Image Galleries

See our photos from the wilderness trip in Spring 2019!

On the Jewish Studies Program – RTM Survival trips, each student learns how to make a “Survival Bed.”  

What’s a survival bed?

If you are sleeping out in the open on a cold night, a survival bed will ensure that heat will radiate up from the ground and keep you warm.  The way it works is that you first dig a shallow pit into the ground, about 9” deep, about the size of your torso.  Second, you fill the pit with large, solid stones and build a fire over the stones.  You must keep the fire burning for about 3.5 hours.  Third, you cover up the thoroughly hot stones and ashes with the sand/dirt that you previously unearthed.  Congratulations - you now have a survival bed!

Lay your tarp on top of that area, get in your sleeping bag, and go to sleep.  Within two hours the heat will come radiating upwards, and you will be quite toasty!

Some of the photos in the gallery show this labor-intensive and colorful process.  Students prepare their survival beds on the first day in the open area in the wilderness.  While the fires on the individual survival beds are burning, we prepare dinner at the main campsite and eat heartily.