Backcountry Survival Training And Adventures
Through single-day wilderness survival training adventures, multi-day advanced survival courses, and the most innovative “clothes-on-your-back only” expeditions in the world, California Survival School trains more students each year to be safe and lead lives of adventure outdoors than any other survival training program world-wide.
*** Holiday Survival Training Sale ***
Give the gift of Adventure (and maybe save a life!) 20% Off Core Survival Skills Training Gift Certificates
for 2025. (Until sold out). Click here to access.
Adventures of a Lifetime.
Every Time.
California Survival School’s innovative survival training programs and world-class survival instructors have been featured with National Geographic, Good Morning America, History Channel, Forbes, and more.
No matter your skill level or background, Team CSS is ready to help you start your training adventure today.
Survival Training Courses
Core
Survival Skills
Hands-on survival training teaching you how to prepare for and manage wilderness survival emergencies in low-gear/no-gear survival situations.
Wilderness First-aid Certification
16 Hour Wilderness First Aid ( WFA ) certification. Learn how to prepare for and respond to remote medical emergencies in the back-country.
Emergency Preparedness and Urban Disaster Training
Learn how to prepare for large scale disaster situations. Natural disasters, Civil Unrest, Pandemics, War, and more.
Training Adventures and Expedition Trips
5 Day Stone-age Desert Survival Adventure
Know more, carry less! Learn to replace modern survival gear with primitive gear you make yourself and then test it in the field on a desert walk-about.
10 Day Copper Canyon Mexico Adventure
10 days traveling across the most scenic & remote parts of northern and central Mexico with primitive survival experts and native Tarahumara guides famously featured in the bestseller “Born to Run”.
Cold Weather Survival And Safety Backpacking Adventure
Learn not only to survive in cold and snowy conditions, but to thrive in them. This adventure will teach you the critical winter safety skills for outdoor adventure. Learn how to plan well, travel safe, camp warm, and avoid / respond to common winter…
Meet our amazing team.
Past projects of note for our instructors have included work as primitive skills experts behind-the-scenes and on camera for Man v. Wild, Survivorman, Dual Survival, World-wide Extreme Survival (Japan), Good Morning America, and Castaway with Tom Hanks.
Dan Baird
Head Instructor
Dan began sharing his love for the outdoors and primitive living technologies professionally in 2004.
David Holladay
Specialist Instructor
A founding instructor for Boulder Outdoor Survival School and one of the most experienced primitive survival instructors alive, Dave Holladay has been practicing and teaching primitive living skills for over 30 years
Jessie Krebs
Specialist Instructor
Jessie Krebs is a former U.S. Air Force SERE (Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape.) Training Instructor from the old school the days when they were simply called Air Force “Survival Specialists”.
Media Consulting
California Survival School is your one-stop source for Adventure Media Consulting and Film Fixer services. Whether you need to find a remote tribe to film primitive living skills with, recruit skilled survival talent, or negotiate government film permits internationally, Team CSS media production services has you covered.
Survival Training News and Views
Live Call Online Survival Training
Online survival training is your way to start learning wilderness survival skills FROM anywhere in the world, FOR anywhere in the world.
World-class Outdoor Team-building & Executive Leadership Training
California Survival School is proud to be consistently rated as an elite outdoor experience provider by Fortune 500 Companies and top-level Executive Leadership teams around the world. Our clients include names like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon.