What’s your idea of roughing it? Staying in a 5-star hotel and NOT ordering room service? Or climbing inside a dead camel’s carcass to stay warm, like Bear Grylls of Discovery Channel’s “Man vs. Wild”?
If you lean closer to Grylls’ side and are into the night sky, I have your next vacation plan.
Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS) offers a low-tech, back-country hiking experience with its “7-Day Desert Astronomer” course. In late May 2008, students will hike through the wilderness of south-central Utah. Equipped with a pack, wool blanket, and 1,500-calorie-per-day diet, you’ll learn to live without modern “tools” like your cell phone, GPS, and — gasp — iPod. Students will acquire the essential survival skills of fire, water, and shelter. Can you create a friction fire? You will once you graduate from this BOSS course.
Students will learn how to navigate using only the sky. Understanding the mechanics of our solar system is the foundation of this lesson. Beyond the practical side, BOSS instructors also will cover the mythology of the sky as understood by various cultures throughout history.
BOSS also offers more intense wilderness experiences, including 14- and 28-day courses that focus less on astronomy.
To learn more, visit the BOSS web site or call 800.335.7404. Be sure to register before March 15 to avoid a tuition increase.