No horns, fangs or claws – only our intellect and our ability to shape the environment. Our species has literally carved a niche in this world using a knife and an axe, ever since one of our distant Homo habilis ancestors struck two stones together and made the first functional blade. I think it’s great that our high-tech lifestyles and attitudes have been defined by a broken rock… although personally I prefer my steel blade. With a knife and knowledge you can make everything you need – tools, traps, clothing, shelter…
We have added a new 'Resources' page to the website. Matt and Steve have already added a couple of reviews - Bushcraft Book Reviews
If you would like to challenge your bushcraft knowledge, we have devised a short quiz, based on natural history and wilderness skills. You can download it as a PDF here.Answers can be found here.
Documents for download
- woodsmoke_bushcraft_quiz_answers.pdf (01/03/2008)
- woodsmoke_bushcraft_quiz_questions.pdf (01/03/2008)