Phillip Liebel
Founder, Primitive Wilderness Survival
Phillip Liebel grew up exploring the woods and creeks of Texas, drawn to the way people once lived in deep relationship with the land. What began as childhood curiosity became a lifelong pursuit of ancestral skills, self-reliance, and connection to nature.
He founded Primitive Wilderness Survival over ten years ago to share these skills with others and build a community around them. Years later, his journey led him to appear on the History Channel’s Alone: The Beast, where he survived in the Canadian Arctic using traditional methods. That experience reinforced his belief that modern people are capable of far more than they realize.
Mentored by survival legend Dave Holladay, Phillip continues to teach, create, and guide others back to the fire, the land, and the timeless skills that shaped humanity.
Dave Holladay
Guest Instructor & Mentor
Dave Holladay is widely regarded as one of the premier educators of Stone Age living skills in the United States, with a teaching career spanning more than four decades. He’s a frequent lecturer, author, and consultant on primitive technologies, edible and medicinal plants, and pre-Columbian culture, and has helped define the modern primitive skills movement with his depth of knowledge and rich experience.
For 18 years, Dave served as Head Instructor at the Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS) — one of the most respected wilderness education programs in the world — where he shaped the skills and resilience of hundreds of outdoor educators and enthusiasts. He also led curriculum and served as Education Director for Anasazi, a wilderness program focused on youth development and transformational outdoor learning.
Dave’s expertise has been sought by media and entertainment projects ranging from Cast Away and Survivorman to Man vs. Wild and Road Rules, and he was most recently featured on the History Channel’s No Man’s Land — bringing his real-world skill and grounded perspective to a broad audience.
Beyond teaching survival skills, Dave is an artist, storyteller, musician, and guide whose creativity and love for the natural world infuse everything he does. He crafts beautiful stone tools and pendants, plays music in traditional settings, and leads groups into remote landscapes — including long-standing trips to Mexico’s Copper Canyon alongside the Tarahumara people, whose culture and traditions he deeply respects.
As my mentor and guest instructor at Primitive Wilderness Survival, Dave brings not just expertise but heart, wisdom, and a lifetime of experience guiding people back to themselves through connection with the land.
Jonathan Burton
Guest Instructor
Jonathan Burton is an outdoorsman and wilderness skills instructor who believes the best lessons are learned around a shared campfire. His connection to nature began early, spending his childhood camping, canoeing, kayaking, fishing, and hunting alongside his grandfathers. From the start, the outdoors felt like home.
With over a decade of experience in the outdoor community, Jonathan has trained across the country with a wide range of schools and respected instructors. He has intentionally developed his skills in diverse environments, learning from anyone willing to teach and every landscape willing to challenge him.
Rather than limiting himself to a single system or philosophy, Jonathan approaches wilderness living with what he calls a multitool mindset—drawing from many traditions, methods, and ways of thinking. At Primitive Wilderness Survival, he brings adaptability, humility, and a genuine love for teaching that helps students build practical, well-rounded skills for life outdoors.
Jacks Genega
Guest Instructor
Jacks Genega is a former full-time film editor turned wilderness skills instructor, whose path was reshaped by firsthand experiences in Europe’s backcountry. Solo expeditions through Iceland’s remote wilderness, Mont Blanc and the Alps, Germany’s Black Forest, the Highlands of Great Britain, and Sweden’s Arctic Laplands taught her a powerful truth: skills save lives in more ways than one.
Through storms, earthquakes, injuries, and close wildlife encounters, Jacks learned that nature, much like life, can be unpredictable and unforgiving. These experiences shaped her teaching philosophy, which emphasizes situational awareness, practical skills, and life-saving techniques as essential tools for a life of real adventure and aliveness.
Jacks has trained extensively with leading experts and schools including Woodland Ways, The Pathfinder School, and Boulder Outdoor Survival School. She does not shy away from teaching how wilderness skills can transform a person’s story, helping shift narratives from wounded to warrior and from survivor to survivalist, drawing openly from her own experiences of healing through the land.
Through her school and brand, Wildcard Wilderness Survival, Jacks shares her love of bushcraft and survival to help others build resilience through self-reliance. Her message is clear: life may deal you a bad hand, but with skills, awareness, and grit, you can become the wildcard and overcome the odds.
