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BOOK A CLASS WITH WILDCARD WILDERNESS TODAY!
Our Story
Leading classes in survival education for outdoor adventures.
Wildcard Wilderness LLC was born when a school that promoted a sense of resilience through self-reliance was in need. Every time we enter a wilderness situation, we enter a wildcard situation albeit a storm, getting lost, injury, or wildlife encounters. Wildcard Wilderness Survival encourages others to flip the script and with skills, wisdom, and guts, you can be the wildcard and overcome tough obstacles against all odds.
Shortly after the school was born, the brand and store followed selling custom products that aid in skills and preparedness.
JACKS GENEGA
Lead Instructor and Founder of Wildcard Wilderness LLC
Jacks Genega is an avid adventurer whose journey into exploring the world of wilderness survival began when encountering an earthquake and witness to an avalanche just moments after she began a 5-day solo hike in Iceland’s Landmannalauger region. She has solo-hiked across the United Kingdom twice beginning in 2019 with Scotland’s West Highland Way from Glasgow to Fort William along Loch Lomond and Ben Nevis; followed by The Great Glen, bordering several lakes including the infamous Loch Ness, ending in Inverness. In 2020, she completed Alfred Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Walk from the Irish Sea at St. Bee’s to the North Sea at Robin Hood’s Bay crossing 220 miles through England's Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, and North York Moors in under 10 days.
Other solo travel achievements would be completing Schwarzwald Germany’s 200-mile Westweg, or “The Black Forest Trail,” ending in Basil, Switzerland; as well as the Tour Du Mont Blanc, a 110-mile walking trek through France, Italy and Switzerland traversing some of the Alps’ highest peaks, glaciers and rivers. In 2023, Jacks spent 21 days hiking alone across Sweden's Arctic Circle and Lapland region via the infamous 300-mile King's Trail, the Kunglseden. She is also no stranger to various scrambles along the Appalachian Trail.
Her outdoor skills education began with the field of bushcraft when attending a course with Woodland Ways (UK) leading up to the completion of their Northern Forest Year, a yearlong intensive with David McCrae in Scotland’s East Lothian region, home to the famous mountaineer, John Muir. She then carried her dedication and talent back to the U.S. training under various experts in the fields of emergency and wilderness survival including Dave Canterbury (Best-Selling Author of Bushcraft 101, Owner of Self Reliance Outfitters, and Founder of the Pathfinder School); Shawn Kelly (Content Creator ‘Corporal’s Corner’); Joshua Enyart (Former Army Ranger, Green Beret and Owner of Gray Bearded Green Beret); and Craig Caudill (Best-Selling Author of Extreme Wilderness Survival and Founder of the Nature Reliance School.)
Jacks was an Instructor at Dave Canterbury's Pathfinder School Worldwide before starting her own, Wildcard Wilderness Survival. She is currently the primary instructor at Jason Marsteiner’s (Author of Wilderness Survival Guide: Practical Skills for the Outdoor Adventurer) The Survival University in Colorado, where she teaches both their curriculum and Wildcard Wilderness courses. Jacks is also an instructor for Georgia Bushcraft where she leads all women’s survival courses with varying levels of difficulty. She is also staff at The Foxfire Museum in Georgia. She is a certified Wilderness First Responder and HAM Radio Operator (KE8WHY). Jacks is also a brand ambassador for LT Wright Knives and Woods Monkey. She has developed a reputation as a well-respected talent and an all-around lovely, bad-ass woman who often sets things on fire for fun.
She lives in her van full time and travels across the country teaching weekend classes and workshops in survival, navigation, campcraft, and her biggest passion, tree identification.
GUEST INSTRUCTORS
Co-founder of LOSTWAYS SURVIVAL AND HOMESTEAD
Becky Christopher has always been an avid outdoorsman from the time she was young having spent much time in the woods with her father. When pursuing a career in EMS (Emergency Medical Services) and with a rescue squad, her passion for the outdoors grew leading to employment with a SAR (Search and Rescue) team in the Blue Ridge Mountains and becoming Swiftwater certified. She primarily teaches Wilderness First Aid as she feels others should know how to care for themselves and others. Becky loves taking her 22 years of EMS and finding ways to apply it to the outdoors.
Becky has since moved to the Sandhills of North Carolina and is the Co-Founder of Lostways Survival and Homestead alongside her husband, Paul Christopher. When she is not in North Carolina she can be found teaching across the country at various institutions such as Georgia Bushcraft LLC; The Woodsrunner School; and events such as Old School Survival Bootcamp, Georgia Bushcraft's Spring Campout and Fall Gathering, and The GatherThing. Becky has a vast knowledge of survival skills and enjoys teaching and working alongside others as they find their own path.
BECKY CHRISTOPHER
CARLEY STOVER
Digital Creator for @TAC_WILDROOTS
Carley Stover grew up in the hollers of Kentucky listening to her grandparents talk about plants and herbs while making flower crowns from wild yarrow. When she realized plants were more than just pleasing to look at but were also edible and potent medicinals, her study of plantlife, love of foraging, and craft in handmade remedies had launched. Carley also has training in bushcraft and survival and is WFA (Wilderness First Aid) and CPR certified through ASHI (American Safety and Health Institute.)
Carley lives in the hills of West Virginia and is a homesteader and prepper. Through serious dirt time and multiple certificates of completion, she now shares her love of gardening, knowledge of nature, passion for plants, and skills in medicine-making with her community, like while yarrow is great for crowns it can also help stop a veinous bleed.
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