SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge: Something Big Is Coming

Something big is coming to Survival Guides UK.

Not another short list of outdoor activities. Not a course that finishes after a few lessons. And not a challenge that stops when you reach number 100.

We are building something much bigger.

The SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge is going to be a huge, ever-growing collection of outdoor skills, practical tasks, challenges, experiments, adventures and things to try outside.

And Challenge 01 will only be the beginning.

Why Are We Doing This?

There are thousands of outdoor skills worth learning.

Some are useful. Some are traditional. Some are practical. Some are simply fun to know. Some will make you more confident around a campsite, while others might teach you how to navigate, build, cook, observe, make or solve problems outdoors.

But learning outdoor skills doesn’t always have to mean sitting down and working through a course from beginning to end.

Sometimes you just want to try something.

You might have ten minutes and want to learn a knot.

You might be heading out for the weekend and decide to practise lighting a fire.

You might spot a tree you’ve never seen before and want to identify it.

You might fancy building something at camp.

Or you might simply want to discover what you’re capable of.

That’s the idea behind the SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge.

Completely Free. For Everyone.

There is one other thing we want to make absolutely clear.

The SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge will be completely free of charge from the start.

No subscription. No paywall. No premium challenge tier. No charge to work your way through the collection.

The aim is to make outdoor skills more accessible, not put another barrier between people and learning them.

Whether you’re completing your first challenge or your hundredth, the challenge itself will remain free to access.

We want as many people as possible to be able to learn something new, get outside and have a go.

Outdoor skills shouldn’t be something you need a big budget to enjoy.

It Isn’t Going To Be 100 Challenges

We originally started thinking about a big outdoor challenge containing 100 activities.

Then we realised something.

Why stop at 100?

There are far too many outdoor skills, experiences and possibilities to put an artificial limit on the project.

So we’re not going to.

The SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge is being designed to grow into hundreds of challenges, then potentially thousands, and keep growing from there.

There is no magic final number.

Challenge 100 won’t be the end.

Neither will Challenge 500.

Or Challenge 1,000.

The aim is to create an enormous library of things to learn and do outdoors that people can keep coming back to.

You Won’t Know What’s Coming Next

This isn’t going to be a traditional course where you complete one subject before moving on to the next.

In fact, we’re deliberately doing the opposite.

The challenges will be mixed.

Challenge 01 might ask you to find north without a compass.

Challenge 02 could be tying a reef knot.

Challenge 03 might involve identifying trees.

Challenge 04 could be building a tinder bundle.

Challenge 05 might involve packing a day rucksack.

Challenge 06 could take you into map and compass work.

Challenge 07 might ask you to build something useful at camp.

Then Challenge 08 could be outdoor cooking.

And Challenge 09 might have nothing to do with any of them.

That’s intentional.

We want you to open the challenge list and think:

“I wonder what I’ll get next?”

Because sometimes the best way to learn is to be given something you weren’t expecting.

What Kind of Challenges Will There Be?

Pretty much anything that helps you become more capable, confident and curious outdoors.

That could include:

Fire – Learn about tinder, build different fire lays, practise lighting methods, cook over a fire and learn how to manage fire safely.

Navigation – Find directions, use a map and compass, follow bearings, plan routes, work with grid references and practise navigating without relying entirely on technology.

Knots – Learn useful knots, practise tying them from memory and discover where different knots are actually useful outdoors.

Camping and Campcraft – Put up shelters, organise camps, build useful camp gadgets, manage equipment and learn the little skills that make outdoor living easier.

Bushcraft – Work with natural materials, practise traditional skills, make useful objects and become more observant of the environment around you.

Water – Learn about finding, collecting, carrying and managing water outdoors, along with the skills needed to make sensible decisions about water sources.

Outdoor Cooking – Prepare simple meals, experiment with different cooking methods and learn how to make food outdoors without turning every meal into a complicated expedition.

Nature and Observation – Identify trees, plants, tracks and other signs. Look more closely at the places you walk through and start noticing things you might normally walk straight past.

Weather – Understand forecasts, recognise changing conditions and learn how weather affects the decisions you make outdoors.

Walking and Exploration – Plan walks, follow routes, explore unfamiliar places and develop the skills that make getting outside more rewarding.

Making and Building – Create camp furniture, gadgets, tools, structures and useful pieces of outdoor equipment.

And that’s only the beginning.

There will be challenges involving problem solving, practical skills, outdoor safety, expedition planning, traditional skills, teamwork, observation, equipment, survival skills and plenty of things we haven’t even thought of yet.

Some Challenges Will Be Easy

And some won’t.

That’s part of the point.

Not every challenge is supposed to be a test of whether you’re already an expert.

Some will take a few minutes.

Some might take an afternoon.

Others could become proper projects.

You might complete one challenge on your first attempt.

Another might take several goes.

And occasionally you’ll find something that makes you think:

“I’m going to have to practise this.”

That’s exactly what we want.

Because outdoor skills aren’t really about collecting information.

They’re about being able to do something.

You Don’t Have To Complete Them In Order

The numbers are there to identify the challenges.

They aren’t difficulty ratings.

They aren’t levels.

And they aren’t a course progression.

If Challenge 147 looks interesting, there’s nothing stopping you from doing Challenge 147 before Challenge 12.

If you see something you’ve never tried before, give it a go.

If you discover that you need to learn another skill first, we’ll point you towards the SGUK guides and learning resources that can help.

And if you already have the skills, you can get straight outside and put them into practice.

This Will Connect With Everything Else We’re Building

The challenge isn’t going to sit on its own.

It will become part of the wider Survival Guides UK learning experience.

Our articles will help you learn.

Our Mastery Challenges will help you progress through structured learning.

The SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge will give you things to actually do.

Our Practical Workshops will take groups of skills and turn them into real outdoor projects.

Our tools will help you plan, calculate, prepare and organise.

And our member system will give you ways to track your progress and celebrate what you’ve achieved.

The idea is simple.

Learn something.

Try it.

Practise it.

Come back and try something else.

Over time, you build a much bigger collection of skills than you probably realised was possible.

We’re Building This For Everyone

You don’t need to be an expert.

You don’t need expensive equipment.

You don’t need to be preparing for some extreme survival situation.

And you don’t need to work your way through everything.

The challenge is for anyone who enjoys being outdoors and wants to become a little more capable.

That might be a young person learning their first outdoor skills.

A parent looking for something practical to do with their children.

A Scout or Guide.

A leader.

A camper.

A walker.

A bushcrafter.

Someone who simply wants to spend more time outside.

Or someone who has always looked at outdoor skills and thought:

“I’d quite like to learn how to do that.”

That’s who we’re building it for.

Challenge 01 Is Only The Beginning

There is something quite exciting about starting a project like this.

We don’t know exactly where the final number will end up.

That’s because there isn’t going to be a final number.

We’ll keep adding challenges.

We’ll keep finding new skills to explore.

We’ll keep looking for interesting things people can learn, practise, build, discover and experience outdoors.

And as the collection grows, so will the possibilities.

One challenge might introduce you to a skill you’ve never considered.

Another might send you back to something you learned years ago.

Another might give you an idea for your next camping trip.

And occasionally, one might become the skill you never realised you needed.

Want To Take It Further?

The SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge will be completely free to take part in, but becoming a free Survival Guides UK member will give you more ways to make the most of it.

Members will be able to build their own outdoor skills journey, keep track of challenges they’ve completed, collect achievements and badges, save useful resources and see their progress as they work their way through the ever-growing challenge.

You don’t need to become a member to learn from Survival Guides UK or take part in the challenge.

But if you want to keep track of what you’ve achieved, share your victories on the Social Wall, and see how your outdoor skills develop over time, membership gives you a place to do it.

And yes — membership is free too.

The Challenge Starts Here

We’re going to number every challenge clearly.

Challenge 01.

Challenge 02.

Challenge 03.

And then we’ll keep going.

There will be no artificial finish line.

No “100 and we’re done”.

Just an ever-growing collection of outdoor skills and things worth trying.

This is going to be a big project.

And we’re only just getting started.

Welcome to the SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge.

Challenge 01 is coming.