Winterfriluftsliv 2024

A tarp, a fire, some good food in the pot, singing and good company. Former Wildnismentor graduates as well as current course participants in training of all yeargroups were joining an evening to celebrate spring equinox. When later in the evening Christine was inviting us in for a candle ceremony all of us started singing…

Before Christmas European Wilderness Mentors in their third and last year of training are following their own aspirations at our spot on Hermannswerder in Potsdam. This is what we are doing presently: Burning bowls, carving Christmas trees, making nettle string, throwing ancient hunting sticks, making fire with bow drills and pump drills, manufacturing foldable saws…

For outsiders our course lessons often look just like some chill people hanging out around a fire. That may sometimes be true, but there is always something more happening actually. The teachings and learning experiences are more subtle and not as obvious as, say drawings and paintings in an art course or thick folders of…

In January 2023 EWM course partcipants and their two German mentors experienced winter outdoors in Northern Dalarna together with four Swedish Friluftsliv mentors of Sjöviks Folkhögskola. As you can see in the film we were treated with fantastic weather and severe frosty conditions. At the cabin camp Nysätersvallen we practiced skiing, went on a longer…

As days are getting longer birds´ voices are becoming even more noticeable. It will be many more in some weeks time. The repetitive melorhythmic stanza of the wood pigeon, the clacking sounds of starlings who also imitate exotic birds they might have met while being away, the tawny owl calling more often now, woodpeckers competing…

Although still summer in Potsdam when we started in early September it felt quite like autumn up north near Särna: yellow birch trees, red leaves on blueberry bushes, night temperatures below zero. Swedish mentors in their second year course QVF took us on a canoe trip on fascinating Björnan river, spent a week of handcrafting…