The year at The Immersion is coming to a close. We gathered for our last week of “normal” class time before embarking on the final three weeks of class; also known as the ‘The Gauntlet’. The Gauntlet is the time where we are put to the test to see how ingrained our skills are that we learned this year. But before […]
Village Week – October 27-29 2015 What a week full of fun! We gathered with our class this week for our first of three Village Weeks we will have throughout the year. We all headed into the week with a sense of mystery and unknown as there was not much telling of what we would […]
The past 9 months at The Immersion has been quite a plethora of new experiences, adventures, crafting, external and internal explorations, and the fortification of our connections with the earth, the natural world around us, ourselves, and each other. This Immersion year has been nothing at all of what I expected, and at the same […]
Hi, my name is Brian Mertins and I love Wilderness Awareness School. A few years ago I left my life on the east coast of Canada and traveled all the way across the continent to live in Duvall, Washington where I participated in The Immersion at Wilderness Awareness School and the Nature Instructor Training program. […]
This past week I had the opportunity to join a small group of my Immersion classmates on a voluntary, 3-day survival trek. This practice is meant to prepare for a survival situation in which the group is traveling, hopefully towards rescue. The other type of survival trip we practice is “basecamp” survival. This is where […]
At Wilderness Awareness School, the art of questioning is one of the most basic—and profound—learning tools that we utilize. Questioning is one of the ways that we can drive our senses to become more deeply involved in what we are experiencing. It can bring us into the moment in a dynamic way and help us […]
Our Immersion class has done some amazing things this past month, but I wanted to specifically share with you about two exciting areas we’ve recently been learning and practicing. Tracking and Trailing We learned about different aspects of tracking and trailing over a few days these past couple of weeks. Each day focused on different […]
by Andrew Meyer, The Immersion at Wilderness Awareness School Graduate There it was, flying through the air with a perfect spin stabilizing its flight. An arrow on steroids, six feet in length, fletched like a traditional arrow with turkey feathers, secured to a fire- straightened dogwood shaft with deer sinew, with a business-end of duct […]
I’m writing today to share some fun games that you can play with your family! Sherlock Game You can support your family’s awareness skills by asking them about the details of their environment. Maybe a person walking a dog passes you on a trail; you can then ask your child questions about their clothing, their […]
“Community school is the place where we can be ourselves — without the masks we wear in our everyday lives,” my son Webster said in his student address at the recent Wilderness Awareness School Community School auction. But how does one come to know one’s self? I believe that, for Webster, it has come from consistent […]