Nature Weekends

Skills, Community, and Pedagogy for a Life in Nature

Do you long for time in nature? Do you want to broaden your own skill set to be able to feel at home and comfortable in nature again?
Or do you work with people and aim to take them to the outdoors?

On six weekends, over the course of a year, we engage intensively with nature, learning to live our lives more connected to the natural world.

Throughout the weekends, you will develop a solid skill set to be comfortably in nature across all weather conditions using simple, natural, and minimal equipment.
Being out, living a simple lifestyle close to the elements and caring just for our basic needs makes us resilient and content and nourishes our bodies and souls.  We will cultivate a loving, openminded and supportive community that gives us strength to bring our lives and our work further.

Every course weekend, we will focus on a different topic, such as camp building, cooking on fire or building with snow. The course is build on experiential learning. There will be lectures and theory that we will put into practice and reflect upon around the evening fire.
Additionally, there will be time and exercises for deepening your connection to the natural world and being present and aware in this very moment.

Read more on the course program below or download the course description as a pdf-file.

Let your body rest
On the earth
Let your soul be filled with
Rawness and aliveness
That might not always be pleasant
But real

Course dates, costs & other practical information

Duration
5 weekends: Friday 6pm – Sunday 3pm
weekend 6: Thursday 6pm – Sunday 3pm

Dates
Weekend 1: August 2-4, 2024
Weekend 2: September 13-15, 2024
Weekend 3: November 1-3, 2024
Weekend 4: January 17-19, 2025
Weekend 5: March 14-16, 2025
Weekend 6: May 8-11, 2025

Language: norwegian (english if desired)

Location: Vågåmo (2680), Innlandet

Cost: 19 050 nok (3175 nok per weekend)
Includes guidance, organisation, food, group and safety gear, crafting materials, online meetings to prepare for weekends 4,5 & 6

Leadership team:
Marie Eckart and Manuel Sturm

Difficulty:
Easy – suitable for beginners to wilderness camping
a good physical condition is required

Group size: 6-12 participants

Course dates, costs & more

Duration
5 weekends: Friday 6pm – Sunday 3pm,
weekend 6: Thursday 6pm – Sunday 3pm

Dates
Weekend 1: August 2-4, 2024
Weekend 2: September 13-15, 2024
Weekend 3: November 1-3, 2024
Weekend 4: January 17-19, 2025
Weekend 5: March 14-16, 2025
Weekend 6: May 8-11, 2025

Language: norwegian (english if desired)

Location: Vågåmo (2680), Innlandet

Cost: 19 050 nok (3175 nok per weekend)
Includes guidance, organisation, food, group and safety gear, crafting materials, online meetings to prepare for weekends 4,5 & 6

Leadership team:
Marie Eckart and Manuel Sturm

Difficulty:
Easy – suitable for beginners to wilderness camping
a good physical condition is required

Group size: 6-12 participants

Overview over the course program

Weekend 1: Wilderness Basics 
For the first time we will gather around the campfire, listening to each other and getting acquainted with the surroundings. We will learn fundamental skills for living in nature and lay a base in our group culture. At the end of the weekend you will have crafted a wooden tool, that you will carry along to all our meetings.

Topics: building camp, clothing and gear, rope and knots, knive safety, woodcarving, sit spot

Weekend 2: Cooking on fire & edible plants
How do we nourish ourselves (in nature)? What is there to eat and how do we find it? Can we be thankful for what nature provides and implement more sufficiency into our lives? What can we give in return? Together we will explore what edible plants and mushrooms there are on the land around us and fish for trout in a mountain stream.  We will look at different ways of preparing food with fire and ember, from frying and baking in a dutch oven to longtime cooking in a cooking pit. We will introduce the practice of gratitude and find our own way in living up to the gifts that the earth gives us.

Topics: tripod, cooking hook, cooking pit, fishing, trout, edible plants, trail food, thankfulness practice

Weekend 3: Fire crafts 
This weekend is all about fire. Humans and fire are almost not to be seen separated. Although, the fire often it is masked nowadays, hidden and contained. We need it for warmth and food, and also for our company. We will learn on how to start a fire in different ways, build our own bow drill to make fire by friction. What types of wood to choose? How do I make fire in rain and snow? We will invite fire as a symbol of renewal, purification and transformation into our circle and lives.

Topics: types of wood, fire making, bow drill, fire steel, axe skills, different types of fire, log fire, fire symbolism

Weekend 4: Winter Camp & Snow Shoeing 
Being out in the cold and beautiful snow landscapes will test the skills we learned so far and will bring our group closer together. Winter camp building needs us all actively involved and the group functioning as one organism. On snow shoes we will go explore the winter wonderland. How do we find out path when everything looks „the same“?

Topics: winter camp building, snow shoeing, orientation, map & compass, safety, ice, avalanches, temperatures

Weekend 5: Snow Shelters & Wooden skies
Depending on the snow conditions there are many ways to build oneself a shelter with snow. We will learn about different types of winter accommodation and see which one(s) will fit the given conditions. You are invited to sleep in your self build snow shelter if you like. We will use wooden skies to the spot where we will build our shelters.

Topics: wooden ski techniques, building with snow, medical winter topics: hypothermia, frostbites, snow blindness

Weekend 6: Solo Time in Nature
The final gathering, we will prepare for a 24h Solo time of contemplation in nature. This ancient tool has served humans in times of transition, to honor the initiation into a next phase of life. Nature can provide you with answers and guidance. You can take this experience to acknowledge what you have learned throughout the course.  This Solo time will be held with as little „distractions“ as possible, no food, no phone, no digital time, no book, nothing to write and no words. This quiet calms us down, relaxes us and refreshens our minds. We understand this skill of emptying oneself and listening inwardly as a crucial skill for teaching and for building relation to others and the natural world in general.  We will prepare you thoroughly to take on this challenge in a safe and respectful way.

Topics: nature connection, solo time and fasting, sewing a leather pouch

Location, Payment & other practical information

Location 
We will meet close to the little village Vågåmo (4h distance from Oslo). You can reach it by public transport (train and bus).

You will sleep in your own tent/tarp. There will be a big tarp to protect us from rain, wind and snow to gather as a group.

Registration & Payment
Fill out our registration from by clicking on the “booking” button.
You complete the sign up by paying the cost of one course weekend.
The rest will be payed in two payments; one before the course starts and one before weekend 4.
Our general terms & conditions apply.

What is included:
✓ Intake call
✓ food (friday dinner – sunday lunch), organic & local as much as possible
✓ Guiding & organization of the weekends
✓ Crafting materials (incl. carving knives & fire steel)
✓ Group and safety gear
✓ Preparation calls for weekends 4, 5 & 6
✓ Detailed packing lists for all seasons

Children on the course
You are welcome to bring your children to the course, as long as you take care and responsibility for them. There won’t be a parallel program only for children. They can participate in the program as far as possible.
Take contact with us to discuss your situation.

Certification
Certificate of course attendance is issued to all who participated at least 85%.

Is this course for me?
This course is for you, if…
… you aspire to deepen your connection with self, others, and the natural world
… you want to learn practical skills being out in all weathers and conditions
… you work as an educator for children, youth or adults and want to get inspiration on how to take out a group into nature, in a safe, playful and connecting way 

Download the course description as a pdf document

Join a non-binding info call (30min.)

Location & Area

Others have gone before you. Here are their voices:

“We had a really nice family experience with Marie and Manu! We got to try out pulling our baby boy in a fjellpulka sled with skis and make a proper winter camp in the beautiful unique dry Mountain landscape around Vågåmo. We slept in their selfmade tent and we even saw the northern lights that night. They created a lovely, easy going and inspired atmosphere.”

Petrus, Izzie & ÅreMarch 2022, Wintercamping

“Keep going! The work you do is incredibly valuable. You provide people with precious (self) experiences and show them how beautiful, wild, and fulfilling life can be outdoors.”

VickyMarch 2023, Wintercourse

“Manu allowed us to learn by ourselves through trial and error, encouraging us not to be afraid of making mistakes and fostering self-confidence while connecting with nature. He also assisted us in uncovering our creativity.”

CecileSeptember 2020, Survival Course

Meet the program leaders:

Manuel Sturm (CH/AT, 1989)

Mentor in Natural Outdoor Life, Crafts & Leadership

Manuel’s mission is to create a platform for passing on essential nature skills while also providing spaces where people can shed their daily masks, rediscover themselves, and connect with the natural world in a profound way.

Manuel’s passion for the outdoors and traditional living led him on a transformative journey. He sailed and fished with indigenous communities in the Pacific, journeyed through the desert for three months with his father, lived in a tipi on a small Swedish island for a year and worked at a traditional natural leather tannery in Norway. 
He studied traditional outdoor living, craftsmanship, and leadership of groups in nature and the wilderness in Sweden for three years.
In addition he took an extra course to become a NOLS Wilderness First Responder.

Marie Eckart (DE, 1998)

Mentor in Natural Outdoor Life, Crafts & Leadership

Marie aims to empower individuals with essential wilderness skills, while providing spaces for self-discovery and profound connections with the natural world.

Trained as a wilderness guide in a multi-year program in Sweden, Marie has lead groups on hiking, canoeing, and skiing tours through the vast and lonely forests, tundra landscapes and mountains during the past years. Her goal is to teach people the skills they need to be comfortable outside in any weather and to feel at home in and with nature. She prefers to use clothing and equipment made from natural materials. She build her own canoe and wooden skies, sewed sleeping bags, tents and tarps.  
As part of her background, Marie worked as a seamstress at a small tannery in Norway, crafting outdoor clothing from leather and fur. She is a NOLS Wilderness First Responder.

In doubt? Or do you want to organise an adventure for a group of friends? Contact us and we can discuss your questions!

Time until the next program starts:

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