Can you “survive” this bachelor party?

I’m guessing many of us guys have attended a bachelor party or two during our lives.

They’re not all the same. Some are very tame, involving a subdued gathering of close friends. Others are just the opposite, with plenty of people, plenty of adult beverages and plenty of activities I will refrain from mentioning in a family-oriented communication.

And perhaps you ladies have gone to bachelorette parties that had various themes.

But the type of bachelor party I want to talk about today is the “extreme bachelor party.”

And no, I don’t mean bachelor parties that are even rowdier than the ones some of us may have attended. I mean “extreme” in the sense of survival.

The parties actually double as educations in self-reliance!

Companies such as Adventure Out in California and On Purpose Adventures in South Carolina organize outdoor bachelor parties… up to 30 per year. They are not so much “parties” as they are survival-themed weekends.

They can involve intensive hiking, trail running, skiing or hunting, or a combination of those activities.

Sometimes the guys are taken up into a mountain and are taught the basics of survival, including building shelters, purifying water, making fire and finding food.

Maybe the point is that if you can survive an extreme bachelor party like this, you ought to be able to survive a marriage.

One such party outside the country was held a couple of years ago. Fifteen young men left the coast of one of Thailand’s islands and traveled by wooden boats to a deserted island with an untamed jungle 30 minutes away.

Each man was allowed to take only three items with him, and they could not include a phone, sleeping bag, modern fire-making tools or food (except for a small amount of rice).

They spent three days on this island… surviving. Looking for safe places to build a shelter, identifying medicinal plants and practicing various methods of fire making.

It’s a great way to learn to operate as a team, because a number of the crucial tasks are things nobody can do very well alone.

Ben-Jamin Toy, founder of On Purpose Adventures, says, “Traditional bachelor parties can put up walls. Guys get real when it’s a different environment. Bonding over a campfire is magic. Big, gruff guys open up and just talk about life.”

Next time you’re invited to a bachelor party, ask if it’s going to be “extreme.” When you get a strange look, you can tell them what a “real” bachelor party is all about.