Camp Jeep 2003 - Backcountry Survival Workshop - Cody Lundin

Cody Lundin Backcountry Survival Workshop

Here is where the workshop begins. My shop serves as the automotive technology centerpiece. I discuss vehicle dynamics, driving demands, and how to assess a 4x4 both before and after a rock-crunching outing.

Here is where the workshop begins. My shop serves as the automotive technology centerpiece

Imagine getting stuck in a blizzard, not your ordinary winter storm, something more like the fury of a blinding, sub-zero whiteout in the Grand Teton Range. Or maybe that four-wheeling adventure just outside Death Valley National Park turned into a scorching July nightmare when your engine lost oil and chucked a connecting rod, with every sighting of water for the last 50 miles a mirage. Wouldn't this be the time to have a Paleolithic hunter or aboriginal survivalist as your 'wheeling buddy?

At the Branson, Missouri, Camp Jeep 2003, my workshops sponsored by Mopar/Jeep Accessories had a colorful guest. He was easy to spot - the only attendee at the event in cut-offs, a tank top, no shoes and blond, braided pigtails. For a Middle America crowd and corporate sponsors based at Detroit, this was a mighty unusual sight! Yes, Cody Lundin got a lot of glances, to say the least. At the workshops, he made a lasting impression, with earnest questions about Jeep survival and how to keep his 300,000-mile CJ-7 running on its original engine and geartrain.

Cody Lundin Backcountry Survival 2004 Rubicon Tj

I explain the Full-Traction 4-inch Ultimate Suspension package that one of our students and I just installed on his new '04 Rubicon TJ. Students appreciated my placing each of their 4x4s on the hoist and describing the design and soft-spots. Can you spot Cody?

I explain the Full-Traction 4-inch Ultimate Suspension package that one of our students an

I took Cody Lundin seriously, and so did his book publisher when "98.6 Degrees: the Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive!" earned rave reviews and rocketed to the forefront of authoritative works on the art of aboriginal survival and human physiology in the face of life-threatening stress. Cody and I became fast friends, and he remained busy with his Aboriginal Living Skills School, located near Prescott, Arizona. Despite Cody's ability to thrive off the land in tranquil solitude - whiling away the time fishing by hand, grubbing, or brain-tanning - he has also spent a good deal of time either training hosts or personally hosting the most significant outdoor survival media presentations of the last decade.

Cody Lundin is fully capable of entertaining himself, yet his public appearances and credits include the Today Show, PBS, and Discovery Channel specials on survival. For the History Channel's "Digging for the Truth: The First Americans," Cody spent last January training host Matthew Bogdanos at winter primitive skills in the Grand Teton National Park near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The training included constructing snow shelters, primitive fire lighting, and butchering a mule deer with a stone knife - all on snowshoes!

Cody is the real deal, and when we partner up for conducting a workshop, my four-wheel driving and vehicle preservation skills dovetail remarkably well with Cody's ability to emulate 120,000-year-old Savanna lifes kills or survival traits from the last Ice Age. If an outing like this sounds appealing, contact Cody Lundin, founder of ALSS, through his Web site at www.alssadventures.com. Cody teaches any level of survival short of motor vehicles. He confesses that his lifetime accumulation of contemporary tools would fit into a fishing tackle box! That's where we complement each other, merging human technology from the Stone Age to the Motoring Age.

Participant Dan Patterson points out the dual battery system on his Rubicon. A new Warn winch warrants the high-amp backup system that ensures safe winching and plenty of juice in reserve. Cody only needs one battery - given the right terrain and water sources, he can readily walk 20 miles in a day.
Participant Dan Patterson points out the dual battery system on his Rubicon. A new Warn wi
Cody brings out the props for his part of the show. We're about to head afield, and Cody is not concerned about the challenges. We'll get home, and barring any special diet needs, there are plenty of crawling and scurrying critters out there to feed us all.
Cody brings out the props for his part of the show. We're about to head afield, and Cody i
My part of the course is to keep Cody's role strictly academic. Forty years of four-wheeling go into my teaching and guiding skills. If I could get a CJ-5 through the Rubicon in 1967 with stock 7.00X15 tires and step plates in place - without nicking a step - this group can surely shine at a moderate stream crossing as each vehicle creates its safe bow wave.
My part of the course is to keep Cody's role strictly academic. Forty years of four-wheeli

The advantages of a 4-inch suspension lift can surely be seen here. Avoiding sinkholes, the Rubicon made a simple task of crossing this spring creek. I counseled on the virtues of exploring deep, darker water possibilities before plunging into the creek. Meanwhile, Cody contemplated fishing - without a pole, bait or line. I'm good with a fly rod. Cody readily catches trout by hand.
The advantages of a 4-inch suspension lift can surely be seen here. Avoiding sinkholes, th
Stock Rubicon Unlimited did just fine, avoiding all clearance issues and staying away from dark water areas. This new Wrangler gained a 2-inch suspension boost just a few weeks after our workshop.
Stock Rubicon Unlimited did just fine, avoiding all clearance issues and staying away from
Here, I discuss the virtues of a PullPal anchor and how to winch in the middle of a stark, treeless landscape. Cody found this all amusing. He could be building shelter and gathering food while a tribe of 4x4 owners scorch themselves winching through desert washes in broad daylight. Air conditioning only works if you're inside a running Jeep!
Here, I discuss the virtues of a PullPal anchor and how to winch in the middle of a stark,

Cody knows more ways to create a useful fire than Zeus! Here, he explains the virtues of cotton balls saturated with petroleum jelly, the mini-fireballs that can get your fire started in the dampest and most dire conditions. A combi-nation of purely Paleolithic skills and compact, easy-to-carry modern fire starting materials means that you can be cozily warming while the search-and-rescue team inches its way up the mountainside.
Cody knows more ways to create a useful fire than Zeus! Here, he explains the virtues of c
Shelter involving your 4x4? Why not? At the same time, this space blanket and the orange distress signal atop the Jeep might actually attract a search aircraft. Hydration is a constant theme. Cody helped the group understand that the old Boy Scout notion of digging holes to condense water with a canvas tarp takes more water out of the human body than the amount of water that might accumulate beneath the tarp. Cody assured us that we didn't make it to the 21st Century with lame ideas like that!
Shelter involving your 4x4? Why not? At the same time, this space blanket and the orange d
Modern military signaling mirror and Paleolithic sighting method combine to create a realistic means for attracting a search party. While I targeted the proper use of a 4x4 to avoid this need, Cody emphasized how many people actually find themselves in such dire conditions. This conjured up visions of my days as a 4x4 search-and-rescue team member and the late October night that we left our warm beds after midnight to scurry up the Willamette Pass in search of two kids in T-shirts who rode their bicycles into the Waldo Lake Wilderness Area at dusk.
Modern military signaling mirror and Paleolithic sighting method combine to create a reali

With dry bark around, Cody emphasized, one is never without a fire-starter source. In minutes, he formed this nest-shaped bowl and illustrated the range of techniques that kept human beings alive for the last 100,000 years. From pre-tool, low-tech flint to a single modern match, all this bark needed was the slightest spark to ignite.
With dry bark around, Cody emphasized, one is never without a fire-starter source. In minu
This trick really worked. Here you have several minutes of fire starter, a safe and consistent heat source with ample oxygen to burn steadily while you add more natural fuel-stuff. By now, the group got the message that Cody's lifestyle turns the drama of survival into nothing more than the daily chores and activities of aboriginal people throughout the world. With a level head, as counseled in his book, Cody believes people can keep it together under the worst conditions.
This trick really worked. Here you have several minutes of fire starter, a safe and consis
While this may look like an ordinary Juniper tree, to Cody it's Motel 6. Midday, where better to get out of the heat and conserve energy? This could also serve as shelter through a night of chilling high-desert air. Cody emphasized the value of such a setting, the resources available nearby and why the world looks so different from outside your 4x4. Try it!
While this may look like an ordinary Juniper tree, to Cody it's Motel 6. Midday, where bet