Photos of winter activities at Camp Wilderness

Last February, more than 250 Scouts participated in a search-and-rescue training session at Camp Wilderness, the Northern Lights Council’s 2,400-acre wooded campground in Minnesota’s Paul Bunyon State Forest.

The weekend-long camp attracted Scouts from Minnesota and North Dakota and featured winter activities such as snowball fights, sledding, broomball and snow-shelter making — all in temperatures that hovered near zero degrees.

But the camp wasn’t all fun and games. Nearly 50 Scouts participated in the five-hour ice-based search-and-rescue training conducted by experts from the Fargo, N.D., Valley Water Rescue team. The team specializes in ice rescue and often conducts training for youth groups.

Take a look at photos from the event and then read more about winter-time search and rescue in the February 2014 issue of Boys’ Life magazine.