Many educational opportunities exist for those wanting to improve their winter survival skills. If you hike or snowshoe in the winter, skills such as backcountry winter camping, avalanche safety, and whiteout navigation can help ease worries when you’re in the outdoors. Here are a few schools, courses, programs, and camps that can help boost your knowledge and increase your enjoyment of upcoming winter adventures:

Lifesong Wilderness Adventures

Lifesong Wilderness Adventures offers several different types of wilderness survival camps and courses throughout the year for adults and teens, ranging from a six-day standard wilderness survival course to a 28-day survival immersion course. The winter outdoor survival training camp for adults is a weeklong program offered in the snows of northern California. Topics include winter shelter construction; tracking and trapping animals in the winter for food; and winter navigation, among many, many others. Location: Camps in California, Oregon, and Texas // Website:http://www.lifesongadventures.com/

Jack Mountain Bushcraft School

Jack Mountain Bushcraft School offers courses in several areas: bushcraft, survival, guide training, and wilderness expedition, among others. Since 1999, Jack Mountain Bushcraft School has offered programs for adults and teens, and it also offers college-accredited and GI Bill approved semester-long and yearlong immersion programs. The Winter Bushcraft and Showshoe Expedition course is a two-week intensive course for college students and adults that involves winter survival and bushcraft instruction in northern Maine, followed by a showshoe journey deep in to the Maine woods.

Location: Masardis, Maine // Website:http://www.jackmtn.com/

Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School

The Tracker School was founded in 1979 by Tom Brown Jr., a renowned tracker and wilderness survival expert. Courses offered by The Tracker School focus on topics ranging from philosophy to healing to survival skills. The courses most relevant to winter survival include a 10-day Winter Survival and Skills Course, and Winter I and Winter II courses. The school offers up to 75 different courses; beyond the winter-specific courses, other offerings such as the Fire Making Workshop and the Shelter Workshop offer students the opportunity to learn year-round survival skills. Tom Brown Jr.’s books are also an important resource you can use to enhance your survival skills knowledge even if you are unable to attend a course at The Tracker School. Location: Based in New Jersey, with some courses in California and Florida // Website:http://www.trackerschool.com/

Colorado Mountain College

Colorado Mountain College offers college-level and community classes at eleven different mountain locations. Common winter course offerings include Snow Orientation, Orienteering, and Avalanche Safety I and Avalanche Safety II. While the focus of these classes isn’t necessarily survival-specific, many of the skills taught are necessary to wilderness travel and backcountry survival. Several other locations in Colorado also offer workshops and courses where students can hone their avalanche-safety and survival skills; see the article “Where to Heighten Your Avalanche Awareness Skills” for more details. Location: Eleven locations in Colorado, including Steamboat Springs, Breckenridge, and Aspen // Website:http://www.coloradomtn.edu/

The Mountain Training School

The courses at The Mountain Training School are geared towards those who want to be able to survive the most difficult winter conditions. With a focus on mountainnering and on alpine expeditions, this school’s courses in Alaska and in Chilean Patagonia bring students into some of the most challenging winter environments on the planet. The Alaska Mountaineering Course and the Patagonia Mountaineering School are both 42-day intensive courses designed to teach students who have no previous mountaineering experience how to survive and thrive in otherwise inhospitable environments. Location:Locations include Alaska, Spain, and Chilean Patagonia // Website:http://mountaineeringtrainingschool.com/

Use these resources as a springboard for further research. Winter survival skills courses and camps abound, so look carefully for programs that offer a high level of expertise among instructors and for programs that are well-established. Ask lots of questions, and don’t be afraid to ask for personal referrals or for testimonials from previous students to help you make a final decision about the quality and content of a course.