Episode 1 - Justin Vititoe

The first Alone contestant I had the privilege to speak with is Justin Vititoe, from Alone season 2.

Justin is a veteran, he is very sneaky and can shoot things pretty well, and has a great outlook on life. Justin now lives off grid (minus his smart phone…) and shares some of what his life is like now that the show is over.

To listen to short clips from this episode, visit The Alone Podcast on YouTube!

Transcript:

Sam 0:16

All right. Hello, and welcome to Episode One of the alone podcast. I am super excited today to be speaking with Justin vidizmo. Justin was a participant on season two of the History Channel show alone. And I'm very excited today to visit with him and get to know him a little bit better and hear his story and more about who he is. So Justin, thank you for taking the time to, I guess virtually remotely sit down and visit with me today. So I guess we'll throw you a softball first of all, how are you? How you doing today? Man? I'm doing great man.

Justin Vititoe 0:52

Appreciate the appreciate you have me on.

And, you know, I appreciate the opportunity.

Sam 1:00

Oh, no, I said, I appreciate you and and this is going to be a good trial run. So this is my first time doing a podcast and you know, we've had some, you had to drive half an hour to get to play so you can make a phone call. So this is gonna be a this is gonna be a good, good test run. So I think first of all, just with a little bit of background on you, if we could I spent obviously did some diligence online trying to find some information about you. And there's not a whole awful lot, I think, I think you might be the first time in my entire life where I've been able to actually get to the end of someone's Facebook. And that's saying something in 2021

Justin Vititoe 1:44

Well, so there's a there's a little bit of backstory on that. So I got off of Facebook, I completely got off of all social media around the first of last year. So if you would have got ahold of me last year, you would have found all kinds of stuff. But, but I got I got completely off of it. And I only came back on because we recently started our own our own business. So it's kind of a necessary evil at this point. But yeah, I I even still I get on it like once a week. So it was a it was a nice kind of what do you call that when you when you come off drugs or whatever, like a cleansing.

Sam 2:29

Nice detox.

Justin Vititoe 2:31

Yeah, detox. That's the word I'm looking for. Thanks. But yeah, it I kind of forget. It's there now. So it was it was a good thing. But But yeah,

Sam 2:40

that's funny. Well, we've got you who's been off social media for a while and just coming back. And me uses social media to contact you. And so there's there's not much reach with the two of us. It sounds like right now. All right. Super excited to visit with you today. So yeah, if you could fill in some of the maybe some color on on kind of who you are. And just a little bio, if you wouldn't mind. So we can have something to start with as a baseline.

Justin Vititoe 3:14

Yeah, for sure. So I spent a long time in the in the United States Army. It's all said and done. I spent some time in the National Guard and then came active duty for the majority of it. So all said and done, it's about 1617 years. Most of that time I was a sniper or doing things around sniper stuff. I was instructor down at the schoolhouse at Fort Benning. So I guess six years ago, I forget what year it is 2000 almost seven years ago, I decided to get out of the army which was a pretty big jump into the unknown because it was all I had really done my entire adult life. And I decided that I was going to get out of the army and very shortly thereafter I got a another random message on Facebook Believe it or not saying Hey, dude, we're casting for this show. And I thought it was a scam at first right? And so I I did some due diligence I looked up the production company and everything else and turned out it was a real production company. So I was I was like okay, yeah, and I responded to the message filled out an application they called me and the rest I guess is not to use. Well, I guess.

I guess I am using upon but literally history. So they didn't even have a name for the show. Season

One had just I just got done filming and so We were kind of in the process of doing all our boot camp and everything, which I'm sure everybody now is kind of familiar with. Anybody who watches the show is kind of familiar with the process. But, you know, at that time, it was, it was all, you know, kind of still still making it up, you know. And so season one was airing as we were going through the boot camp process, and all that kind of stuff. And, and they had actually named the show and everything else. And this is, you know, several months later after I had already after I had submitted the initial application, but it was, it was it was kind of a strange thing. You know, it was just like I said, kind of a random message on Facebook, they got the ball rolling, and then I think, I think what what to them stood out about me if I can try to speculate as to as to their intention was just the very sarcastic for for those people that do know me, but so I think that it was just kind of like my, my strange sense of humor and things of that nature that that stood out. And wound up, wound up being on the show, and then spent 35 days out on Vancouver Island. And since that time, Donna done a lot of stuff. But basically, moved around a few more times. Did a lot of security, contracting, things like that. And then now we have we have settled in West Virginia, we live on a mountain in the middle of nowhere. We just started our own business to where I'm going to be finally for myself teaching survival courses, more and more advanced stuff. And yeah, so that's, that's where we're at. That's why I had to drive in to, into town to to get reception. So

Sam 7:08

well, that's fantastic. And thanks for going over that background. There's a lot to unpack there. I think we'll start so obviously your military career was is a big thing in your life. It was a lot of time and and it was definitely something that was discussed a lot on the show. Were you kind of a young guy fresh out of high school when you enlisted, or did you have

Justin Vititoe 7:29

I was actually, I was actually in high school. Okay, so the the National Guard, I don't know if they still do it. But the National Guard used to have a program to where you could enlist in your junior year in high school. And then you would go to basic training between in the summer between your junior and senior year in high school, and then you went to ai t or your advanced training after you graduated, so you had like a year gap. So that's what I did. And so most people were, you know, partying all summer I was, I was in the immense heat of Fort Benning, Georgia, to two summers in a row. And so, I kind of got to join the National Guard, a friend of mine had joined, we both did the same thing. And I kind of was, like, unsure about it, you know, at first and, and after a little while, I was like, Yeah, this is it, you know, I, I, I knew I was probably going to get stuck in some some job that I was gonna hate. And there's only a few jobs that in that town, I grew up in that that anybody could really do. And so I just had this drive to go away, right? I knew I needed to leave. So I wound up. After I spent a couple years in the National Guard, I wound up coming back to duty and then spent spent almost 15 years active duty.

Sam 9:08

Okay, yeah, that program, I think still is there. At least it was in existence like 10 years ago. But did your parents have to sign off for you that young?

Justin Vititoe 9:17

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was 17 When I first joined. Yeah, my, my dad, my dad had to sign off. My dad was in an ad for a few years. Both my parents were really supportive about it. They I think they knew that, that I was I was not not the kind of person that was just going to be able to go through a normal life, you know?

Sam 9:45

Yeah, gotcha. That's that that's interesting. Yeah, it's funny my buddies that were that regard, and they did some of the same stuff. They they wouldn't appreciate it. They'd come back from whatever and I asked them how their weekend camp trick was that usually went over like a red balloon, or a red balloon rather sorry. They they didn't find that to be funny. But But hey, you know I enjoyed it so you did military joined obviously very young spent quite a bit of time in the military and did you go so I guess you're a it you know, did you start directly as a sniper MLS? Or what did you do? And what was your career through the military? Like if we can get into that a

Justin Vititoe 10:30

little bit? Yeah, so no um, so in the Army's the snipers not an MLS so it's a kind of an additional additional skill set to go through the school. And then there are specific jobs that are sniper jobs, right. So when I first when I first went there, I had tea and everything, it was just as an infantryman, so then when I came active duty, I, my first duty station was up at Fort Drum, New York, which is a horrible, horrible place. If you get a chance to go just past I say that the the unit was actually really good, but the the weather is just ridiculous. So um, I'm originally from Kentucky, and, you know, so having four or five foot of snow on the ground was a big, a big culture shock for me, you know, but, but oh over our, you know, I spent about two years up there. And my platoon sergeant was actually used to be an instructor at the sniper school. And so I think, you know, in retrospect, I think maybe that was kind of an influence on on my decision making process. So I spent a couple years in Fort Drum, and then I wound up moving down to Fort Campbell. And when I went to Fort Campbell I basically before I signed in, I went to the, the scout platoon and interviewed for a position there, got got hired on for lack of a better term are selected and spent spent about a few months, six, nine months as a scout, before moving over to the sniper section. And once I moved over to the sniper section, I just kind of fell in love. And it's, it's a weird thing for for most snipers, I know that I've done it for a long time. You know, it's kind of the same story with with most of us, you know, we find it through one way or another. And once you fall in love with that job, you know, it's the only thing you ever want to do. Um, you know, realistically, I got kind of promoted out of a position. And, you know, that's, that's rough. But I got lucky, because I was able to go back to sniper school, you know, as an instructor, and still remain in the community and everything else. And in a lot of ways, you know, I've been involved in the community even getting out of the army. So it was still a lot, a lot of the instructors, you know, down there at one time, were former students in mind. You know, people in that still talk a lot to people in that arena that are still active duty. So

Sam 13:48

I want to just maybe shed some light on something you mentioned there. And and I'm, as I mentioned to you, when I when I approached you, I'm not an expert on much of anything, but so if I say this wrong, correct me, but I think something that's interesting that people might not understand about the military, unless you've, you know, got some amount of knowledge is that you can you can have a job, right, so let's say, you know, any, I mean, for you, obviously, you were, you were a sniper, so you can have a job. And you can get to a point where you've been doing that job so long and so well, that in the natural progression of your military career, you get promoted, and then you know, you're too valuable or whatever, to be able to do that job anymore. And so it's kind of an interesting thing you said that you got promoted out of it, that people don't understand is that you can have a skill set and you can do a thing in the military and it can be your, you know, your kind of your life. But at some point, you have to make a choice whether you continue having a career or you you know and with the job you love.

Justin Vititoe 14:52

Yeah, and a lot of times you don't you don't even have a choice really, you know, it's the army has a tendency to just move people around. So you might get transferred to another duty station where that job is not open. Or there's, there's not that job, right. So, you know, let's say that you work at McDonald's and, and you love making burgers man, like you become the best burger maker on the planet. And, you know, a manager leaves and they're like, hey, we need you to fill in as as manager, and then you do a great job as a manager, right? So you're still in that world of flipping burgers, but you're not actually doing the flipping. And then, you know, you just continue to go up the ladder, to where now all of a sudden, you're going to, you know, maybe a McDonald's or some other country where they don't have burgers. Right. So you're like, Well, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm still doing what the corporation, you know, wants me to do. And I'm still trying to do it as best as I can. But I really, I really want to flip burgers, you know, what I mean? So it's, it's, it's very similar. I think a lot of the a lot of the problem is the the translation, right? So a lot of things in the army or, or the military or are similar to the civilian world, they're just, they're explained different. So a lot of people have a hard time understanding them. And we, as military folks do a really horrible job explaining in civilian terms. You know, what, what we're actually talking about?

Sam 16:32

Yeah, and I, you know, this is kind of a tangent, but I know something that you're passionate about, and that was, you know, on your, on your season of alone, he talked about quite a bit was, was veteran resources and help for veterans and, and, you know, I think unfortunately, that difficulty translating. It also extends into translating skill sets, and everything else. And it's kind of part of the challenge. I think this whatever our veterans face. So that oh, it

Justin Vititoe 17:00

Yeah, it absolutely does. And I think, I think if there was if at at ages say if there was only one thing, but I think one thing that that the military could do a whole lot better is, as guys are getting out, or girls are getting out is to give them realistic expectations of how their skills transfer, right. So I think that that's a big thing. Because you you feel lost a lot of times and, and alone, because you only know how to transfer, you only know how to translate those skills into military terminology. Right. So as an 11, Bravo as a sniper, as you know, all this stuff, right? I get out of the army. And it's very easy to think to myself, Well, I'm just good at, I'm just good at being really sneaky and pulling a trigger. Right? So like, what am I going to do in the civilian world? Right, but what, what a lot of blood a lot of guys getting out don't understand is, you know, me as a as a senior East seven, right, as you know, getting out. And, you know, I had 4050 people underneath me, right? I had not just to account for their date for their work life, but for their every, every waking moment life. Right. So those those skills and from a management perspective, like, that's, that's almost transferring into, like company ownership, you know, what I mean? Like, there's very few people in the civilian world that have 4050 people underneath them, and that are that are in charge of that type of management, right? So even a younger guy, you know, say, a young sergeant, getting out as a team leader, you know, you have four or five people underneath of you, that's management. Now, in the civilian world, you know, and I think, I think a lot of times, it's, it's not it's a translation issue, you know, it, it, and they, a lot of people don't understand how to translate the skill sets that they've actually learned, you know, not just, you know, crawling around in the mud or not just pulling a trigger or not just doing this, but, you know, your, your critical thinking, your, your drive, your, your ability to, to accomplish tasks, and accomplish them well, without guidance. You know, what I mean, there's a lot of people in the civilian world looking for those skill sets. And, you know, it's a, there's a, I think there's a lot of people now starting to hire veterans, you know, because of that, you know, they they understand that, that, that there's a lot more to offer than just, you know, what's on the resume.

Sam 20:00

Yeah, instead of instead of, hey, I was an infantry team leader for, you know, four years or whatever it may be. I'm a skilled leader that works well, under high pressure, I can adapt to evolving and rapidly changing situations. And you know, X, Y, and Z, I think, I think that makes a lot of sad.

Justin Vititoe 20:18

That actually sound you want to

Sam 20:22

yell? I'll put that together for you. Well, we'll throw that in for an extra five bucks. How about that? Sounds perfect.

So with with sniper training, you know, I, I've obviously never been through that. Do. I've seen some things and understand that there's some very intense training that you go through. You mentioned being sneaky, right? With your sniper training is their survival class that comes in to the sniper training? Did they put you guys through sere school, which for those that aren't familiar, so sere is basically the military survive, evade resist escape? Survival School, they put pilots, special operators, other people that are going to be in certain situations through? What did that look like for you all?

Justin Vititoe 21:11

So it's actually funny, you mentioned that. So sere school, I was not able to attend. And one of the reasons is it is it, as you said, it's, it's primarily for special operations, aviation, pilots, stuff like that. Now, people that are in you know, certain units, different things, you know, in the, as we say, conventional army will sometimes get an opportunity to go to sere school, but it's kind of rare. And it's kind of, it's kind of hard to get a slot for school, right. And so, at the time that I went through sniper school, there was almost nothing. As far as survival whatsoever, like there was there was nothing, right, I think we had like a PowerPoint presentation that lasted half an hour on tracking now that was it. Right? And so that was one of the things like when I became an instructor, and I don't, I don't know how they're doing it now. But when I became an instructor, that was one of the things that I really took to heart, and made sure that it was at least at least a day included in the curriculum, right. And, you know, that was just a day, but it was at least something. And so it was my, one of my interests, or my, my interest level in survival, and tracking, and all these things actually came out of that, but in a different way than people would think. Right? It came out of a absence of that training, and a net and seeing the necessity for that training, right. So as a sniper section leader, I had eight guys underneath me. And I was in charge of the sniper section for my battalion. And so I needed survival training for my guys. I couldn't get any sere school slots, you know, I couldn't, you know, get anything of that nature. So, what I did was I made friends with my battalion, Cheney command, and I convince them to allow me to go out and find a civilian instructor to come in and teach us this stuff, right. So I made them understand why this was necessary, why it was important. And the fact that we were able to get it through the army system, right. So I got, I wound up getting a hold of a gentleman named Kevin Reeve, who's still teaching by the way he teaches his school is on point tactical tracking. And that was, you know, other than, you know, just doing random stuff that was my first kind of real you know, big push into the survival stuff. And I wound up going up to one of Kevin's courses, absolutely loved it. Just went by myself as a, you know, kind of film out, see what was going on, and absolutely loved it. And then I wound up bringing him down to teach a combination tracking in survival course for my section, and you know, it was it was awesome. But that kind of started the ball rolling on the survival side, you know, I became a lot more interested in it. I became a lot more inundated with, you know, a lot of that stuff and started practicing those skill sets a lot more

Sam 24:54

attention I think you might have have mentioned this, but has the has the training changed today. Do Do they get? What does that look like for someone who's going through sniper training today?

Justin Vititoe 25:05

Yeah, it's it's a constantly evolving thing, I think, you know, the, the course has changed. From my understanding. I'm not I can't speak 100% to the nature of the course. But

Sam 25:21

for more reasons, I'm sure.

Justin Vititoe 25:24

Well, I mean, there's, there's a lot, there's a lot of different weapons systems, there's a lot of different, you know, different things. You know, one of the I actually, I know, the guy, that's the NCIC down there, now, absolutely great, dude. So I, I can say that if or anything, if there are things that aren't of just aren't up to snuff, or have fallen by the wayside, that he's the guy to fix it. So I'm, I'm extremely optimistic about about that. But yeah, it is, you know, things, things need to change one of the one of the things that I'm actually offering not to get into a sales pitch, but one of the things I'm actually offering, you know, for military and law enforcement is an advanced field craft course. And what I have noticed in, in the realm of snipers, and just, you know, the military at large is, there's a lot of emphasis put on technology, there's a lot of emphasis put on, you know, this, that of the other thing, and a lot of the, a lot of the lessons that that were learned before my time during my time, are all but forgotten. You know, as far as, as far as fieldcraft, as far as, you know, being able to be sneaky, you know, for lack of a better term, but and then not even to mention, you know, the the stuff that was around hundreds of years ago, or 1000s of years ago, you know, so one of the things that I hope to do with that course, in particular, is be able to kind of have a revival of a lot of those, those skill sets. And to show them, you know, how important these things are still today on a modern battlefield. Because I, I tell people in that world all the time, you know, guns are going to change, you know, technology is going to change, since the beginning of warfare. There has always been and there will always be a need for individuals who are sneaky, right? There, there is bar none, you know, that that will always be a need. So I think that, I think it's important to hold on to those skill sets. And I think it's important to, to not let them get glossed over by the the advance of technology.

Sam 27:54

Yeah, well, in a little bit here, I hope we'll get some time, or we will make some time to talk about what you're doing now. And we can share where you're at. So I wanted to get into that. And as you were talking, the lightbulb started clicking like, you know, Justin's just as a couple steps ahead of your average person here. So smart thinking on that end, and it's interesting, you you mentioned, you know, these skills, and, and, obviously, this evolves, right, I'm sure that, that coming out of the, you know, the 60s and 70s, that the military schools were very different in there's probably a lot more survival based on the theater and and how they operate in that theater. And then as we've progressed, you know, I and, and I recognize that, that right now, the Middle East, and specifically Afghanistan is is a is a topic, it, that's a light way to put it, but you look at that theater of operations and, and you might have someone who's sitting on a building for a couple of days. And then a week later, he's getting dropped off in the mountains with, you know, a small group of people. So that kind of presents an interesting challenge, not only for training, but also for keeping yourself prepared for a, you know, two completely different operations, I would assume.

Justin Vititoe 29:15

No, absolutely. And I think that's been one of our I don't want to say mistakes, but it's been one of our mistakes as as a military is that we we perpetually focus on the war that we're in and what we don't do very well is get a really good baseline of skill sets that we need and then flex for the war that we're in right. So we we totally focus on Iraq, or we totally focus on Afghanistan and and, you know, where stuff falls by the wayside? Right? So when you when you do have a war that's not in a desert, you know, or not in, you know, mountains or whatever. Then you got to relearn all those lessons, where if you would have just kept the baseline, I think we just do that, as humans, you know, you know, if you would have kept that baseline, and, you know, kind of kind of just flex for that period of time, and then, you know, you're, you're able to write the ship a lot faster.

Sam 30:21

You know, maybe, maybe we're not as good of, of being tools today as we would have been 100 years ago, right, you got to if you're a tool, you keep yourself ready, and, and you adapt what you need to do. That's a, that's a really interesting perspective, actually. And that's something I'm going to have to, to think on a little bit, a little bit for myself. So I appreciate that. So your obviously your military experience, gained a lot of knowledge and just life in that you got out did the alone thing. I kinda want to touch on on where you're at now. We mentioned earlier that half hour drive to get cell service today and, and West Virginia. So is that something that? Is this a recent thing for you to be? I don't want to say that far out. But I mean, I think anymore, you have to work pretty hard to get half an hour away from cell service. So is that something that that you've been doing for a while? Is that a change? Since your experience on Alone? Is that you kind of talk us through that?

Justin Vititoe 31:27

Yeah, so we've, we've been up here for about a year and a half. And, you know, it just it just kind of worked out? timing wise, and everything else, you know, with, with jobs and everything else. So we, we were me and my wife were kind of, you know, going back and forth on some different options or whatever. And, you know, my parents have had this land up here for 20 plus years, and just never done anything on it. And so, you know, we we kind of kept going back and forth. And we, I kind of looked at her one night, we were living in Huntsville at the time in Huntsville, Alabama at the time. And I kind of looked at her one night and I was like, Why? Why are we scared? And she was like, I don't know. And I think we both had a realization that, that that wasn't who we wanted to be of, you know, just being scared of the unknown. And so we made the decision right then and I think like a month later, we packed up all our stuff, which wasn't a whole lot started getting rid of a bunch of stuff and and moved up here the first month and a half so we moved up March 1 of last year, right as of right before right as COVID head

but for the first month and a half we lived in a tent

and that was interesting with a with a three year old but in a dog but but it was great. You know we we debated on you know building our own cabin er, this is not a bad thing. What we actually wound up doing was getting one of those like sheds that people use for like a workspace or whatever like build your own shed you see him on the side of the interstate all the time. Right so we got a 12 by 21 of those and we were able to kind of build it how we wanted to build it they had reason it took it took like a month because of the weather to actually get up to our mountain. But so they we bought that thing they brought it and delivered it and then I took a took rough cut lumber completed the inside of it did the walls, the bathroom cabinets, you know all that the beds. And that's what we've been living in since and we love it. It's kind of kind of like I guess the the the terminology now is like a tiny house like we're being eco friendly, but you will train a man. Yeah, no, it's trying to be trying to be all friendly. The environment truth is like, I'm just not going to spend a bunch of money on a place just so I can sleep there. But But, but no, we're we're completely off grid. I don't know. I don't know what the again, like definitions are we're like, yeah, we're we don't have power and water hookup. Right. So I say completely off grid and people are like, well, how are you on a cell phone then I go okay, I'm not. I'm not hiding. I'm not hiding from the satellites, bro. Like I'm just saying like, I don't I don't have any bills. You know, other than my cell phone in my car, but um, you know, we We kind of we've kind of chosen to live our life the way we want to live it and I think, I think that's a, that's an important thing. For people, I don't care who it is like, I, I, I would hope that anybody listening to this, like, if you get anything out of it, like, live live how you want to live, not because your neighbor expects this or that the other thing or whatever, you know, like, one of the reasons that we stayed in a tent was specifically for that reason, so we could figure out what we wanted, you know, not what, not what we had to have, because that's normal, you know, but what, what amenities or whatever that we want it, you know, so like, this year, we bought an air conditioner, we run off a generator, when we turn the air conditioner on stuff like that, you know, like, because it was really hot last summer, you know, so it's, it's those points of things, but I'm not going to buy I'm not going to air condition my house, just because that's normal, you know, that's what we're supposed to do. Um, you know, I air conditioner in my house, because it's, it's hot in the summer. You know what I mean? And I think you, you wind up cutting out a lot of stuff, you know, TV is not that important for us, you know, we watch like, maybe a movie a week or whatever. So, you know, things like that. We just, we don't really miss it. You know, we stay at a hotel or something. And we're like, we'll turn the TV on five minutes later, I'm like, yep, that's done. I'm done. You know, I got I forgot how annoying this thing is. But But no, I think it's been a it's been a weird trip. You know, since the show to kind of get to this point. Because I was like, I was absolutely miserable when I was living in the city. And that's, that's a whole long story about, you know, why, but I think, in particular, once you've been in nature for an extended period of time, and I don't know, you know, I can't put a number of days on that. You know, because I think it's different for everybody, but it's really hard to go back to normal life. And, you know, normal life is a lot noisier than then in a bad way, you know, then that a lot of people realize because they're so used to it, right?

Sam 37:40

Yeah, we, it's, it's funny, we so my wife and I, we were a long time ago, we were looking at a small town, and we went up to visit that small town. So we rented some, some nice lady's basement, and we went to sleep in her basement the first night. And that's not weird at all. It was, well, you know, I was fine. It was so dark because there wasn't city. And it was so quiet, right? Because we were in the middle of nowhere, that my wife had a hard time sleeping, right? Because it was there was zero noise. Zero interference is zero distraction, and it was just so slow. And right. It was you know, it was great, great, but it was, it's a shock. So do you think

Justin Vititoe 38:28

what do you think one of the things that everybody said, you know, like, if you go to go to the mountains or whatever, like that's one of the things everybody says like, Oh, it's so quiet. Well, that's normal. Like that's supposed to be normal, right? Like all this. It's not supposed to be ridiculously loud. Like the earth is not it's not supposed to be just constantly humming with all these noises you know that we choose to ignore? It's supposed to be you're supposed to hear crickets, you're supposed to see the you know, the Milky Way when you look up in the stars at night, you know, like

Sam 39:02

Yeah, and to think that there there are people that will will never see the Milky Way. That's a that's a life change experience. If you've never seen the Milky Way. Go find dark sky.

Justin Vititoe 39:12

They see. They see right next Snickers bar that's about

Sam 39:16

right. If you if you've never seen the real one, go, go find some dark sky lay on your back. stare at that for a while and think about your life. I mean, it's it's a thing. I mean, do you think that you would have ended up where you are without the alone experience? I mean, was that where your life was going to take you anyways? Or did that time with yourself kind of did that change something in you that that took you there?

Justin Vititoe 39:46

So I will try not to do the two hour answer to that question. So there's there's a commonality that that I want to find by accident because of the show, right? And so what I mean by that is that when I, when I got out of the military, I missed war, right? I missed being in Iraq or being in Afghanistan, I missed it, right? And there was this, there was this draw this compulsion, this, this overwhelming urge to go back. And, and for anybody that's, that's done that you probably you probably know what I'm talking about, for anybody that hasn't, it's really difficult to explain, right. And so it's like, it's like a compulsion that you just can't shake. And it was, it was so much that there was a couple of times where I almost did go back on the civilian side. And I kind of thought better of it and wound up not but, um, so I think a lot of guys rationalize that, because, you know, you think well, okay, well, you know, it was the camaraderie or it was this, the other thing, right. So when I got done with alone, the first couple weeks, like, I didn't talk to anybody, I didn't want to see anybody I didn't. And I want to talk to a friend of mine who had been through kind of similar experience. And he kind of helped me through, you know, get back into society, and, and, you know, all that kind of stuff and break it out of my, my bubble, but I kind of went to that same, that same place, in my mind, that same cave, so to speak, in my mind. And the other weird thing was, there was the same drawl the same compulsion, the same feeling. But instead of going back to war, it was going to the woods and being completely away from everything, right. And so, but the, the, the draw of that magnetic pole was the same. And so I struggled with that for a while, I was like, how can you know, they're polar opposite things, you know, on one end, you're, you're with a bunch of people. And on the other end, you're completely by yourself, like, how can this how can I be attracted to these things the same. And what I finally realized was what I was actually attracted to, and what I think a lot of guys that are, that are going through those emotions are attracted to is you're attracted to this simplicity, you are attracted to it, because you have stepped through on a subconscious level, you have stepped through the looking glass, your subconscious mind has realized, Oh, this is how I'm supposed to operate as a human being, I'm supposed to wake up, I'm supposed to worry about not dying, I'm supposed to worry about eating, you know, I'm supposed to, you know, deal with the problems at hand, I'm not supposed to be stressed out about my neighbor's lawn being greener than mine, I'm not supposed to be stressed out about taxes, I'm not supposed to hear all these weird noises, you know, I'm not supposed to, you know, do all of these things. I'm my, I am wired as a human being, to, to live a more simplistic as we would look at it, like, and I think once you have an experience to where, where you kind of, you kind of go through that portal, you kind of step through that looking glass, and you see that on a subconscious level, your subconscious level is always trying to get back there. And you might not realize it on a conscious level, right? But your subconscious is producing that, that gravitational pull, it's producing that draw, that's telling you no go this is not right. Like, none of this stuff is right. Go back to when, when it was the way it was supposed to be. Right. And so for that's just what I personally believe I might not be right, but that's what I personally believe. So, um, you know, in dealing with, you know, PTSD and things like that, and for, for this specific, you know, stuff for, you know, war or whatever. You know, a lot of people that have never been to war, you know, they look at it, and they say, Oh, well, that, that had to be traumatic. And that, for some people it is, you know, for some people it truly is and there's different events that they have to go through or whatever, that that traumatize them, right. And in dealing with PTSD,

you can you can deal with those, those specific events. And, but, you know, I spent almost four years you know, throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, you know, that's, that's not a that's not a specific event. That's a that's a changing of life. lifestyle, right? And so for a long time, I was like, I don't have PTSD because there was nothing traumatic. Like I don't, there was nothing. To me that traumatized me from from Iraq or Afghanistan, there was, none of those things were traumatizing. I would go back and do him again in a heartbeat, right. And so what I finally realize is there was trauma. But the problem is, is that the trauma is what you and everybody listening to this cause normal life. Right, the trauma, the trauma is that I see the world differently now. On a on a very deep level. And I, I, my subconscious won't let me go back to saying like, Oh, this is fine. Like, no, it's not fine anymore, you know. And so when I'm on my mountain, there's no trauma, you know, what I mean? When I have to get reintroduced into normal, quote, unquote, then it's that same trauma all over again, right? So it becomes this becomes this thing of, well, how do you treat that, when you're still living that trauma, when you're still, you know, being surrounded by all these things, that your subconscious brain is telling you? No, this ain't right, Baba, like you ain't supposed to be here. You know, that, that creates a whole nother dynamic, right? And so, um, you know, one of the other things that that's hard to deal with that is escapism, you know, so for me, there's, there's times where I spend a week or more, and I don't come off the mountain that I say that, like, it's, it's both literal, and just kind of a term we use up here, of coming off the mountain, right. And so like, But literally, it is, you know, like, coming off a mountain and going into town. But yeah, there's, there's times where, you know, I'll spend an exorbitant amount of time and I, I don't necessarily, you know, do anything crazy, but I stay, I stay out, I stay on the, on the mountain. And so it's, it's, it's, it's strange, man. So it's trying to find that balance. Now, you know, it's trying to find that balance to where I'm able to, to kind of deal with the the normals the normalcy of society, when I have to deal with it. Um, but by the same token, I'm, I'm in my happy place, the most, or the most of it, you know,

Sam 47:48

it's, it's funny, as you're, as you're talking, we're going to try and I think keep this to about an hour or so you can get back to your life, but I'm realizing, my goodness, this this guy needs needs, like, volumes to, to speak through your stuff, I think, to touch on something that you mentioned there is I was speaking with a individual that I'm close to a little while ago, and they've had a long law enforcement career, and they're to the point where they could retire if they chose to. And we were talking about that retirement and, and, you know, what do you go to, and, and you're talking about this, you know, the, the shock is the real world, it's not where you were, like, yeah, how do you how do you find purpose, right? Like, how do you find, right? How do you find purpose and meaning? And how do you find yourself, you know, going out and investigating some dude for insurance fraud, because he's out of work, but he's, you know, with a bad back, but he's out building a fence or something, you know, you find meaning in that when you've spent such a long time doing something so meaningful? And I think that probably plays into what you're kind of talking about. Right? Is is the the trauma is is the life that we're currently living, not necessarily the life that we have lived historically for 1000s of years.

Justin Vititoe 49:10

Right. Yeah, and I think we lose a lot and and yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head, you know, it comes down to a lot of guys ask themselves well, what's my purpose right? And it's not clearly defined anymore. And so over the past couple years, I've done a lot of changing you know, the way I think about things and the way I the way I do things and whatever and I had an experience out in Utah a couple years ago where I probably should have died and the only reason I didn't die was because the the guy that was kind of leading the excursion, his name's Dave holiday if you're, you know, know know much about survival stuff. He's he's kind of like one of the, one of the the godfathers of modern day survival stuff, you know, dude's been living it for, I don't know, 4050 years. But But yeah, so the only reason that I'm sitting here talking to you was because he got told to leave a fire when, you know, out, out there out, you know, places like Utah, you don't just leave fires, right? And you know, something told him to, to leave that fire. And we mean the guy was with we found it a little bit later. But, you know, we were right on the brink of hypothermia, and probably would have died. I mean, not probably we would have died if we hadn't found that fire. And, and that's a whole long story. But the point being is that after that, I was like, Okay, I need to start listening to whatever, whatever he's communicating with, right. And, you know, so I, I try not to put things in boxes, because I feel like boxes, with definitions. inadvertently turn people off, right? So if I, if I were to if I were to say that that was God, right, then then some people would be turned off by that, you know, if I were to say like, oh, well, that was the universe talking, you know, and some people will be turned off by that. So I'm prefacing it in this way, I believe it was God. But I, if another person doesn't, you know, they think it was something else. Great man, like, I'm not gonna sit here and argue with

Sam 51:44

you about the end result is the same. Right? Right. At the

Justin Vititoe 51:47

end of the day, you know, what, what it was, is that, you know, I'm still alive because somebody listened to something bigger than themselves. Right. And so what I have strived to do is, is start listening, you know, my own self. And since I've done that, you know, my life has been guided more toward trying to help people in a lot of different ways, but, you know, even just just random stuff, but and then, you know, as well, it has, it is kind of, kind of renewed that purpose, right. So, I know, my I know, my reason that I was put on this earth is to help people. Now what I choose to do with that, and how I choose to listen, sometimes are two entirely different things, man, some, some days, I don't want to listen to me, like, and, and some days, some days, you know, I feel like I, I have to, you know, so I think, I think for a lot of people, if they could, if they could try to listen and, and, and communicate with the with that entity, whether it's God for them, whether it's, you know, the the universe it, whether, whatever, whatever you want to call it, and today's modern day and age, but, you know, I really don't care what you want to call it, but to me, it is it has been unequivocably proved to myself that, that there is something bigger in the world connecting us. And, you know, therefore, even on a logical standpoint, like it makes sense to try and look out for your fellow man. Now, now, some people, some people just either don't deserve it, or, or, you know, don't don't, yeah, let's just put it that way. But, you know, there's, there's a lot of people out there that that might need, you know, just a kind word, man, you know, or, you know, help opening a door or whatever, you know, it doesn't have to be anything crazy. It doesn't have to be anything, whatever. But I think, you know, when you get that, that feeling inside or that little, little voice in your head saying, hey, you need to go do this. I don't question it. Don't whatever, you know, like, just don't just go do it. And you'll find that when you start going down that path that they your life takes a lot of different, you know, weird twists and turns. But, you know, like I said, The only reason I'm talking to you right now is because two years ago 60 something year old man. He didn't question it. He didn't he didn't rationalize why he should or shouldn't do it. He just said okay, yep, I'm gonna do that.

Sam 54:50

Amen, man, I sorry, I kind of got lost in your in your story there.

Justin Vititoe 54:54

That's, that's the abridged version. That's this super, super short version.

Sam 55:00

Yeah, no I can set like I said, I, I said volumes and maybe, maybe libraries is what we're going to have to come back to at some point. It's funny, my wife and I, yesterday, we had a, a very long conversation about, you know, the concept of purpose and then listening. When you get that feeling, and I would agree with you, I would I would call that a spiritual prompting from from a deity. But, yeah, I mean, how for you? How have you found you've been able to tap into that? And listen, because I think, you know, if someone is spiritually inclined, that's probably the age old question, right? And whatever it may be, how have you tapped into that and found found your way to hear and listen?

Justin Vititoe 55:50

Oh, so I'm, I'm still working on it. Right. So I'm about the most on spiritually inclined person, you ever meet your life? Right? Um, so for years and years and years, like I was, I was pretty much as close as an atheist as you could get. Right. And, like, I think about things very pragmatically, and very, more on a more scientific side, right. So you got to kind of prove to me that the, that something exists, like, I'm not just gonna believe it, because you said, and so, you know, that was that thing on that that event on Utah that I was describing, like, that was a huge catalyst for me to start. And, you know, since then, I guess, for me, it's been differentiating the feeling of when something is speaking to me telling me to do something, versus when my own my own intuition, or my own inclination is to do something, right. And what I found is they're, they're very different. At least for me, personally, those those two things are very different. Sometimes I'm like, Yeah, should do that. But it's, you know, it's fine, whatever, like, I'm not gonna do it. Um, and other times, I feel like, if you don't do this, like, you are going to regret it for the rest of your life. Like, there's, there's no, there's no, you know, like, there's no not doing it, like you have to do it. Right, the feeling is that strong. And I think the hang up, at least for me, has been in the past, of not knowing what the end result was going to be not knowing what the outcome was going to be right. And not knowing the secondary and tertiary effects. And then therefore, I'm like, well, it's not worth my time. Well, you don't know whether it's worth your time, right. So still, to this day, you know, I guess from the reruns or whatever, you know, that I guess looking back on it, this is what happened to me. When I climbed the mountain, on on the on the show, is I just, I felt I didn't go out there with the intent of doing that. Right. So I think it was like day 12 Or something like that, that, that this idea hit me and I was like, I have to do this. Like, there's no ifs, ands, or buts. It was like, I have to do this and even even in that state, and even in that, you know, everything I I didn't understand the full extent of what I was doing, you know, I understood that I was doing it, I understood that something inside of me was telling me that I had to do it. But I I had no way of knowing what what that was going to mean. Just so many people.

Sam 58:53

Yeah, man, I'm gonna back up for just a second I'm gonna stick a pin in where you ended with how that meant so much to so many people. And, and I think obviously, you know, this podcast is called the alone podcast and you know, the target audience obviously is going to be people that have watched the show. But what Justin is referencing is and Justin you'll be able to better fill in the blanks but you know, alone, if you if you aren't intimately familiar with the show is is basically a show that at the end of the day, you're balancing what you're doing with what you're doing physically with what you're taking in. Right that's kind of what the show boils down to in a lot of instances. And it's slowly dying Yeah, effectively that

Justin Vititoe 59:38

that's the that's you're watching people slowly die.

Sam 59:41

That's the less ginger way to put it. Yeah, you're you're you're watching people starve and when you're in that situation, you know, every calorie that you expend has to be worth something. And so Justin made the decision, and again, correct me where I'm wrong, but he made the decision to climb the basically the highest point observation point in his area. And, and went and did that and I'm assuming that you expended, you know, probably more calories in that one endeavor than you might have taken in almost in your whole time on the show.

Justin Vititoe 1:00:19

And probably and I mean, I've, I've done similar climbs and actually calculated it, you know, in a previous life when I used to count calories and things like that. And I mean, you're, you're looking at upwards of probably five to 10,000 calories easy. Sorry, yeah, easy, I expended way more than I took in probably the whole time.

Sam 1:00:43

Yeah, and just as you did that with a with a purpose. And, and I believe that that purpose was, you know, veteran awareness and veteran suicide and, and shining a light on on really, this, this mental health epidemic, that's, that's going through our military. And for me, you know, that was something that I've always remembered, right. And I've always remembered that moment of that show. And so just to kind of color the story of what you did, and so you can pick up again, where you were talking about how you had that thought, and you did it and didn't realize it was going to be so meaningful for so many people. So you can just, if you want to just continue with your story, I just want to make

Justin Vititoe 1:01:26

sure that that for sure. Is there for people? Yeah, yeah, for sure. And, you know, I think, you know, the one part about it was, was to raise awareness, and I think, you know, at that time, and it's, it's kind of hard to even fathom now, because there's so much awareness, you know, raised about, you know, 22 suicides a day, and I don't even know what the number is anymore. I don't know, if they've released anything, but you know, part of it at that time was to raise awareness, but a bigger part of it was, as I, I, I couldn't really put it into words, you know, at the time, but, you know, is to just an attempt to provide, you know, some some level of motivation, some, some physical thing that a person could watch, and they get, you know, that if they're going through that, they could, you know, remind themselves, right. And so, I think, I think things like that are important, you know, for instance, I have, I have the last three lines of a, of a poem written by Robert Frost on tattooed on my forearm. And, you know, it's, it's a visual representation, it's a reminder, right, because I knew I wanted to do something I could, uh, but I mean, I could have sat there, you know, and, and just set my shelter on camera and talked about it. And that, that might have done something for somebody, but I felt like it had to be something tangible, it had to be something you know, and it was, I guess, metaphoric or whatever. But, you know, but it had to be something actual, that I did, to kind of help and, and I gotta give, you know, as, as much as a lot of our, a lot of us, you know, tend to complain about the editing and everything else, like, I got, I got to give the, the production company props on the way they, the way they edited that, and the way they produced that, because, I mean, it really, it took up almost that whole episode, like it was, they, they, they really, they really went into it, you know, not just as a I went into it for the right reasons, you know, what I mean, there was even a blurb at the end about, you know, resources and stuff, but but, yeah, I mean, it, I still to this day, I'll get, you know, random messages from people, you know, saying like, Man, I really appreciate that and, you know, you know, kind of, you know, helped me help me, you know, Veer down a different course or whatever. And

you know, I mean, hard telling how many people haven't messaged me, but have had that same experience, you know, and like, um, so I guess, you know, going back to my original point, is that I didn't set out intending on reaching that many people, right, I didn't set out I didn't know what they were going to edit. I didn't know how they were going to, you know, that could have been a 22nd you Video Clip, like, oh, Justin climbed a mountain, look at that idiot.

Sam 1:05:04

He ended this time on alone. Yeah,

Justin Vititoe 1:05:07

and so like, I didn't know how that was gonna get portrayed. So, um, and so I think, you know, going in backboard we're talking about about listening and about your normal life, you don't know, the secondary and tertiary effects of a nice word, you know, you don't know how that's going to change a person's life, and how that person is going to change another person's life and so on and so forth. You know, I think there's actually a term for that, like, whatever. But, you know, I, so I think, if you can do nothing else, you know, just just try and be helpful, they're trying to help people try and be good. And, you know, and whether or not how that takes a turn and your specific life, you know, it'll, it'll either it'll either change things or won't, you know, but, you know, I think, I think that's the, that's probably the best way to start listening, you know, is to, is to get in that get in that mindset of, Hey, man, like, we're all humans, right. And I think as polarized as we are, specifically, as a country, you know, we look for every single thing we can to divide ourselves, right? Like, I don't care, whether it's the clothes, you wear, the color your skin, the, you know, the amount of money you make, whether you've had a shot or not a shot, or you know, whether you whether you like donkeys or elephants, or what it is, man, like we are, we are so polar. You know, so polarized, and I actually saw a cool meme today, it was like, you know, it's like groups of people arguing, and then it kind of kept pulling back and pulling back and pulling back was a cartoon, but eventually, it got back to where Earth was just like a speck, right, and all the stuff that they were, that they were arguing about, you know, you couldn't see that that picture anymore, you couldn't see that blurb. And you know, you just saw space. And I think we forget sometimes that we are we're we are inhabitants, all of us are inhabitants of an earth, you know, and even if we scale that down to our state, or our city or whatever, right, we're still, we're still just, you know, this, this little speck. And, and so I think, even, like I said, even from a logical standpoint, if you if you really dial it down, and you really go down the rabbit hole of how that works, like, the logical conclusion is that as much as possible, we should be good to each other. And like I said, there's there's outliers to that there's people that don't deserve it, but there's a lot of people that do and, and I think we spend way too much time worrying about stuff we shouldn't be worried about, and not worrying about the things that we really should be worried about. And that's, that's helping each other out.

Sam 1:08:10

And this is, this is fantastic. And, you know, I feel bad, I feel like we're kind of at a point where to, to really put an emphasis on, on what you've said here, because it's really profound and, and I think, you know, you're, you're a good example of someone who's living a life with purpose for one, and someone who has a lot to offer to your fellow man, it'd be, it'd be a great point to just stop and put a pin in that I do want to talk about a few more things and give us some time, and then we'll wrap up because I think that we've probably just reached the most important point of our conversation, and I appreciate that.

Justin Vititoe 1:08:50

I will, I will say one more thing, if you don't mind, please, about all that. So like, I think a lot of times, you know, when, when, when I when myself or another person and this kind of goes back to what we're talking about before we before we started the episode, but I think a lot of times when, when myself or another person speaks and you know, other people listen, and they're like, oh, man, this guy's got it all together. And you know, this, you know, they're, you know, yay for that dude or whatever, or, you know, however they feel about that. So, I will just add the caveat of, I'm just a normal person, man, like, I don't have my stuff together every day, you know, all day. You know, there's, there's a lot of there's rough days, you know, there's, there's, there's times when I feel lost, right? So, I feel like that, that sometimes, you know, we we only show people the good we only show them, you know, it's the Instagram syndrome, right? We're only showing, like the cool stuff in our life, right? And we don't show those hardships. And so when when other people look at that they can say well Man, I don't, I don't live like that, you know, I don't get to, you know, you know, do this every other thing. And, you know, I would just say to anybody listen to this, like that it's not all sunshine and rainbows all the time, you know what I mean? It's it's work, you, you have to put in, if you want to be happy, you have to put in the work and look out for yourself and try to try to do things that are that are going to do that. But it's not going to be like this, this magical, mystical moment where unicorns come out with, with ice cream cones, you know, and, and that's just how you live all the time. You know? And I think that's, that's one of the things about you know, like, like living up here, people, you know, either we get two reactions, either one people, I think, like, like, low key think we're crazy. Or two, they're like, oh, man, that's awesome. You know, like, I would I wish I could do that. I really, you know, like, that would be my dream or whatever. And, yeah, there's a lot of cool stuff. But by the same token, there's a lot of hard stuff to

Sam 1:11:08

say, those people have never put up a winter's worth of firewood.

Justin Vititoe 1:11:12

Right? Right. You don't have to you don't have to walk out in the snow and empty the bucket that you that you went to the bathroom and you know, like, like those, like, there's just a lot of stuff that doesn't get thrown out, you know, and so that that's the only thing I would want to add, you know, it's just, you know, when you when you listen to people, whether it's me, or whether you listen to you know, whoever that that kind of gives you that, like, yeah, I can I can do this. Here's a motivational, like, that's all well and good man. But you have to realize that they have bad days, too. You know what I mean? It's not just because you have a bad day, or just because you have a bad week or whatever. Doesn't mean like you fallen off the rails, it just means you got to get back up and keep going.

Sam 1:11:58

I think that's a an excellent reminder, an extra reminder for me. I mean, I've, you know, I've, I think an interesting side effect of called the digital age or whatever, you know, we all have the ability, like right now I'm talking to you right, about your experience in your life. And this will be shared with who knows how many people, right, whether that's one or 100. But we're getting a very specific picture of Justin. And for me, I found myself a couple years ago, I got really heavy into running, right. And I was listening and consuming running media trying to find ways to become better. And that eventually disillusioned me with a lot of current, you know, media because I started realizing I was like, wait a minute, you know, I'm I'm listening to people who are like winning races at a distance of 100 miles, right? Yeah. And they're telling me their experience, and I'm listening to them. And you know, I'm at a point where I'm running. Right? I'm at a point where I'm able to do 20 miles through the mountains. I think I'm a little bit disillusioned, and I think I'm hearing things that I'm probably not prepared for yet. You know, because we're, we're constantly bombarded with hearing from the expert, and hearing from that person who has their perfect life put together

Justin Vititoe 1:13:18

well, yeah, and you just see that you just see the good man, you just see that smiling faces across the finish line, you see that cool, that cool picture of them, you know, looking all ripped up, you know, run really fast or whatever, like, you don't feel their pain. You know what I mean? Like anything that's worth having comes with pain, like bar none, you know, and so if it's something you want, if you want to be an ultra marathoner, right, if you want to be happy, if you want to, if you want to whatever it is, whatever that is, there's going to be some pain attached. And if there's not any pain, then you're probably not getting the fullest, the fullest expanded, you're probably not feeling that as deep as deep as you could

Sam 1:14:01

have. And, and a good good caution reminder that if, if you're listening to someone who's got everything that looks perfect, there's there's a whole different story behind that and, and hopefully, that's what we're, you know, I'm going to try and convey but I really appreciate appreciate your time and your insights. This is something that I'm excited to listen back to actually, and be able to just listen and not have to be processing and thinking through right. Tell us a little bit about what you're doing. And you know, I know that you've started your business and we've you've got a Facebook page if you want to tell us where to where to find you. I can I think it's Bear Mountain if I'm remembering correctly, but

Justin Vititoe 1:14:45

it's Bear Mountain survival named after our dog who is famous bear. We also have bear on on our mountain. But

now our Yeah, so that's that's the that's the business Bear Mountain survival. We're out of heaters, West Virginia. But yeah, there's a Facebook page. Hopefully in the next month or so

we'll be getting our website up and running to where people can enroll on the website. And life is easy and don't have to worry about all that kind of stuff. So I am not doing that myself. I'm outsourcing it to a guy that's really good at that. So. But yeah, so we are focusing on advanced courses. And by advanced, I mean, we're taking basic skill sets and applying them to real life things, right. So I think one of the bubbles that I've seen, one of the gaps that I've seen in the survival community, as I've been a part of it for these last few years, is that most people just teach basic courses. And, and that's great. Like, we were actually going to have a page on our website, that, that has, like friends of Bear Mountain. So if you're looking for a basic course, you can go on there and kind of, you know, find somebody that we trust, you know, that that teaches good stuff, and it'll be a resource to be able to find them. But, you know, there's so much that there's so many, so many awesome instructors out there doing, doing that kind of stuff. And it's just really not not what I wanted to do. Right. So what I do is I take I think those skill sets, but I, I apply them very directly into other real life things, right. So, for instance, a course we got coming up in October, it's a minimalist travel course, right? So we teach people how to go, and a longer distance with less stuff, and still be comfortable, right? So you're using survival skill sets, but it translates to, if you're a hunter, if you're a fisherman, if you're a hiker, if you're, you know, whatever you like to do outdoors, how do I you know, decrease the amount of stuff I'm walking around with, increase my comfort level, and increase my enjoyment level, because I can go far further faster, you know, over obstacles, you know, whatever. And so it's, it's about trying to do those types of things about trying to take to take skill sets, and put them in a place where they can actually be transferred to real life and then through through that be able to take ideas and concepts, and then bring that back to your actual daily life. Right. So your your work life, your, your, your relationship life, you know, whatever it is, you know, how do you take, you know, concepts, and bring them in and make your life make your life fuller. And so that that's really where my passion lies in now is being able to do that kind of stuff, and do more advanced courses. So ideally, you know, and this is not a prerequisite But ideally, we I want to become the place that people that have already gone and taken, you know, these these other courses can come to and get, get a more advanced side of it. Right? So they're not just learning the same things that they already know. They're not going over, you know, the same regurgitation of information. They're, they're learning something on a much deeper level.

Sam 1:18:43

That's cool. For your travel class. Just have to ask our PT shorts and sandals required for your go light

Justin Vititoe 1:18:51

go there. They are not required, but they are highly

Sam 1:18:54

encouraged. highly encouraged.

Justin Vititoe 1:18:56

highly encouraged. Pants are optional.

Sam 1:19:00

There you go. That's if you don't know what we're laughing about there. Go ahead and watch season two of alone. Go spend some time with Justin and his short PT shorts and sandals.

Justin Vititoe 1:19:13

Those were actually the longest pair I had Homers. Yeah, I save I save viewers.

Sam 1:19:18

Don't start a YouTube channel, my friend. Don't start a YouTube channel. I think I've read somewhere that your class or at least have something going on. It's geared towards military and law enforcement as well. Is that kind of your whole reference or is that kind of a different side of Bear Mountain that you're building out?

Justin Vititoe 1:19:37

No, no. So yeah, so that that will be a right now there's only right now there's only one specific class that is that is tailored for for military law enforcement, and that's the the fieldcraft the advanced aircraft course. And that's, that's more of a buy request. I probably next year I will do One, but that's more like your unit or your department gets a hold of us. And then you know, we do it for your unit or department. But I'll probably have at least one a year, maybe two a year, to where we do it to where, you know, any military or law enforcement can come individually. And then I'm gonna, I'm gonna try and get a get a stranglehold on on just a few classes. So we're not, we're not going to be offering just a large platter. So the big one, the long one, that's five days, that's the minimalist travel, we'll probably wind up holding that three to four times a year. Like I said, that's, that's five days long. And then we'll have some shorter classes that are be like weekend classes. One of the one of the classes that I do for that is called weapons without bullets. So it's both hand to hand and so stick knife, Tomahawk, you know, hatchet, hammer, whatever, whatever. Yeah, so basically, the the types of things that you would have readily available, if you were out in the woods, you know, things like that, and you didn't have a self defense, firearm or any any firearm for that matter. And you had to defend yourself. So where this comes back to is a is a kind of a system that that I've adapted from, from various things, but it's, it's rooted in a baseline of, of things that can be easily trained, and can be easily remembered. And it has a tendency to be able to, if you understand it, as tends to be able to work with most handheld objects, right. And so, I mean, just, what was it? A couple of years ago, maybe there were some hikers on the Appalachian Trail, like, got attacked, and a few of them died, got attacked by some crazy dude, I think he had a machete or something, you know? Yeah.

Sam 1:22:14

So that hit national news.

Justin Vititoe 1:22:16

Yeah. So, I mean, there's, you know, one of the most dangerous animals out there are human beings. So and, and, you know, so the ability to defend yourself, you know, whether or not you have a gun, you know, is is, is, to me, very important, right. And so, we try to condense that into into things that are, like I said, easily, more easily, you know, transferred into the, the part of the brain that's going to remember that stuff. We will also do a short class called practical survival. The thing I really like about the practical survival class is that I use cell phones in it. Yeah, you heard that, right. I might, I might be the only survival instructor that I know of, that actually incorporates cell phone use into one of their classes.

Sam 1:23:15

Oh, you're the only you're the only off grid guy that has a cell phone too. Right. Right.

Justin Vititoe 1:23:19

Right. Right. But, but I mean, really, realistically, you think about it, we live in 2021. Now, almost 22. Like, if, if you go anywhere, with anything, you are probably going to have your cell phone on you. Right? So it's not just just a simplistic like, okay, just dial 911, right, because you might not have cell phone coverage, but there's a lot of other things you can do that make that tool that you're going to have with you anyway, make that a very valuable asset. And me allow you to help the other, allow it to help, you know, the other part about the practical survival class is that, you know, we kind of go through scenario of, of what a survival situation really actually looks like, versus this movie that you've been playing in your head, right? Um, you know, so that, that incorporates injuries, you know, that incorporates, you know, moving around obstacles. And by obstacles, I don't mean like a tree that's, you know, put up on a bunch of, you know, other trees and you have to climb a rope. What I'm talking about is, you know, mountains, rivers, you know, things like that, how do I get from point A to point B, and negotiate those obstacles without, you know, further damaging myself? How do I move an injured person or how do I, you know, accomplish these tasks, right. And so, it's, it rapidly becomes, you know, kind of a choose your own adventure course. And it's, it's, it's actually your really cool, really cool course. And that one's only like three days long. So. So those are those three right now, plus the the military and law enforcement one are kind of our heart and soul at this point. And then, you know, I obviously have a very strange background where, you know, I know how to do a lot of different things. And I've taught a lot of different things over the years. So I also offer custom courses. So if somebody, you know, once it has a group, or, you know, things like that, you know, where they want to get a hold of me and say, hey, I want a little bit of this, and I want a little bit of that. And I kind of customize those courses tailored to what that person or that group once and then I'll either either they can come to me or I can travel to them, either way, but so that's that's kind of it man. That's, that's what we're about. Again, you know, not not, not doing the basic stuff, kind of kind of taking it to that next level. But one thing I will say, and I've been meaning to put out a PSA on this on the, on the Facebook, and I just kind of keep forgetting. So just in case anybody's listening to this. And is interested in one of the courses when you look at the courses, you may notice, if you kind of compare and contrast that to some of these basic courses that we're talking about, you may notice the price point is a little bit higher. And yeah, it is because we're not, we're not, we're not dealing with, you know, let me let me we're not dealing with basic stuff, right. So there's a lot more on the background that that has to happen in order to facilitate these courses, right. But what I will say, for anyone, and I mean, anyone that is actually wants the training, like if someone actually really wants the training, and you get a hold of me, and you say, Hey, man, I really want to I really want to attend this course, we will figure something out. Like you will, you will not not attend the course. Because, like, because of finances, right? So like, you've got something in your house to train, you've got, like, if nothing else, like I'll put you to work on the homestead like, Whatever, whatever it takes, like, if you really want the training, like I we will work with you. So I've been meaning to put that out. And I will put it out on Facebook, you know, here in the next little bit, but yeah, I feel like that that's one of the things like we're, we're at a point

in, in this in this world where these these skills could potentially, you know, be be very, very important here pretty soon, so I wouldn't feel right. You know, if somebody was like, yeah, man, I really, really wanted this this five day course, but I could only afford half of it, you know, or whatever, like, well, we'll figure something out, man, I'll put you to work. Put your work moving rocks or something, you know, so well.

Sam 1:28:27

military style moving rocks, like move it here and then move it back? Are you talking like you can you can move at your own pace.

Justin Vititoe 1:28:33

As long as you get paid by the rock, though not by the hour. There you go.

Sam 1:28:40

So will you be on on site in West Virginia? Are you going to be you know, where your where your courses? Need to be?

Justin Vititoe 1:28:48

Yeah, so most most of our courses will take place here. So depending on which course it is, some of them actually take place on our land. And in some of them, we have to get permission to use, like parks and things like that, where it's a much bigger area, right. And, you know, but also I do traveling courses this weekend, actually, I'm up in Pennsylvania, teaching a long range shooting class, you know, stuff like that. So there's, there's the, the core of that. But by the same token, like I said, I do private and custom courses as well. So but, but yeah, pretty much all the core classes will happen in and around where we're at in West Virginia. And then you know, if somebody prefers, you know, especially people that are living in a vastly different area, you know, say out west or in the desert or something. If they're living in a vastly different area, and they're like, Okay, yeah, great, but that doesn't really help me. You know, survival wise, you know, here because, you know, My terrain is different, my vegetation is different whatever, then it probably more advantageous for me to come to you and teach you a course in your backyard. So those are a little bit more resource intensive sometimes because we got to find a place to do it and things like that. But yeah, like I said, we work with people, man.

Sam 1:30:20

Cool. That's, that's good to hear. And you answered all my other questions, you said, you're teaching a long range shooting course, which means that you do happen to have enough ammo to keep up on that skill. So Good on you there.

Justin Vititoe 1:30:32

I got I got I got people for that.

Sam 1:30:36

All right. Well, I you know, I really appreciate your time. And there's a whole whole bunch of Unturned stones here that, that we could have gotten into. And, you know, maybe in the future of if we can cross paths again, I think that would be fantastic. Sure, I think as we're wrapping up, do you do you have any final thoughts or any last things that that you would like to, to share and get out with anyone on any topic?

Justin Vititoe 1:31:07

Trying to trying to think I don't, I don't feel I don't have any burning, burning compulsion, really. But oh, man, I appreciate. appreciate having me, I wish wish you the best of luck on this, I hope that I hope it becomes something and if nothing else, so but you know, I've been become something that you enjoy, or you find out that you don't enjoy it, you go do something else. But either way, you know, I think I think that's, I think that's a big thing. You know, I I, I said something that I think has been misunderstood, you know, quite a bit. When I when I left the show on my final episode, kind of as I was, as I was leaving, or whatever I said, you know, if something's preventing you from being happy to get rid of, and I think I said something about, you know, whether it was a relationship or a job or whatever. And I think some people kind of took that, in a weird way that I didn't really mean it, right. So maybe that's what I'll end with is that there's a difference between something preventing you from being happy, and something not making you happy, right? So there's times in your life, where I don't care, whether it's your best friend, your your wife, your husband, your dog, whatever, they are not going to be making you happy, right? They are not going to be like, you know, just in it. 120%. Right. And so that's fine. That's, that's a day, that's something you can get over, that's something that you can work toward, right. But when you find yourself stuck in these, like, toxic things, right, and, and I see this a lot with, with people's jobs, right, and especially with the way things are now, I'm not encouraged, I'm not trying to encourage anybody to just quit their job, right. But when it when it comes to the difference between your mental well being right, and your job, or you know, whatever it is, like, choose yourself, choose your mental well being because nobody ever gets to their deathbed, and is like, Man, I really wish I would have worked like an hour more each day. You know, like, no, nobody says that. It's and it goes back to what we're talking about, like, what we should be worried about, versus what we do worry about. If and, you know, enjoy your life, when I say enjoy your life, I don't mean like, oh, just waste all your money and you know, go bungee jumping every weekend or you know, whatever. Like, I'm not I'm not saying that as a fantasy. I'm saying like, Get get to a place mentally, where you can look at something beautiful and recognize it for being beautiful, where you can look at a flower mountainside or whatever. And you can take a second. And you can say, Man, this is awesome. Because if you're not doing that, if you're so worried about all these other things that shouldn't even exist really in the first place that you can't take a moment and enjoy yourself. Then what are you what are you really doing? You're just existing, right? You're not You're not doing anybody else any good. You're not doing yourself any good. You're just existing in this in this weird, weird reality that we've created and so on. I would just encourage, you know, anybody that's listening, and you and by proxy, I'm encouraging myself by saying this, but try to figure out how to actually enjoy your life in a deep way. Not not the random stuff that we do. And we think I go, I'm enjoying this, you know, like, Hey, you're probably just, you know, worrying, you're worrying about stuff without worrying about it, right? He goes, people feel say, Oh, I enjoyed going shopping or whatever, like, No, you didn't know you didn't like you. You just force yourself to think that you needed to do that. Right. But But yeah, so I guess so I'll, I'll wrap up with that. But now, man, I appreciate it. And like I said, I wish you all the best.

Sam 1:35:54

Well, you as well. And I will, I'll put your bare mountain Facebook page in the description here. And, and as your website gets rolling, I'll get that updated and put it here as well so people can can find you, Justin, I appreciate your time. I appreciate your your efforts and your willingness to talk with us today. And I wish you all the best of luck. And I'm sure that we'll be in touch in the future. So thank you so much, and you have a great day.

Justin Vititoe 1:36:19

You too, man. Take care. Take care.

Sam 1:36:21

Bye. Just wanted to take a moment and thank Justin for taking the time to visit with us today was an incredible honor for me to be able to visit with him and hear from him and hear about his life and his experience. So Justin, thank you so much for taking that time. If you enjoyed listening to this episode today. I would appreciate it if you would take the time as well to subscribe to the channel. Go ahead and leave a comment on iTunes. Share this with anyone who you think might be interested in hearing from Justin and other individuals as we move forward.