Winter Pioneer
Learn to look after yourself in the deep winter. On your own, or with a group counting on you.
- Price
- €2,000per person
- Deposit
- €500
- Dates
- Late January 2027
- Duration
- 6 days / 5 nights
Reserve your spot
Ask a question
Who this trip is for
You've always wondered if you could actually handle yourself out there.
Not read about it, not watched someone else do it on a screen - actually do it. Keep a fire in overnight. Build a shelter that holds. Make the right call when the weather turns.
Maybe you already spend time outdoors and want to go a level deeper. Maybe you look after other people, at work or at home, and want to know you could look after them out here too, if it ever came to it.
You don't need to be tough, and you don't need to have done anything like this before. You do need to be alright with being cold and getting it wrong before you get it right, because that's most of how this works.
Film coming soonThe trip
Here's what I've found up here. Once you know how to keep a fire in, build a shelter, and set up so the cold can't get at you in the night, winter stops being a thing to survive and starts being somewhere you can just be. The trick isn't toughness. It's knowing a handful of small things, and doing them well.
That's really all this is. Six days with Rich at Wild Spirit, off-grid in Ottsjö, who's spent his life doing exactly this. Two nights learning in the warm, two out in the snow for real, one back by the fire.
The competence is the point. The snow is just where we prove it.
The promise, in short
Two nights in the cold, for real.Not a demonstration. You build it, you sleep in it.
A small group, one intake at a time.Up to 10 people, so Rich actually knows your name.
You leave with something to show for it.A hand-forged knife, and the piece you carve by the fire.
The highlights
- Come back with the confidence and competence to camp safely in a mid-winter Nordic environment.
- Digital detox - during the three-day wild phase we go without phones. A rare chance to reset to the natural rhythms of the wild.
- Breaking down a reindeer - processing and using the whole animal, the way it's been done for centuries.
- Take home your own wooden utensil you've made, along with a useful Nordic gift package.
- A chance of witnessing the Northern Lights.
- Professional photos and videos of the trip by George.
The essential skills we cover
We confirm the exact mix depending on weather conditions and the group's interests and priorities.
Fire and blade
- Finding and preparing tinder, even when it's wet
- Tinder, matches and ferro, then friction
- Different fire techniques
- Safe use of knife, axe and saw
- Whittling and carving a useful utensil
Shelter and sleeping warm
- Reading a site and choosing where to camp
- Setting up the heated tent and its stove
- Snow shelters - the snow trench, and how a quinzhee works
- Insulating from the ground, the bit that really keeps you warm
- Building a sleep system the cold can't get through
- Managing damp and drying kit
Looking after yourself in the cold
- Layering, staying dry not just warm
- Spotting and heading off frostnip and hypothermia
- Hygiene and keeping well out there
- What to do when something goes wrong, alone or in a group
- Simple signalling and the emergency basics
Food and water
- Breaking down a reindeer - butchering and using the whole animal, the way it's done up here
- Cooking proper food on an open fire
- Melting snow for water, safely
- Winter foraging, reading the trees and plants
- Ice fishing, getting a meal off the lake
Moving and reading the land
- Cross-country skis and snowshoes
- Packing and pulling a pulk (sled)
- Ice safety and reading the snowpack
- Simple winter navigation and route choice
- Tracks, weather signs, reading the day
Trip details
- Dates
- Late January 2027
- Duration
- 6 days / 5 nights
- Base
- Wild Spirit, Ottsjö
- Group
- Up to 10
- Price
- €2,000per person
- Deposit
- €500holds your place
- Balance
- 6 weeks before
- Transfers
- Åre or Östersund
Reserve your spot
Ask a question
What's included
- All food, arrival dinner to the last morning
- All teaching and guiding, Rich and his team
- Three nights in the cabin, two nights camping in the snow
- All group camp and shelter kit, pulks and cold-weather sleep systems
- A hand-forged knife to take home
- The reindeer feast, sauna and ice fishing
- Your photos and a short film of the week
- Transfers from Åre or Östersund
The experience
- Fire, blade and layering in the warm
- Melting snow for water
- Loading pulks, out on skis or snowshoes
- Building your shelter
- Two nights sleeping out
- Cooking on the fire
- Ice fishing
- A short navigation trip
- Carving by the fire
- Reindeer feast, the way it's done up here
- Sauna and a hot shower to finish
What's not included
- Flights to Sweden
- Travel insurance
- Personal base layers and boots
Good to know
Our method
The course is built the same way as everything we run: contrast, not constant intensity. Two nights learning the building blocks in the warm, where it's fine to get things wrong. Two nights putting it to work out in the real cold. One night back by the fire, for the reindeer feast and to talk through what to keep practising. Nothing is rushed past you before it's actually landed.
Why it works
Winter stops being a thing to survive once you know a handful of small things and can do them well. That's not toughness, it's competence, and it only comes from doing it yourself, badly at first and then properly, with someone who's spent his life doing exactly this stood next to you. You don't come home with a story about the cold. You come home able to handle it.
Cold and conditions
Late January in Jämtland is properly cold, and that's the point - a mild winter is the one condition that would change the plan. Expect real sub-zero temperatures and stable snow. Rich sets the pace and the route by the conditions on the day, and the shape of the course flexes around the weather rather than the other way round.
Safety
You're with Rich and his team, who've lived and taught this ground for years. Everyone gets a kit check and a proper briefing before anything committing. Group size is kept small on purpose.
First aid, guide ratios and emergency procedure to be added.
What do I need?
Your own base layers and boots. Everything else - cold-weather clothing, camp kit, the sleep system built to handle a real winter night - is provided. You'll get a full kit list before you travel.
What will the days look like?
Day one, arrive at Ottsjö, meet Rich and each other, first fire as the light goes, then the sauna. Day two around the cabin: fire, blade, layering, the sleep system, melting snow. Days three and four out on skis or snowshoes - build the shelter, run your own camp, cook on the fire, ice fish. Day five back in for a hot shower, the sauna and the reindeer feast. A slow morning and away on day six.
Who this trip isn't for
If you want a warm cabin and a view of the snow from the window, this isn't it. This one asks something of you - hands in the cold, building your own camp, getting it wrong before you get it right. If that sounds more like a chore than a pull, it's probably not your one, and that's alright.
Accommodation
Three nights in the cabin at Wild Spirit, simple and warm with a sauna close by. Two nights camping out in the snow, in a shelter and sleep system you build yourself.
Booking, deposit and cancellation
Price €2,000, with a €500 deposit to hold your place. To book or ask a question, WhatsApp George on +46 76 897 15 30.
Payment plan and cancellation terms to be added.
The team
Led by Rich, with George
Rich
Guide, Wild Spirit
Runs Wild Spirit out of Ottsjö, off-grid, the kind of place you reach on skis or a snowmobile. Teaches the old Swedish ways of getting through winter - fire, shelter, living off the land.
George Barker
Host
Spent years living off-grid in northern Sweden long before any of it was a business. Knows the country, the weather and the people - and found Rich.