60 Minutes to Survive: Inside the Pacific Northwest Survival Games: Bonus | E193

The CRUX: True Survival Stories

Bleav + Kaycee McIntosh + Julie Henningsen

Society & Culture, Halloween, Wilderness, True Crime, Nature, National, Crime, Documentary

4.0 • 606 Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Pacific Northwest Survival Games are going national! In this special episode, Kaycee sits down with founder Tony Peniche to discuss the upcoming partnership with Scouting America that could bring survival competitions to 250+ councils across the country. Kaycee also shares her experience competing in this year's games—the adrenaline, the mistakes, the unexpected friendships, and the valuable skills she learned in just 60 minutes per challenge. We talk about everything from shelter building with Oregon hardwood to throwing atlatls (ancient spear-throwing tools used by early humans for hunting), creative camouflage strategies, and how future competitors can prepare for the ultimate outdoor challenge.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone, welcome to the Crux True Survival Stories. This is your host, Casey McIntosh.
0:05.1	Today, I have a special guest, Tony Panichi, from the Pacific Northwest Survival Games.
0:10.4	For those of you who are new or need a refresher, the Pacific Northwest Survival Games is a
0:15.1	wilderness survival competition that's held in Molala, Oregon, where contestants face six
0:20.2	different challenges, things like shelter
0:22.3	building, fire starting, and other bushcraft skills. Each challenge is timed at 60 minutes,
0:28.4	mimicking what's known as panic hour. That's when you're lost in a survival situation and you're in
0:33.4	denial until the sun starts setting. That's when you finally do something and acknowledge,
0:38.3	I'm lost for the night. I have to take action now. In that situation, you can't control the sun.
0:43.6	You have 60 minutes before it's completely dark, your adrenaline's pumping, and you're going to be
0:48.4	making mistakes. I actually competed in this year's survival games, and it was intense.
0:53.6	I was sweating profusely during that first shelter building challenge.
0:57.8	When you don't know what to expect from something, you're already in the state of fight or
1:01.2	flight and I could not believe how much energy I expended.
1:05.3	Today Tony's here to talk to me about my experience of the Pacific Northwest Survival Games
1:09.7	and he has some pretty exciting news
1:11.1	about where the games are headed next. How's it going, Tony? It's gone great. Thanks for having me.
1:16.1	Yeah, of course. Thanks for being here. So you had some updates that you wanted to share with us
1:20.9	about where Pacific Northwest Survival Games is going, and it sounds like more people are going to be
1:25.6	able to access this really cool experience.
1:28.5	Yeah. We just got back last night from New Mexico. We were meeting with the directors of the
1:34.1	Philon property versus Scouting America, you know, formerly known as Boy Scouts. They are interested in
	...

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