Jessie Krebs’ MasterClass Review on Wilderness Survival [2022]

Jessie Krebs’ has been brought to MasterClass to present a course on how to survive in the wilderness.

Now I’m not a girl who’s down to go camping in situations where the bathroom is a hole in the ground. I grew up an ag kid, playing in pig pens and riding horses. But there are just some things I don’t want to experience (i.e. defecating in a hole and peeing down my leg). But you know what? In the event that is necessary, I want to have a set of skills to pull on to help with all the other necessities like eating and finding water and staying alive.

The Jessie Krebs MasterClass focuses on surviving in the wilderness and her bright personality and depth of knowledge will leave you with a better skillset when you exit the course. Now, if you wind up lost in the wilderness or another less-than-ideal situation, perhaps you’ll be able to survive!

Here’s our in-depth MasterClass review on wilderness survival by Jessie Kerbs.

Who Is Jessie Krebs

Jessie Krebs is a certified badass. She is a former U.S. Air Force SERE specialist, which means she focuses on survival, evasion, resistance, and escape. After, she moved into a career in wilderness therapy.

What Jessie Krebs’ MasterClass Covers

Jessie Krebs’ MasterClass covers everything you need to know to survive in the wilderness in various situations. It will teach you the hard skills like filtering water as well as the learning to master your fear during high-stress, life-or-death situations.

Class Length

This MasterClass is 16 lessons long. It will take 4 hours and 31 minutes to complete this MasterClass, making it a mid-sized course for this company.

Lesson List

The lessons you’ll find in this course are:

• Meet Your Instructor: Jessie Krebs
• Survival Mindset
• The Five Basic Needs
• Signaling: Help Them Find You
• Know Your Tools: Knives
• Know Your Tools: Rope
• Navigation: Scouting Techniques
• Navigation: Using a Map and Compass
• Water 101
• Rationing Food and Foraging
• Personal Protection: Clothing and Equipment
• Building a Shelter
• Fire 101: Gathering Fuel
• Fire 101: Lighting and Maintenance
• Building Your Survival Kit
• The Healing Power of the Wilderness

Class Price

You can’t buy one-off MasterClasses. Personally, I find this to be better as the MasterClass library continues to grow and it makes the cost-per-course lower than say the $50 bucks they might charge if it was cost-per.

When I recommend MasterClass (which I do if you plan to watch all the courses within a one or two-year period) I want to state upfront that if this is the only course you have any interest at all in, MasterClass may not be for you. If you plan to watch all, or most, of the MasterClass in the catalog then you will find the cost-per-course is less than a dollar or two.

At the time of writing, these are the tiers and their cost:

• Individual – $15/mo or $180
• Duo – $20/mo or $240
• Family – $23/mo or $276

Course Materials

This class comes with a 40-page guidebook. I suggest you download this, print it out, and keep it on hand. Maybe even put it in your car (I dunno). It has useful information and you may want to brush up on this information, especially if you frequent the outdoors for leisure.

This guidebook covers packing, water, securing warmth, finding food, signaling for help, making knots, handling scary situations, and using nature for medicine. It covers much of what is covered in the video course and is a good way to solidify the information in your mind through review.

What We Liked

There was so much to love about this course. Jessie Krebs was an excellent instructor and I’ve learned so darn much. I’m gushing, but I genuinely enjoyed this one (see my 10-star verdict below!).

Approachable

Krebs is an excellent instructor, she’s engaging and easy to listen to. I’m glad they didn’t bring on some Bear Grylls-type who I associate less with practical survival and more with survivalist stunts.

Applicable

There wasn’t one bit of information in this course that was theory-based alone. Everything covered could be applied to a real wilderness survival situation.

In-Depth

This course was incredibly in-depth, covering nearly every area of wilderness survival a beginner would need to know about. Beyond that, it goes in-depth into each topic giving us longer lessons that utilize demonstrations and illustrated diagrams to visually show us how to apply each skill.

Well Organized

This course was well organized, allowing those with more experience to jump around based on what areas they would like to expand their knowledge. You can see this in the lesson list written out above. Everything was well organized and presented in an easy-to-understand manner. The instruction design was impeccable. (In my opinion, she who knows little about instruction design theory.)

Honestly, it’s no wonder this course was so well crafted given that Jessie Krebs is the owner and lead instructor at her own outdoor school for women, OWLSkills.

High Production

If you’re familiar with MasterClass, you know all about its high production value. It’s like watching a movie rather than a YouTube video and that is much of my attraction to this company overall. Many alternatives (looking at you Skillshare) have low production value and aren’t very crisp. This is due to their business model. If you want a crisp learning experience then I highly recommend MasterClass. It was another of my reasonings for giving this course a glowing review.

Demonstrations

Krebs demonstrated most of what she was teaching us to do. For example, while she explained the signaling with a mirror well, having her show us visibly how to do it made it much more likely I could pull off that signaling method.

What We Didn’t Like

Honestly, there wasn’t much to dislike about this course. I felt all the information was useful and in-depth without getting into the weeds. I feel confident that after this course, in the event I ended up stranded in the wilderness, I could potentially survive and signal for help.

I think maybe differentiating survival in different types of landscape specifically might have been useful. Much of this was covered throughout but having a lesson for ocean survival, mountainous terrain survival, etc. could have been useful.

How to Get the Most Out of This Class

I recommend watching the entirety of this course and reading the guidebook (plus downloading it and printing it out to review later). But here’s what you can skip and what you should be sure to watch.

Best Lesson:

If you only watch one lesson in this MasterClass make it ‘The Five Basic Needs’. This covers the basics you need to survive until help finds you. At the very least, the knowledge in this lesson may keep you alive for a little bit in a dire situation. It covers the order you need to tackle problems and important tips like not eating if you don’t have a water source.

Worst Lesson:

You can definitely skip ‘Meet Your Instructor: Jessie Krebs’. The introductory lesson for each MasterClass usually only touches on the background of the instructor to build their credibility and then covers the basic overall structure of the course’s contents. It’s like the first day of class in high school: syllabus day.

Who Is This MasterClass Best For?

This MasterClass can be useful for anyone. If you aren’t familiar with the outdoors at all, it can help you in the event you become stranded. Likewise, if you are frequently outdoors and are more likely to be in a dangerous wilderness situation, it will prepare you to survive and signal help.

Who Is This MasterClass Not For?

If you’re a master survivalist you may already be familiar with the information in this course. However, it might be worth it to still listen and see if you can pick up on any useful information to tuck away for later. You should never pass up on an opportunity to learn more.

Similar MasterClasses You Might Like

While there aren’t any other wilderness focuses classes from MasterClass, you might also enjoy a course on gardening and one on staying fit and practicing wellness.

If you like Jessie Krebs’ MasterClass, you’ll likely enjoy the following:

• Joe Holder – Fitness and Wellness Fundamental
• Ron Finley – Gardening

Final Takeaway – 10/10

I loved this MasterClass! I don’t go hiking often and I haven’t been trail riding in years, but the skills learned during this class could help me in the future. Plus, let’s face it, we never know when we might end up in a situation where we’ll need survival skills. Many of these skills could be used even if we aren’t in the true wilderness. Definitely recommend this course to anyone and everyone—this is pure applicable and useful information.