28-day Field Expedition Course
28-day Field Expedition Courses
The BOSS 28-day “Standard” Field Expedition Course offers students the ultimate minimum-equipment desert and mountain expedition. It has been designed over the last 50 years to test a student—physically, mentally and emotionally—and to provide them with an extended traditional living experience. This course was designed and launched in 1968, and has changed very little since. The BOSS 28-day Field Expedition Course has become the gold-standard for wilderness survival training and prolonged wilderness living experience.
Tuition – $5990
Upcoming 28-Day Expedition Courses
Jun 1 to Jun 28, 2025
$5990 – Space Available
Jul 6 to Aug 2, 2025
$5990 – Space Available
Aug 3 to Aug 30, 2025
$5990 – Space Available
May 31 to Jun 27, 2026
$6589 – Space Available
Jul 5 to Aug 1, 2026
$6589 – Space Available
Aug 2 to Aug 29, 2026
$6589 – Space Available
See more courses
About the Course
Leaving the high-tech, modern world behind, you will travel the desert canyons and mountain meadows with little more than a knife, a water bottle, a blanket, and a poncho. The physical, mental, and emotional challenges are real. Our goal is to give you a chance to learn and practice advanced survival and traditional living skills in context, and face and overcome real challenges over your month-long wilderness expedition. You will learn and travel with up to 11 other students and three instructors.
Course Highlights
- Learn traditional and primitive survival skills in context from master instructors.
- Practice and rely on those skills in a remote setting.
- Face and overcome serious challenges in the wilderness.
- Travel through the rugged, remote terrain of the Aquarius Plateau.
- Experience living as a small group in isolated wilderness for an extended period.
- Learn and practice advanced primitive and traditional living skills.
Know More, Carry Less
In line with the BOSS Positive Impact philosophy, the 28-Day Field course emphasizes the use of renewable, natural, and local resources. Tents, sleeping bags, stoves, backpacks and many other “required” pieces of outdoor equipment are replaced with their low-tech counterparts: a poncho, a blanket, a campfire, etc. The skills we teach you allow you to travel in comfort without relying on modern gear.
BOSS Challenge
The BOSS 28-day Field Expedition Course provides, among other things, a physical and mental test for its students. You will hike long distances over the rugged terrain found in Southern Utah’s mountains and desert canyons. You will at times be thirsty, hungry, hot, and cold. Most students leave the course ten to thirty pounds lighter. We use our more than 50 years of experience to tailor the challenge to each group.
This course is offered in 14- and 7-day long versions, too. Or, for those interested in a less intense, more skills-oriented experience, consider the 14-day Primitive Living Intensive course.
Other Courses Available:
Prerequisites
- No prior camping or outdoor experience is required.
- BOSS requires that all Field course applicants undergo a complete physical examination and receive their physician’s approval in writing prior to final acceptance on the course.
- Students are asked to complete a 1.5-mile timed run during course orientation.
- Students must be 18 years of age or older.
Skills Covered
Skills taught on wilderness survival training courses are directly relevant to the group’s needs in the field, and can vary between courses depending on those needs and the challenges each group encounters in the wilderness. Issues dealing with the effects of physical stresses and extended travel on the human psyche are just as important to the student experience as how to make a fire without matches.
28-day Field Expedition Courses can teach:
- Desert ecology & travel
- Survival mindset
- Campsite selection
- Shelter construction
- Fire construction
- Water location and purification
- Wilderness hygiene
- Plant identification and use
- Knife use, safety, and care
- Primitive traps and fishing
- Stone tool construction and use
- Cordage
- Advanced fire making techniques
- Large game processing (see here for more info)
- Hide preparation and tanning
Tuition Assistance Available
BOSS offers tuition assistance and discounts to qualifying applicants.
Learn more about BOSS Tuition Assistance.
Interested in a life-changing challenge?
BOSS is one of the oldest survival schools on the planet, delivering wilderness survival training to adventurous people since 1968. Our survival instructors are some of the most experienced and competent in the world. The challenges that our BOSS survival training offer aren’t for everyone, but if you’re the right person and it’s the right time for you, we promise adventure, challenge and world-class instruction.
