Applied & Practical
Outdoors, Navigation & Survival
Competence in environments that do not accommodate you.
6 fields · 49 topics · 6 curated works
Fields within Outdoors, Navigation & Survival
Wilderness Skills
9Operating away from infrastructure.
Shelter Building · Fire Craft · Water Sourcing & Purification · Foraging · Knots & Rope Work
Navigation
8Knowing where you are without being told.
Map Reading · Compass Navigation · Terrain Association · Celestial Navigation · GPS & Its Limits
Mountaineering & Climbing
8Vertical environments.
Rock Climbing Technique · Bouldering · Rope Systems & Belaying · Alpine Climbing · Ice Climbing
Water & Sea
8Skills for moving on water.
Sailing · Seamanship · Kayaking & Canoeing · Open Water Swimming · Diving
Nature Knowledge
8Reading the outdoors.
Tracking · Bird Identification · Plant Identification · Fungi & Mushroom Identification · Weather Reading
Preparedness & Risk
8Planning for the improbable.
Emergency Planning · First Aid · CPR · Risk Assessment Outdoors · Search & Rescue Basics
Reading in Outdoors, Navigation & Survival
6Start here
No prior grounding assumed.
- BookDeep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and WhyLaurence Gonzales, 2003
Survival is decided by perception and emotional regulation far more than by equipment or fitness — experts die of the confidence that kept them alive before.
- BookThe Complete WalkerColin Fletcher, 1968
Treats walking and carrying what you need as one considered system, and established the form every backpacking manual since has followed.
- BookThe Lost Art of Reading Nature's SignsTristan Gooley, 2014
Landscape, plants, water and sky carry readable information continuously; the skill is not mystical, only unpractised.
Then
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
- BookMountaineering: The Freedom of the HillsThe Mountaineers, 1960
The standard instructional text on technical mountain travel, revised across nine editions by the club that climbs with it.
Go deeper
Primary sources and full treatments.
- BookThe American Practical NavigatorNathaniel Bowditch, 1802
The standing reference on celestial and practical navigation — corrected and reissued by the US government for over two centuries, and public domain throughout.
- BookHeavy Weather SailingAdlard Coles, 1967
Built from accounts of storms that boats survived and did not, and revised after each major disaster since.