Bourbeau - Wilderness Secrets Revealed

A ndr -Franois Bourbeau is obsessed with survival and adventure. Some would say passionate. I say obsessed!

Until I endeavoured to put Survivorman on prime-time TV, the practice of survival techniques was relegated to the odd local TV station feel-good story. Those of us involved in survival learning were well, lets face it survival geeks. We lived and breathed fire-making methods, shelter construction, signaling methods, primitive earth skills, and, my personal favorite, edible wild plants. We were usually a ragtag bunch of mostly men that either had fond memories of our Boy Scout experiences or considered Jeremiah Johnson , hands down, our favorite movie of all time. We wanted to play mountain man. We were taken out into the bush and taught by a small handful of teachers throughout North America. They were nature nuts, survival nuts, bush nuts, and often gear geeks. But man they sure knew how to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together and follow it up with a bowl crafted of birchbark. Those of us in the know are aware of exactly who most of them are. They would show up at primitive skills rendezvous in legend status. In those circumstances the name of Andr-Francois Bourbeau was not legendary. Hell, it was barely known, because he was evolving in Quebec, mostly alone. Yet he was and is deserving of legend status. In my opinion, he is quite possibly the best there is. And why is that? Because he is freakin obsessed!

I first met Andr somewhere around 1993 or 94 when my then wife and I were gearing up to spend a year living in the wilderness as if it were five hundred years ago. No metal, no matches, no nylon tent. Just us, birchbark, and maple syrup (well, more or less). In Quebec he had been able to take his love for survival skills into a much more prominent place of media attention with his Survivathon ordeal. And it was this experience in the field I was after for advice on what we were about to attempt.

Open and welcoming to us from the start, he LOVED the opportunity to help us out with advice. Did I mention he is obsessed? On our first meeting he started talking fire-starting. Well let me back up a little. I should admit I absolutely adore survival skills of all kinds. Modern, pioneer, primitive earth skills, you name it. But I am decidedly, believe it or not, NOT obsessed. So it should come as no surprise that my eyes started to gloss over as Andr went into an intense discussion about how to start a fire using a simple stainless steel tablespoon by reflecting the sun with the concave part. On one occasion, many hours of endless talk of survival methods and adventures later, he surprised me. He pulled out his guitar and told me he had decided to learn how to play. He wouldnt have, except I mentioned I was a musician and, well, that was all he needed. He then endeavoured to play for us his rendition of Achy Breaky Heart with a thick French-Canadian accent while we sat awkwardly on his couch pretending to appreciate the assault on our senses. (His ability at pitch, technical playing ability, and timing were a universe away from his outdoor skills sorry, my friend.) But. He was so, I mean so into it. How could he not be? He is an intense man with a passion as big as the mountains. And his passion for survival skills is only outdone by his passion for life.

I am glad that he started this book with a quote from Stefansson, the famous Arctic explorer. Because Bourbeau, like Stefansson and like me, suffer the same fate. We know too much. We cant get lost. We are always prepared. And I can tell you with great certainty that every hardcore survival instructor out there secretly harbours a desire to blow it just once, thoroughly and pathetically, enough so that finally we can really put our skills to the test. No students. No pick up on Sunday afternoon. No backpack of survival gear. Put to the test, fully and completely. Just like, well, just like all the stories guys like Andr and I have been reading all our lives. Heroes la Douglas Mawson, the Dougal Robertson family, and the survivors of the famous Andes plane crash.

But we cant. Andr cant. So. We volunteer. Andr with his Survivathon and a hundred other expeditions and me with my Survivorman ordeals. We try to come as close as we can to really putting our skills to the test. And we fail, we know, every single time. Because we arent in a real plane crash and we didnt really lose our canoe in the Arctic and we arent really lost in the jungle. But we obsess about it. And Andr, well, when it comes to wilderness adventure and survival, he is the greatest and most obsessed of us all. When it comes to survival, he is legendary.

Les Stroud

Author, producer, and star of Survivorman .