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BOULDER — Imagine hiking the mountains and deserts of southern Utah with nothing more than a wool blanket, a poncho and a knife. Well, people from all over the world are doing it, and it's because of an outdoor school that got its start at BYU.
The year was 1968 when then BYU professor Larry Dean Olsen had an idea: take students who were on the verge of quitting school on a 30-day wilderness survival course to motivate them and help them gain back their confidence.
In 1980, the program was privatized and the Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS) in Boulder, Utah, was born.
It's about a personal challenge, and a challenge to the group, and a way to grow with a small community that you are with ...
–Steve Dessinger, BOSS program director
"It's about a personal challenge, and a challenge to the group, and a way to grow with a small community that you are with, and a way to discover a lot of things about yourself," explained Steve Dessinger, program director at BOSS.
I signed up for the BOSS seven-day field course. In a week our instructors lead us over 50 miles, with just the primitive gear on our back. We survived on very little food through some of the toughest terrain southern Utah has to offer, while enduring bitter cold and scorching heat. We got dirty, ornery, and even a bit scared.
"It's mentally and physically the most draining thing that you will ever do in your entire life," said Shannon Adamiak, a BOSS student from Dallas.
"You start thinking who would pay to do this to their bodies," student Shawn Wiley of Ontario, Canada, said of his instructors.
"Through the activities we do, it's pushing people's kind of perceived limits, and through that there is a lot of growth," said Jessie Turnidge, a BOSS instructor.
We were taught primitive survival skills — like how to trap little rodents for food, what plants we can eat, how to make fire with a primitive bow drill, and what to use when there is not toilet paper.
To see Adam's entire experience, watch KSL Outdoors with Adam Eakle Saturday night at 11:00 on KSL Channel 5.
Email: aeakle@ksl.com
