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Jake has spent more than fifteen years teaching and leading expeditions across Pacific Northwest rainforest, desert canyon, and frozen alpine terrain.
His courses are built on the idea that outdoor skills are not only about surviving but about building a more respectful relationship with wild places — one that carries into everything else.
He came to instruction through military service as a field medic, where navigation, shelter, water procurement, and emergency medicine were learned under real pressure.
Certifications in wilderness medicine, search and rescue, and environmental education followed, along with several years at the National Outdoor Leadership School and on state-level SAR teams.
You do not rise to the occasion out there. You fall back on whatever you practised until it was boring.
Courses build progressively — fire, water purification, and basic shelter first, then scenario-based exercises that test decision-making, resourcefulness, and teamwork under realistic conditions.
Students consistently note his ability to read a group's energy and adjust pace in real time, so nobody is overwhelmed and nobody is left behind.
Jake volunteers with regional search and rescue teams and takes solo backcountry trips between courses to keep his own skills current and his connection to the land personal. He also contributes to wilderness survival research and builds Leave No Trace principles into every course, so students finish not only more capable but more conscious of the impact they leave behind.
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