Many of the skills you use for camping may come in handy in a survival situation. Hopefully you'll never be in a serious wilderness survival situation, but camping is an excellent time to practice survival skills so that if you ever do need them, you'll have them. And, you never know. You could get lost hiking or your RV or OHV could break down or your horse could run off and leave you stranded. A natural or man-made disaster could render your home uninhabitable and leave you without public utilities for days or even weeks and you may have to rely on your camping skills to survive. Besides that, starting a fire without matches is kind of fun. I do not claim to be a survival expert, but due to the remote nature of many of the locations we frequent as dirt bikers, and living in earthquake country for 40+ years, I have done some research and accumulated some knowledge, training, and skill in emergency survival techniques. I have been trained as a Red Cross Professional Rescuer and obtained a certificate in Advanced Wilderness Life Support in addition to regular First Aid and CPR training. Wilderness survival skills may be essential during a local disaster at home too. For more specific wilderness survival information and links to valuable resources, see
The Wilderness Survival Blog in my blog list. If your plans take you into remote areas, whether just camping, riding OHVs, horseback riding, or backpacking, hiking, hunting, or fishing, you may want to acquire some survival skills of your own specific to your locale and activity. No matter where you are or what you're doing, the most powerful survival resource you have is your attitude and your most important tool is your brain. Here are some basic thoughts.
First of all, YOU may be the only first responder you can really count on. Even at home, emergency services are likely to be overwhelmed in a large scale disaster so the first responders you normally rely on (police, fire department, paramedics) may be days or even weeks away from being able to lend assistance. In remote locations it is even more likely that you will be the only first responder -- period!
Remember the Rule of Threes: In extreme situations you'll only last about 3 minutes without air; 3 hours without shelter (to protect your core temperature from excessive heat or cold); you could go three days without water; you can go 3 weeks without food. Some folks might question 3 hours without shelter, but that is how long you can last before your organs start to shut down if your core temperate gets too cold or too hot. In temperate climates, you CAN last longer than 3 hours without shelter, but, as described, not in “extreme situations”. Even in fairly comfortable temperatures you can become hypthermic if you are wet. The others are pretty firm rules. High temperatures and dry winds can dehydrate you and wear you down faster than 3 days without water and vigorous activity and cold temperatures could increase your demand for food. The Rule of Threes makes a good “Rule of Thumb” on which to base survival priorities. Although you
can live about 3 weeks without food, you start losing capabilities, both mental and physical, much quicker than that without at least some nutrition. That's why Survivorman often resorts to eating bugs after only a few days if he can't snag a bird, snake, fish, or rodent.
If you find yourself in a wilderness survival situation, keep the
Rule of Threes in mind and plan and prioritize your activities accordingly. Assuming you are breathing (the first rule usually applies to triaging multiple victims in some kind of major disaster situation), unless you're in a moderate climate and good weather, shelter should be your first priority, then water, and then, no matter how much your stomach is aching, food is last. Check out this neat tool for remembering the key to the right mindset for SURVIVAL:
"Survival Thoughts". Then take a look at these
"Twelve Habits of Highly Successful Survivors". A really good web site with practical information from a survival expert is
outdoorsafe.com. Another good wilderness survival web site is
http://www.wilderness-survival-skills.com/. Here is a web site that offers classes on
Bushcraft including many skills that could be useful in a survival situation. And now some practical skills to work on.
To estimate how much daylight is left, extend your arm toward the sun and turn your hand back at right angles to your arm with your fingers right below the sun and close together. Each hand width between the sun and the horizon is about 1 hour, each finger about 15 minutes. Obviously this technique is not extremely accurate, but it gives you a workable approximation. Knowing how much time you have before dark can help you prioritize your actions, such as building a shelter, collecting firewood, or staring a fire. This technique might be handy even if you have a watch or other time piece with you since few of us know what time the sun will set on any given day at any given location. Knowing how much daylight is left will be especially useful in determining when to to start your fire. Starting a fire too early just wastes precious fuel and waiting too late means you'll be struggling in the dark or will start freezing before you get it going enough to keep you warm.
Survival tools. Your most important survival tool is your brain. Keep a cool head and think things through. Remember the keyword
STOP:
Stop,
Think,
Observe, and
Plan. Survival skills and tools are important and can make things easier but the right mental attitude is essential. Untrained people with the right attitude have survived life-threatening circumstances while trained people have died because they forgot or failed to use their skills and training. The next most important tool is your two hands. At the top of the list of external physical tools, is a good knife. It has been said "a knifeless man is a lifeless man," and that is especially true in a survival situation. There is much debate about what is the best survival knife so you'll have to make your own decision based on your own needs, skills, and preferences. Just about any knife is better than none. The preference of most survival experts seems to be a moderate sized, fixed blade knife like a hunting knife. We're talking a 3 1/2"-4" blade. Folding knives are not as durable nor as safe. Some folks prefer large Rambo style knives and they certainly get a lot of press, but the most recommended, moderate size is usually adequate for most survival tasks. Many survival tasks focus on carving more than on heavy-duty hacking, so a modest size knife works better in most cases. There are a lot of survival and sporting goods sites that advertise Rambo style survival knives. They often have hollow handles to store extra survival items. They usually are rather large and heavy. In spite of the commercials and the macho appearance, these are usually not the best choice in a true survival situation. A good quality hunting knife would probably be a better choice. It will be more useful for more survival-related tasks, like carving and slicing foods. You'll do a lot more of that than you will the kind of hacking those monster knives are made for. A good multi-tool may be useful, if you have room for it but if you have to make a trade-off, carry a good, fixed blade knife instead. If you have room, carry both. A flint and steel is another small, light, and extremely useful item to carry. An axe or hatchet would be nice to have but is usually too big and heavy, except around camp. A good knife and a fire starter can usually fit in your pocket or fanny pack or on your belt and both will make your survival tasks a lot easier. Speaking of fire starters, a BIC style lighter is small, light, inexpensive (you can get them 3 for $1.00 at Dollar Tree), and a whole lot easier to use than flint and steel. I carry both, in case my lighter runs out of fuel.
Flint knapping is the art of forming stone tools. It is how Native Americans and other primitive peoples made arrowheads, spear points, tomahawks, and knives. If you have no tools at all you may need to make them from available materials, and flint knapping would be a useful skill to have. There are several good web sites that give basic instructions on how to do this. Check them out in case you find yourself in a survival situation and have no tools with you. Being able to form a cutting tool from native rock will greatly expand your options in building shelters, making traps, creating tinder for fire, making weapons for hunting and defense, and preparing food. In some cases you may even need a stone tool for medical purposes, such as removing dead flesh or lancing a boil. There is a definite art to successful flint knapping, so practice it BEFORE you need it in a survival situation. You can get instructions from a book or the Internet, but until you've actually done it, your knowledge, without practical practice, will be only slightly better than nothing. You need to learn the right way to hold the piece you're working on at the right angle and strike it just right in the rigth place in order to shape our tool and get a good sharp edge on it.
Without a doubt, one of the most helpful survival skills is being able to build a fire. And, fire-building is a skill you can practice often while camping. Fire can keep you warm, dry wet clothes, cook your food, purify your water, provide a signal to aid searchers in finding you, warm your shelter, help keep wild animals away, and provide psychological and physical comfort and entertainment. Always try to carry a "BIC" lighter on all your adventures. I often find them at Dollar Tree with 3 or 4 in package for just a buck. They are inexpensive, small, and lightweight -- and they're a LOT better for lighting fires than any primitive wilderness techniques. However, in case you forget, break, or lose your BIC or wear it out, you should experiment with getting a fire started without matches or lighters. There are a number of commercially available flint and steel fire starters that are immune to wet or damp conditions that can render matches useless. I know a search and rescue/wilderness survival expert, who keeps a small flint on his key chain so he is never without one and I usually keep one in my pocket when I'm out and about. In an emergency you might be able to find rocks that can create sparks. Speaking of sparks, I'm always amused how lead bullets create sparks on rocks in the movies. It may a be a long shot, but worth trying if you don't have any other options. If you carry matches, I recommend you always carry them in a waterproof container, and I'm not talking about a plastic baggy! Invest in a sturdy plastic or metal waterproof match case. And don't bother trying to "waterproof" them by dipping them in wax. Over time the wax can still allow moisture to accumulate in the wood and be trapped inside the match, rendering it useless. Starting a fire with a good flint and steel is pretty easy, if you have the right tinder. Real 100% cotton balls work really well. Synthetic "cosmetic puffs" don't. You can saturate cotton balls with Vaseline to increase their burn time. I can promise you that flint and steel is far easier than rubbing two sticks together to start a fire. I'm fond of saying "The only way I want to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together is if one of them is a match." Other favorite tinder of wilderness survival experts include char cloth and charred punky wood. Char cloth is charred cotton cloth. 100% cotton denim works well but the favorite of experts is something called "monks cloth". It has a kind of checkerboard texture comprised of 4-5 crisscrossing threads in each direction. You can buy it by the yard at your local fabric store and it isn't expensive. A half yard will give you enough for you and several friends for years of fire starter. The only downside to charcloth is it has to be prepared in advance. Punky wood is the light, soft, partially rotten wood you find in dead trees, stumps, and fallen logs and is often readily available in wilderness areas. You can create char cloth or charred punky wood for use as a fire starter by putting the fabric or wood in a tightly closed metal can and putting it in the embers of your campfire until the contents are thoroughly charred. Should only take about 15 - 30 minutes. The charred material or wood reacts well to sparks to get an ember going you can use to start your fire. The can should have a tiny hole in the lid so you can monitor the amount of smoke being created inside. No smoke means it needs to cook longer; excessive smoke means you're burning up your tinder! Of course, you need a fire to create char cloth or charred wood, so you may have to start your first one without it, unless you prepare some in advance and carry it with you. If you saturate cotton balls with Vaseline, they will burn a lot longer and give you more time to get your fire going. Sometimes dry grass can be ignited by sparks from a flint and steel. Crush the grass thoroughly between your hands to break it down as fine as possible before trying to light it. The "fluff" from cattails, milkweed,and other similar plants can also be used if it is loose and dry. You may hear people recommend using dryer lint for a fire starter. If it is pure cotton lint it will work well, but if it contains a lot of synthetic fibers the sparks will just melt through without igniting anything. The lint from drying your denim jeans or your cotton T-shirts or towels would work well. The stuff from your nylon jackets would be pretty useless. 0000 steel wool is another good tinder, one that will ignite even when wet. Make sure it is 0000 and nothing coarser. Also, make sure it doesn't get smashed. Keep it and other forms of tinder in crush-proof containers. Loose magnesium shavings will burn even in wet weather. They don't work very well if they are packed tightly. Some fire-starters include magnesium sticks that can be shaved to make tinder. If you're really feeling adventurous -- or desperate -- you might try rubbing two sticks together. Although this method doesn't appeal to me, it is worth learning. The best way of quickly generating enough heat from wooden sticks is to use a bow drill. You'll need a flexible green stick, a length of string or twine or wire (shoelaces or the string from the hood on your sweatshirt works well), a straight, dry stick, a hand plate, and a base plate, along with some good tinder. Fasten one end of the string to one end of the green stick, wrap it once around the dry stick, then pull the green stick into a bow shape and fasten the loose end of the string to the second end of the green stick. Use a knife or sharp stone to start a small depression in the base plate and in the hand plate. You will want the hand plate to hold the top of the stick while you work the drill to start your fire on the base plate to avoid injury to your hand. The hand plate needs to fit in comfortably in your hand. The base plate needs to be big enough that you can hold it securely with your foot while you spin the dry stick with the bow. Place some soft dry tinder around the depression in your base plate, put one end of the dry stick into the depression. Steady the other end of the dry stick with the hand plate. Then hold the bow so that is parallel to the ground and perpendicular to the dry stick. Use a sawing motion to cause the bow string to spin the dry stick back an forth until the point on the base plate gets hot enough to ignite the tinder. Once you have a small glowing coal or smoke rising from the tinder, blow gently on it until you have enough flame to ignite your fire, slowly adding more tinder and other fuel as needed. If you don't have the resources to make a bow drill, try spinning the dry stick between your hands. Move your hands down the stick toward the base plate as you spin the stick. This helps increase the pressure and friction where you are trying to generate heat and isn't as harsh on your hands as simply moving them back and forth like you do when you rub them together to get them warm. After all, the goal is to heat up the tinder at the point of the stick, not burn or blister your hands! Another possibility is a "fire plow". Use a piece of softwood as a base plate and push a hardwood stick along it to "plow" a groove. Keep plowing the hardwood stick in the groove until it begins to smoke. Then add tinder. Whenever starting a fire without matches, have all your fuel materials ready BEFORE you start. Consider how you're going to transfer your ball of burning tinder to the fire pit or, more likely how you're going to build your fire around your smoldering tinder. Have plenty of tiny sticks ready to coax your tinder into a small fire, then add kindling until you have a nice little fire going. Then add progressively larger pieces of wood until you have as much fire as you want/need. Building a fire bigger than you need wastes time, energy, and fuel. "White man build big fire, stand way back; Indian build small fire, sit up close." Unless you need a bonfire for a big celebration or a signal fire, an "Indian fire" will serve usually serve your needs best. There are a couple of circumstances when you will want to over build a fire: 1) when it is raining or snowing hard enough to dampen the fire and 2) when you need a fire to last through the night.
There are many other creative ways to start fire in am emergency. Some suggestions I've seen include using your eyeglasses as a magnifying glass to focus sunlight, creating a "lens" out of clear ice, or even polishing the bottom of a Coke can with a piece of a chocolate bar to make it shiny enough to reflect and focus sunlight. A clear plastic bottle filled with urine might also be used as a makeshift lense to focus sunlight. Reportedly all these methods were tested and proven possible by the Mythbusters. Personally, I'd rather have my trusty flint and steel (or Bic lighter) but knowing you might be able to polish the bottom of an aluminum can enough to use it as a reflector to focus sunlight to start a fire could be useful in an unexpected survival situation. Surprisingly and disgustingly enough, you can often find aluminum cans just about anywhere. Rubbing two sticks together is the traditional method of starting a fire without matches, but, as I said before, I'm fond of saying "The only way I want to start fire by rubbing two sticks together is if one of them is a match!" It is a nice skill to have as a last ditch effort, but with a little bit of preparedness there are much easier solutions. I recall the scene in Castway where Tom Hanks is trying to build a fire rubbing two sticks together and wondering why he didn't use the laces from the skates he used to knock out is infected tooth to make a bow drill.
As mentioned previously, a major need for a survival situation is shelter, especially if you are out for more than a day or two or find yourself in inclement weather. In either hot or cold environments you may only have about 3 hours to live if you don't find -- or make -- shelter. If you're camping in an RV or tent, you brought your basic shelter with you. But if you're at your camp site, you're not lost and probably not in survival mode -- unless your vehicle is disabled and you're stuck there. In most survival situations, like when you get lost hiking or you crash your OHV or it breaks down far from camp, you probably won't have a ready-made shelter. Food and water are critical to long term survival, but if you are caught in cold or wet or very hot weather, you may not live long enough to get hungry or even thirsty without shelter! Lacking an RV, tent, or man-made structure, the first choice is to find a natural shelter, such as a cave, an overhang, a hollow tree or log, or next to a large rock or tree that will protect you from sun and wind and rain. If you are desert camping, your main nemesis may be the sun and you'll need to seek or create shade, at least during the day. Desert nights can be surprisingly cold so you may need a warm place to sleep. You may be able to get some protection from several types of weather in a thick grove of trees or bushes. Avoid hanging out under a single tall tree, especially in a lightning storm. Remember that wild animals also seek shelter in thick bushes, so use caution if that is your best or only choice for shelter. Make a lot of noise before and during entering thickets to alert animals to your presence and, hopefully, scare them away. If you should intrude on an animal's den where there are young, you can expect the parents to put up a formidable fight rather than run. Even small animals, like raccoons or even squirrels, can be very fierce and dangerous when cornered or when defending their young. Many wild animals carry diseases so even a small bite or scratch could turn deadly in a survival situation. Lacking any natural shelter, you may have to construct one. A simple lean-to is easy to build, assuming you have the resources available to build it from. For a lean-to you'll need a couple of uprights, a main "beam" between them, several "rafters" and leaves or bushy branches to make a wind and waterproof roof. The size of your structure depends on how many people it will have to protect. Make it only as large as needed. Making one too big consumes valuable energy and resources and will not keep you as warm and comfortable as one that is the right size. If you're alone, you only need a shelter as long as you are tall and 2-3' tall. If the length is less than your height you'll have to curl up to be protected, and that can get very uncomfortable before morning. Begin with a framework. For the simplest structure, all you'll need to start with is a pair of uprights and a pole between them. Add "rafters" from the pole to the ground on the windward side of the shelter, then cover the rafters with pine boughs, bushes, driftwood, palm leaves, grass, or whatever you can find, to provide as much protection from sun, rain and wind as possible. If you don't have any rope or cord to tie your structure together, you may be able to make do with strips of bark or vines or even long grass or reeds. Remnants of a tent or tarp or a trash bag may be helpful, either as a roof to keep the elements off or as a ground cloth to keep your body off damp ground or as a blanket to keep you warm. Even the best roof of leaves or pine boughs will probably not be completely rain proof. Piles of pine needles or leaves, if they are clean and dry may be used as a mattress and can be piled over your body to help keep you warm. Just make sure they are dry and not infested with insects that may feast on your warm body! Another option that can be tried almost everywhere is a "debris hut", something even a squirrel knows how to make from leaves and twigs and grass. People have died from exposure when a simple debris hut could have saved their lives. Simply pile up leaves and grass around you to conserve body heat. If you are stuck for more than a day or two and have the resources you might want to form a framework of sticks to support the debris and form a hollow interior so you can get in and out of your debris hut instead of having to pile it on top of your body. How effective is a debris hut? Well, a 12-year old Boy Scout who got lost in the Utah mountains without a jacket made one that kept him from freezing when the temperature dropped to 31 degrees overnight. For optimum heat retention in cold weather, make your debris covering at least 3' thick. Leave a pile of loose material near the opening to serve as a door or make a door by weaving two panels of sticks and sandwiching a bunch of debris between them. Don't make your debris hut any bigger than it needs to be for you and any companions. You don't want to waste body heat warming a lot of empty air space. A simple variation is to just cover yourself with leaves and stuff to protect your body from wind and weather. Be aware that just about any kind of emergency shelter you construct from natural resources is going to leak. If yours does, don't panic and don't beat yourself up about it. Just occupy the driest portions and, when the weather lets up, try adding more "roofing" in the suspect areas. Having a simple, ready-made, waterproof shelter with you whenever your activities may present an opportunity for a survival situation, may add considerably to your comfort and might even save your life. A heavy plastic trash bag or a "space blanket" are readily available, inexpensive, and easy to carry in a pocket, purse, or pack.
Portable, ready-made, emergency shelter. Knowing how to make a debris hut may save your life, but there are easier ways to protect your body -- if you plan ahead a little. I try to keep a survival blanket in my fanny pack when I'm dirt biking or in my back pack or pocket when I'm hiking. These are small -- about the size and weight of a handkerchief when folded up. They are made of an aluminized mylar film that is strong and light weight and reflects a large percentage of your body heat back onto your body. They are also waterproof and the shiny surface can be easily seen by searchers when displayed as a rescue signal. Ordinary garbage bags are a good survival tool. You can cut holes in them to make them into ponchos to keep the rain off and use them for sleeping bags to help keep you dry and warm at night. The big orange bags like the ones used by highway crews are ideal since they can also be used as a highly visible signal, but ordinary black construction-grade bags will do and are easier to come by (available at any home center). Colored trash bags are often available from survival web sites like
Outdoorsafe.com. They're about $3.00 each.
Clothing as shelter. We don't always think of clothing as shelter but in reality it is our first layer of defense against the elements. Always dress for the weather. Dressing in layers keeps you warm in cold weather and gives you options if things warm up. Keep your clothing dry. Water will draw heat away from the body something like 20-25 times faster than air so wet clothes are a serious liability. Cotton tends to absorb water and then loses its insulating properties. Wool and some synthetics will retain much of their insulating properties even when wet so consider that when choosing cold weather clothing. If you do get caught in bad weather in the wrong clothing, look for ways so supplement your wardrobe. Pulling the stuffing out of car upholstery or abandoned furniture and using it to insulate your body could save your life in an extreme situation. Blankets, curtains, table cloths, burlap bags, even trash bags and newspapers, can be used to protect your body from heat loss. Cattail "fluff" makes good insulation as well as excellent tinder for starting fires. Putting a few layers of wadded up newspaper inside your clothing can add warmth. You will find it is easier to keep your body warm via proper clothing or blankets or a sleeping bag than it is to heat your tent, RV, or shelter enough to be comfortable, but being in a cozy shelter will help conserve heat and improves your mood. If someone in your party does get hypothermia (severely chilled) you may need to share your body heat with them to warm them up and save their lives. Wrap up the victim and the "donor" together in blankets or sleeping bags. Use the "burrito" technique: remove any wet clothing, then wrap the victim in as many dry layers as possible, using coats, blankets, sleeping bags, tarps or even newspaper. Avoid putting wool blankets next to bare skin, as this is uncomfortable to many people and some people are allergic to wool. The "burrito" is often effective even without a donor to supply extra heat. You would be surprised how much heat your own body generates! Unless the victim's core temperature has already fallen to near fatal levels, they are likely to warm up enough even without a "donor" to start struggling to remove layers in about 20 minutes. Chemical "hand warmer" packets, if you have them, can be placed in the armpits, on the inside of the upper thighs, and on the inside of the ankles to help warm the blood. If you have extras, you can put one on each side of the back of the neck too. Hypothermia is a life-threatening condition and requires immediate treatment. You can recognize a hypothermia victim in several ways. They may have "raccoon eyes", very dark circles around their eyes. Their skin may have a grayish or blueish tone and be cold to the touch. They may be shivering uncontrollably. If they have been shivering and stop without having been warmed up, their hypothermia is reaching a dangerous stage. ANY of these symptoms demand immediate action to prevent serious complications of hypothermia, including death. Clothing can also be used to make emergency dressings and bandages, but don't sacrifice what you need yourself to survive. Taking care of yourself first in a survival situation is NOT selfish. You will be of no use to anyone -- and will even become a liability -- if you allow yourself to become a victim.
Always a priority for survival is water -- safe, clean water. You can live a long time without food, but you won't last more than about 3 days or so without water. Clear, fast running water is often reported to be safe to drink, but not always. Even clear mountain streams may be infected with giardia, which can quickly spoil any trip. It is safer to always boil water before using it or purify it with appropriate chemicals or filter systems. If you're camping and well prepared, you will have brought enough water with you to last through the planned excursion. But, if something happens, and you're stuck way beyond your intended stay or you become lost or stranded away from camp, you'll need to find another source of water. Lakes and streams are obvious choices, but they can be contaminated with dangerous germs or chemicals and, if you're desert camping, they're hard to come by. You may need to distill water from plants and even from your own urine using a solar still. Dig a small hole in the ground and put crushed green leaves, and any other sources of moisture in the hole. In an emergency you could use coolant from the radiator of your vehicle, but take care not to contaminate your distilled water since coolant is usually toxic. Radiator fluid us usually 50% antifreeze and 50% water, so it can provide a significant source of water for your still. If you must use urine, salt water, or radiator fluid, dig a small trench a few inches around the outside of your solar still and place the fluids in the trench. The soil between the trench and the still will help filter the liquids and provide a purer source for evaporation without danger of directly contaminating your collection container in the still. Place a cup or can in the bottom of the hole and cover the hole with a plastic sheet, even part of a trash bag or grocery bag. Put a small rock in the middle so the plastic forms an inverted cone. Moisture that evaporates from materials in the hole will condense on the plastic and drip off into the cup or can. This process will not produce a lot of water but in an emergency it may give you enough to prevent dehydration and keep you alive until help arrives. A clever twist to using a solar still is to use a length of plastic or rubber tubing (like the casing from bicycle or OHV control cables or vacuum lines from a motor vehicle) to allow you to sip the water from the container without disturbing the plastic cover. Or use a hollow plant stem. If you have no means to purify water, drinking unsafe water MAY be better than not drinking any at all, but not necessarily. The bacteria found in many outdoor water sources will make you sick, but the water may keep you alive long enough to get sick, get rescued, and get well. If you know or even suspect the water is contaminated with toxic chemicals, like you might find around an old mine, don't drink it. Avoid drinking salt water. If you get extremely thirsty it may be tempting, but you will use more of your precious body fluids dealing with the salt than you'll get from the water and you'll soon be worse off than ever -- and it will probably give you stomach cramps. It uses up about 2 liters of water in your body to purify 1 liter of salt water. There is one exception to drinking salt water. If you become dehydrated to the point of getting heat cramps, you need to replenish the electrolytes in your body along with the water. Salt is one of the primary minerals you need. Drinking a cup of salt water or pickle brine when you are having heat cramps will provide amazingly fast relief. If you suspect the water is polluted with deadly chemicals, such as you might find around old mines or ore processing sites, be wary as many chemicals can be fatal, but it still might not kill you as quickly as dehydration will. The effects of some poisons are quick and irreversible so user discretion is advised here!
Always try to purify water before drinking it. One of the best ways is boiling it. Even if the water looks clean, it could contain dangerous germs or chemicals that could make your ill or even kill you. When taking water from a stream or body of water, make sure there are no animal carcasses nearby, especially upstream! Boiling will NOT remove chemical contaminants such as the cyanide used in refining gold that is often found in high concentrations around old ore processing sites. However, if you can collect and distill the steam back into liquid form, it should be safe. There are portable water bottles that filter water. I've seen a 16-oz bottle with an extra filter for around $20-22 that will reportedly purify up to 300 gallons of water. Having one or more of these in your survival kit isn't a bad idea. You can "tap" a birch tree to get usable water much like you would tap a maple tree to get syrup. Make small cut in the bark. Sharpen a small stick and push it into the cut with the outer end at a downward angle. Place a cup or other receptacle under the end of the stick to collect the dripping sap. The fluid you collect may have a woody smell and taste, but it can help keep you alive and is not likely to be contaminated by germs. The leaves of almost all living plants contain moisture, even in dry desert climates. You may be able to put crushed leaves or cactus into your solar still or even chew the leaves to extract the moisture directly. Or simply slip a plastic bag over some leafy branches to capture evaporating moisture. Avoid leaves that appear oily, taste bitter, or have milky or bad smelling sap. Cactus and other succulents are common in many desert environments and are usually an excellent source of moisture. They survive by collecting and hoarding whatever moisture is available to them. Many parts of the plant can be eaten or can be crushed and put in your solar still. As a last resort, clean urine can be "recycled" up to three times and may provide enough fluid to keep you alive a short time until help arrives. Urine contains about 2% salt and may take more water to process than you get out of it, so this would have to be a last-ditch effort. It isn't a pleasant thought, but it sure beats dying! A better way to use your urine is to cycle it through a solar still to purify it. By the way, urine from a healthy person is sterile. In an emergency it can be used to clean wounds. I know, that sounds disgusting, but it could save a life! Another way to kill bacteria in a survival situation is using solar disinfecting. For this you'll need some clear plastic bottles -- made of PET, not PVC. PVC blocks the UV rays needed to kill bacteria. PET will let the UV rays through. Glass bottles also block UV. Fill a PET bottle with the cleanest water you can find early in the morning and let it stand in full sun until at least noon before using it. To remove excess sediment before purifying, tie the bottle on a rope, string, or wire and swing it vigorously in a circle to separate some of the sediment before setting it out in the sun to purify. Carbonate water bottles are sturdy and are popular choices of hikers but, like PVC and glass, the carbonate material blocks UV rays so simply putting your carbonate bottle in the sun will not kill bacteria and, may in fact, simply create a warm environment more conducive to bacterial growth. If your water smells worse than it did when you put it in the bottle, chances are bacteria are multiplying. Toss it out and start over. Boiling water is one of the best ways to purify it. Distilling the steam provides an even more pure source of water. If you don't have a plastic sheet to build a solar still, use a cloth such as a bandana or a piece ripped from your T-shirt to capture moisture from steam when boiling water and wring it out to get liquid water for drinking. Some types of trees, mostly tropical varieties like bamboo and banana, can be a source of water. Cut off the stem leaving about 30 mm. Scoop out the soft inside of the top of the stump to form a bowl. Water drawn up from the roots will accumulate inside. Each tree can supply up to 4 days water for one person.
Sleep. You may not realize it, but sleep is not a luxury, it is essential for survival. Without sufficient sleep, neither your body nor your mind will function properly. Sleeping in a survival situation is often difficult. You will be uncomfortable. You may be frightened. You may be hungry or thirsty. You may be injured or in pain. You may be too hot or too cold or wet. There may be dangerous animals in the vicinity. Any of these conditions will make it hard to get a good night's sleep. If you don't get enough sleep you will become easily tired, confused and depressed, all very dangerous conditions when your very life depends on clear thinking and decisive action. To get enough rest, if necessary, let yourself sleep when you feel sleepy, even if it is in the middle of the day. Find as safe and comfortable a spot as you can. Beds of pine needles, grass, or leaves relieve the suffering of lying on hard, rocky ground -- but make sure your bedding is dry and free from incest infestations. Maintain your body temperature. This is especially hard to do at night in cool climates or during the day in the desert. In hot climates you need to try to stay cool. In cooler situations, you need to stay warm. Anything that can insulate your body from the cold will help: pine needles, pine boughs, leaves, rags, newspaper (crumple it up to give it lots of air pockets), animal skins, plastic bags. I know of people snow-camping using only a couple of plastic garbage bags and some bubble wrap as sleeping bags and they claim they stayed warm all night in a snow cave. Unless you find yourself getting really sleepy during the day, try to maintain normal sleep patterns. The more normal and routine you can make your life, the more comfortable you will be and the better your attitude -- and your ability to survive. There is one other time you may want to try sleeping in the day. That is if you're in a desert. Then it is often better to rest during the day and forage or travel in the early morning or late evening when you have some light but are out of the hot sun. Traveling by night keeps you from baking. Just be sure you have enough moonlight or a torch or flashlight so you don't fall into an open mine shaft or over a cliff or step on a rattlesnake!
Food. You will need a source of food to survive for more than a few days. Without nourishment, your thinking will become cloudy, your strength will wane, and your ability to take care of yourself and those who may be depending on you will be impaired. While you can live for about 3 weeks without food you will begin to feel the negative affects of malnutrition such as fatigue and mental fogging in just a few days. Unless you are a survival expert you may have difficulty finding food in a survival situation. Just about any kind of animal you may be able to trap or hit with a rock or stick, can probably be cooked and eaten. Even "road kill" might do in an emergency. But if you are on a road, you already have a path to civilization and shouldn't be lost for long and road kill indicates traffic on the road. Though not very appetizing to most of us in normal circumstances, rodents and snakes make good survival meals. Cook any meat thoroughly to kill any germs the critter may have been carrying. You will need to know how to create snares or traps. Rabbits are appealing meals for most of us, but it may be easier to trap less appetizing rodents such as mice, rats, and gophers. If you're hungry enough, it won't matter. Google "deadfall traps" to get instructions for building simple traps from natural materials. Remember that prey travels along paths and predators travel beside paths to pick the best spots to set your traps and to avoid becoming a meal yourself. Do you want to be the prey or the predator? Many plants are edible too, but do not eat anything that is extremely bitter as most bitter plants are poisonous. It is a good idea to find out ahead of time what plants are edible in the areas where you'll be camping, riding, or hiking. There are several good books out on "Wild Edibles", but they are often peculiar to a particular part of the country, so make sure you research what works where you are or will be going. It won't do you much good to be an expert in the pharmacological supermarket of the rain forest if you're camping in the desert in the American Southwest. Even "Survivorman", Les Stroud, consults with local experts before each of his adventures so he knows what his options are. One guideline I've heard is if you see a deer eat it, you can eat it. Of course you don't find deer everywhere. Also, a deer's digestive system is much different from a human's and while grass might make your belly feel full and probably won't hurt you, you won't get a lot of nutrition out of it. I've even heard of cows dying of malnutrition when they were belly-deep in grass. It had been a particularly wet spring and the grass had grown quickly without absorbing many nutrients. Another sign of danger in plants is milky, cloudy, or bad smelling sap. Snap a branch or break open a leaf and see (and smell) what oozes out. I've heard of people surviving by eating insects, but personally I don't find that very appealing. I might change my mind if I were hungry enough. Locusts (grasshoppers) have been used as a food source for thousands of years. The Biblical John The Baptist reportedly lived on locusts and wild honey for many years in the wilderness. They are supposedly especially tasty when roasted. By the way, almost any survival food will taste better cooked than raw. Fish are an excellent survival food, if you are near a stream, lake, or ocean and have the means to hook, trap, or spear them. Birds are good to eat but they are difficult to catch. You may find eggs or younglings in their nests that are easier to acquire that can help sustain you in an emergency. Or knowing where the nest is may help you set traps or knock down a bird with a rock or stick as it is coming or going. Just about anything is going to taste better cooked than raw, especially meat, fish, and insects and proper cooking will kill potentially dangerous germs and parasites so learn how to start a fire without matches. The main thing is to obtain some nourishment to keep yourself alive until you are rescued or can find your way out, even it means eating bugs! Even disgusting things like grubs contain valuable nutrients. Roasted locusts or grasshoppers are said to be quite the survival delicacy. And don't wait too long. Even though you may survive for several weeks without food, your body and your brain will begin to suffer the effects of lack of nutrition in just a few days and you won't be able to think straight or have the energy to do the things necessary to survive. Even a little daily nourishment will help. If you have ANY food with you, even candy or gum, try to ration it rather than succumb to the urge to wolf it down at the first sign of hunger. If you can't find anything else, you can chew grass and swallow the juice. You'll get a little food energy from that. Don't swallow the fibers. Your digestive tract can't handle it well. It isn't the kind of fiber that is recommended to keep you regular.
Comfort. It is easy to consider personal comfort as a luxury in a survival situation, but making yourself and your companions as comfortable as possible can significantly improve your attitude -- and your chances for survival. Comfort and convenience may be more essential to survival than you might think. You may find comfort in unexpected ways. Certainly having a comfortable shelter to protect you from the elements and a warm fire are critical factors. However, you may find it improves your outlook to improve your camp site in other ways. Clear away trash or unsightly debris. Create designated areas for your kitchen, sitting, and sleeping areas and decorate them to your personal taste using available resources (rocks, wood, pine cones, flowers). You might identify your camp site boundaries or sections within your camp site using small stones or sticks. Having space you can call your own can be a source of comfort, a refuge. If you have cordage (rope, twine or wire) or know how to make it from available natural materials, you can "rope off" areas to further define your habitat and lash sticks together to create camp furniture that adds to your comfort and convenience. Chairs, tables, and beds are among the first potential creations that come to mind, but you could also create shelving to store gear and supplies and hooks and clothes lines on which to hang your clothing and bedding to let it dry and air out when needed. Even a little art work can perk up you environment and raise your spirits. Weave some sticks and cordage to make an Indian "dream catcher", create a pleasing design on the ground using rocks, pine cones, and sticks or make a sand painting. A functional as well as pleasing project might be a calendar, or at least a record of how many days you've been there. You might use a line of stones or make marks on a rock or tree. It will be helpful to mark significant events on your calendar -- meals, water hauling, passage of aircraft. It will help you ration your resources and predict when you might need to light a signal fire. Make yourself a sun dial to help keep track of time. Even hugging a tree might provide some comfort. In fact, a survival expert friend of mine teaches Boy Scouts that if they get lost and are scared or start to panic, hug a tree. Even though the tree doesn't hug back the act of hugging it mimics hugging another human being closely enough to give some comfort. Sure, you might feel a little silly, but it will also give a few moments to calm down. Try hugging (a companion, a tree, or even wrapping your arms around yourself) if you begin to panic and feel like running or find yourself frozen with indecision.
Fun. Fun as a survival need? You've got to be kidding! No, I'm not. Try to have a little fun when you can. Sing songs, tell stories, play games. Anything you can do to keep your mind active and avoid dwelling on your situation will help you maintain a positive attitude, which is essential for survival. We may have found it amusing to watch Tom Hanks talk to a blood-stained volleyball in the movie Castaway, but the concept is actually a sound survival technique (pun intended). That volleyball, which he named "Wilson", was his only companion.
Signaling. Hopefully you let someone know where you were going and when you would be back so there will be a search party out for you if don't return. Fire is a good signal, especially at night. During the day you may want to drop some green fuel (leaves, twigs, branches, grass) on it to produce more smoke. Whistles are a good way of letting searchers know where you are without destroying your voice. If you rely on shouting to attract attention you will quickly become too hoarse for it to be effective. Three blasts on a whistle are a standard code for HELP. At night you may be able to use a flashlight. The standard pattern is Morse code for S O S: three short blinks, three long blinks, three short blinks. You can also use Morse code using makeshift drums (hollow trees, sticks, resonant rocks). Three fast thumps; three slow thumps; three fast thumps: S.O.S. Three is the magic number for alerting searchers or other would-be rescuers to your situation and location: three rocks piled on top of each other or laid out in a straight line or an equilateral triangle, three tree limbs, three whacks on a hollow log or banging resonant rocks together. Three of anything in a consistent pattern is not common in nature (except for poison ivy leaves!), so it is a fairly good indicator of human activity. I've often seen the use of signal mirrors recommended, but I find the prospect of being able to effectively redirect sunlight in the direction of unknown searchers rather sketchy without a lot of practice -- and you have to know where to target the reflection. If you carry a signal mirror, practice with it by observing the reflection on nearby objects, then try to aim it at passing aircraft or other signs of human activity to attract attention. I prefer signs that can be seen in any direction and over long distances. Flags and fires, for example. A good way to highlight your position is with some kind of flag -- any bright piece of clothing or material will do. Put it where it can be seen for some distance and where it catches the breeze. The fluttering of a bright flag in the breeze will catch the attention of searchers better than a static signal. Fires can be seen for miles at night, but not so much during the day. During the day you may need to add green leaves or grass to your fire to create smoke, which CAN be seen for miles. Smoke isn't as useful at night, but if your camp fire does smoke, that's OK. Light may reflect up the column of smoke and help rescuers locate you. We've all seen Indians use smoke signals in Western movies. If you have the means to interrupt the flow of the smoke, it may help identify your signal so someone doesn't mistake it for a simple campfire. Use a blanket or coat to temporarily block the rising smoke to create three distinct puffs. I'm sure you've seen folks in movies build "HELP" or "SOS" signs using rocks, logs, or just lines in the sand as a potential signal to aircraft. This is not a bad idea if you have a clear space that can be easily seen and you have the strength and nearby resources to do it. Personally, I would not invest a lot of energy packing materials from any distance and would rather focus on improving my shelter and seeking food and water or preparing a signal fire I could easily ignite when needed. Writing SOS in the sand if you're on a beach or in the desert is not a bad idea. Just make sure it won't be quickly wiped out by surf or wind.
Always measure the effort and consumption of resources against other activities you need for survival. Burning a tire from your OHV or other vehicle will create a column of dense black smoke that can be seen for miles and can guide rescuers to your location. A whistle is always handy in a survival situation. It can be heard a lot further than your voice and it won't get hoarse. If you don't have a whistle you might be able to make one. Here is
how to use an acorn to whistle. Of course you won't always be able to find an oak tree to get an acorn. Willows grow in many places, usually near a good source of water. Here is
how to make a willow whistle. Once again, three is a magic number. Give three blasts on your whistle every now and then to get searcher's attention. While some birds may make sounds like a whistle, they aren't likely to repeat three regular toots so it will help would be rescuers distinguish your signal from bird noises. The sound also helps searchers determine which direction to go to find you, so be fairly regular and generous with your signals.
Survival hygiene. In a wilderness survival situation you will be totally lacking all the normal resources for hygiene and sanitation. You may have to temporarily discard normal inhibitions in order to take care of necessary bodily functions. It is still important to keep all parts of your body as clean as possible. Organic materials, such as leaves and grass, may be substituted for toilet paper. There is a plant called mullein that is common in some areas and is fondly called "Desert Charmin", for its soft, fuzzy leaves. It has large, gray-green leaves lined with fine hairs and tall stalks of yellow flowers. It is even said to be make a good poultice for the treatment of inflamed hemorrhoids. Avoid coarse, brittle materials or possibly poisonous plants such as poison oak, poison ivy, and stinging nettle! If you don't know how to identify poison oak or poison ivy, check it out on the web where you'll find nice full-color photos to guide you. A basic characteristic of poison ivy is that it is dark green and has clusters of 3 shiny. pointy leaves. Ordinary oak, popular, sycamore, aspen, poplar, and maple leaves should be easy to identify and safe to use. If you have any question about whether certain leaves will be safe to use for personal hygiene, you can test them by rubbing them on a spot on your arm. Wait a couple of hours. If there is no reaction, they should be safe. If you get a rash or itching, you know not to use that leaf on more sensitive areas! You can wash away mud and other accumulated grime from your hands in a fast running stream or even a mud puddle but you may still be contaminated by harmful bacteria. Fine sand may help remove grease and grime. You may be able to make a primitive form of soap from left over animal fat and some ashes from your fire. If you can, save a little purified water from cooking or drinking to wash your hands and face occasionally. But remember, your danger of dying from dehydration probably exceeds the danger from germs, so, if your water supply is limited, use it sparingly. Do you best to keep your feet clean and dry. Wet socks are not only uncomfortable, they can promote fungus and other diseases and result in serious damage to the skin and tissue on your feet. Damaged feet will be a great liability in a survival situation. If you suspect you are getting a fungus on your feet, a fairly common complaint, it may help to "smoke" your feet over a smoldering campfire to try to kill off the fungus. The smoke from punky wood or sagebrush is said to be especially effective. Smoking your feel also helps warm and dry cold, wet feet. Be sure to hang your wet socks near the fire to dry them before putting them back on. If you have ready access to water, bathe frequently to reduce the chance of infection. If you don't have enough water for bathing, take "air showers" -- expose as much as your body as possible to air and sunlight for a couple of hours every day or so, but be careful not get get sunburned or chilled. The air will get rid of moisture that may promote bacterial growth and sunlight contains UV rays that will help kill germs. Hang out your clothes so they can dry out too. "Smoke showers" are another option. Punky wood or green foliage should create enough smoke on your campfire for you to let it circulate under you clothes, killing bacteria. Aromatic plants such as sagebrush generally produce the most effective smoke for smoke showers. Sagebrush branches are also handy as a broom. An infusion (made by seeping the leaves in water or alcohol) can be used as a disinfectant for cleaning walls, hands, equipment, etc. Temperature permitting, you might take advantage of any rain that comes your way to take a natural shower in the rain. Be sure to hang your clothes where they will stay dry. You can freshen your mouth and kill some potentially harmful bacteria by chewing mint leaves. You may also be able to use juniper or pine needles. They may taste bitter, but they will help clean your teeth and kill bacteria. Don't swallow the nasty-tasting juice.
Wilderness soap. You can clean greasy pans by scrubbing them using ashes from your campfire. A solution made from boiled birch leaves is also said to be good for cleaning. To make "real" soap, you need fat and lye. You can make your own lye from campfire ashes. See
How To Make Soap for detailed instructions and some other useful cleaning tips. It may seem counter-intuitive, but cleaning greasy pots directly with ashes essentially creates the soap from grease and ashes as you clean. The ashes may seem dirty but the heat of the fire will have killed any germs. For really stubborn areas, use a little sand with the ashes.
Wilderness medicine. What medical resources will you have available in a survival situation? For the most part, just what you brought with you. As I said before, I am not a doctor and cannot, by law or common sense, recommend medicines, but I will share with you what I have found works for me and some folk remedies others have passed along. You should always carry a well-stocked and up-to-date first aid kit, including any prescription medications you or members of your party may require. If anyone is allergic to bee stings, you should get your doctor to write you a prescription for an epi-pen and carry the pen with you at all times. Your first aid kid should include antiseptics for preventing infection in minor wounds and pain relievers. Most common over the counter pain relievers are also effective as anti-imflammatories to reduce swelling. I also like to carry an anti-diarrheal medication since digestive problems are common in outdoor activities where you are eating unfamiliar foods and may be drinking contaminated water. One of the most frequent sources of stomach and digestive tract distress among campers is improper or insufficient cleaning of cooking utensils. Grease or soap left on pots and pans creates the all-too-familiar "runs". I once heard a Scoutmaster say he didn't worry too much about the boys cleaning their cooking utensils because is "solved the constipation problem on the trail." From what I've seen, the evidence would show that constipation usually falls on the far end of the graph from the more usual (and opposite) problem we all fear and want to avoid! If you find yourself without any medical supplies, you will have to make do with what is available to you. Some clothing can be sacrificed to make dressings and bandages for wounds, and for slings and for securing splints. Some natural plants have medicinal properties that may be useful. If you are interested in this option, research the flora in the area where you are going. An example of a common natural medicine is willow, poplar, and aspen bark. They were reportedly used by Native Americans and even ancient Greeks to treat fever and pain and inflammation. The inner bark of these trees contain active ingredients closely related to aspirin and other OTC pain relievers. The active ingredient is salicin which is found in the inner bark, underneath the hard outer bark. Aspirin is actually an artificial version of salicin. You can chew the inner bark directly or seep it in hot water to make tea. Don't use salicin if you are allergic to aspirin. I stripped about 1 foot of bark off a 3/16" willow branch and chewed it, swallowing the somewhat bitter mixture that resulted and found it to be about as effective as a couple of aspirin for pain relief. Pine needle tea is an excellent source of Vitamin C. You can locate additional natural remedies by searching "wilderness medicine" on Google or Yahoo. Be sure to pay attention to what grows in the areas where you are going. If you don't already have knowledge of the area, consult with local experts. Knowing a lot about the fantastic jungle medicines found in the Amazon isn't going to do much good in the Rocky Mountains or the great American deserts! I recently learned a simple survival technique to control diarrhea. Drink a charcoal slurry. Grind charcoal from your campfire into a fine powder and mix about 1 tablespoon with a cup of water. Drink 2-3 cups per day until the diarrhea is under control. It tastes terrible, but it works! The charcoal absorbs the toxins in your digestive system that are causing the diarrhea, which is one of the body's defensive mechanism to rid itself of harmful substances. One wilderness medicine class I had recommended letting diarrhea run its course in order to purge toxins from the body as quickly as possible. While his advice is medically sound in the long term, it may not be practical when you need to function NOW -- and diarrhea seriously impacts your ability to perform normal functions and will quickly accelerate dehydration. To me, it makes sense to control it as quickly as possible in a survival situation for comfort, to maintain a useful level of functionality, and to avoid dehydration. Spearmint leaves can help control excess stomach gas. Peppermint leaves contain menthol, which is a mild analgesic useful for muscle aches and pains. Native Americans used sagebrush, commonly found in semi-arid areas of the Western United States for preventing infection in wounds and the treatment of headaches and internal bleeding. For wounds, they used a poultice made from the leaves or a decoction or wash applied to the affected area. A tisane (a kind of tea) made from the leaves was ingested to control internal bleeding from battle wounds and childbirth. Some Native Americans chewed the leaves to relieve stomach gas. Caution must be exercise in using it internally as some of the oils are toxic to the human liver and digestive system. Sagebrush vapors or smoke was inhaled to treat headaches and colds. Sagebrush smoke was also used to purify and disinfect rooms so sagebrush would be good fuel for a smoke bath or shower.
Wild fire. While campfires are our friends in a survival situation, uncontrolled fires are clearly our enemies. The response to fire is similar to that of chemical or biological hazards: move up wind of the fire. In other hazardous materials situations you want to move up hill too, but you're better off down hill from a fire. If there is a stream, lake, or pond nearby, you may be able to seek refuge from the flames in the water -- unless you are in a swamp where the water may be home to alligators, water moccasins, or other dangerous creatures. Your tent or even your RV may not be a very good shelter from fire. Tents, although some are flame-resistant, will not fare will in a hot fire or under attack from blowing embers that make turn it into a roasting chamber for anyone trapped inside. An RV may provide short-term protection against small fires, but if it does catch fire, the fuel systems will turn it into a very effective bomb. The concrete block wall construction of many primitive "pit" toilets are not likely to catch fire, but even fire-resistant roofs can burn eventually and you could be trapped in a flaming oven. Your best protection against wildfire is to make sure your camp is clear of combustible materials and move away from approaching wildfires if possible. Avoid parking your vehicles or setting up your tent on dry grass or weeds or near bushes. Winds may still carry burning embers onto your equipment, but at least ground fire will be kept at a safe distance and perhaps give you a fighting chance against advancing flames. If you're caught out in the open, seek a depression, clear away combustible materials, lie down, and cover your body with anything you can to protect you from the heat, ashes, and blowing embers. Make sure your covering is non-combustible. If smoke is thick, breath through a dampened cloth -- even if you have to rip up some of your clothing and wet it with urine. Overall more people die from smoke inhalation in fires than from burning to death. Stay low to the ground. You will find the best air there as the warmer, smoke-filled air rises.
Severe weather. Any kind of severe weather creates additional problems in a survival situation. Extreme heat, wind, rain, cold and snow each create their own set of problems and require special precautions. Heat is hard to deal with since there is only so much we can do to remove clothing to allow our bodies to cool. Interestingly enough, staying fully clothed may keep you cooler than stripping. Just consider the way desert tribes dress. Their loose robes shade them from direct sunlight and allow air to flow freely to cool their bodies. If caught in extreme heat, stay out of the sun as much as possible. Also try to limit your physical exertions, such as gathering wood, hunting or foraging, or traveling to after the sun goes down or at least to early morning or late afternoon. If you should be lucky enough to have a plentiful supply of water, dampening your hair and clothing can help keep you cool. Wind can make traveling difficult and can pose threats from falling branches or trees or from debris picked up and blown into you. Blowing dust can blind you and obscure landmarks. Your best defense against wind is to get out of it -- find a cave or get behind a rock or large tree or fallen log or a vehicle that can block at least some of the wind and wait it out. Air movement, even a light breeze, speeds cooling and may introduce a threat of hypothermia on cooler or wet days, so pay attention to your body temperature and keep warm. The threats produced by rain and snow are pretty obvious. Once you get wet, it will be much harder to keep warm, especially if there is any breeze. Rain may also produce flash floods that can threaten your situation so avoid stream beds and low lying areas, even dry ones, when rain is imminent or even a few miles away. Rain and fog can also inhibit visibility, hiding or disguising landmarks and contributing to getting lost. Snowy conditions obviously involve dangers of avalanche and hypothermia. Snow can also present hazards from accumulations falling from trees as well as cascading down slopes in avalanches. Snow storms can make navigation and travel difficult or impossible. Blizzards can create white-out conditions where it isn't even possible to know which way is up and down, let alone negotiate any kind of productive movement. Snow will change the appearance of even familiar landmarks, which can contribute to becoming or staying lost. Yet snow can be a friend too. You can use drifted snow to build an igloo or carve out a snow cave that can provide a surprisingly warm and comfortable shelter. Make sure to leave a small opening for ventilation to avoid suffocation. I recently came across a 100-year old tip from Boy's Life Magazine for building an emergency igloo. If there isn't enough packed snow to cut blocks to build your igloo, roll snowballs about the size of basketballs and stack them into a solid mound (pack snow between the snowballs) about 6'x10'x8' and smooth it into a rounded shape. Cut a bunch of sticks 2' long and drive them into the mound about every 2'. Then hollow out your igloo, stopping whenever you reach the end of one of the sticks. That will give you a snug igloo with 2' thick walls. If you've packed the snow tight, it will be very strong and the 2' thick walls will provide a lot of protection against wind and cold. Carve a "bed" inside to lie on and cover it with dry leaves, pine needles, or grass to insulate your body from direct contact from the snow. You will want to find a way to close off the opening if you can. Use snow or debris to reduce the loss of heat out the door. Avalanches present severe risks. Avoid traveling in areas where they might occur. If you find yourself in avalanche country, keep alert for signs of an avalanche starting: booming or groaning sounds from the snow banks, cracks forming, extending, and widening in the snow cover. Try to get out of the path of the avalanche before it reaches you if at all possible. If you do get caught, try to "swim" your way through the moving snow toward safety or find a sturdy anchor to hold on to. Your goal is to keep yourself as close to the surface as possible so you can dig your way out once the avalanche stops moving. If you do start to get buried, protect your face and keep your mouth closed so you don't get it full of snow. Hold your arms over your head and in front of your face to form a hollow in the snow to trap air. Once the snow stops moving, try to dig yourself out. Once buried in the snow you may not be able to tell which way is up. If that happens, spit and watch it fall. Dig the other way to get to the surface. Try to stay calm. Panic will induce rapid breathing that will consume your air supply. Work at a comfortable, steady pace and avoid over-exertion, which depletes both your oxygen and your energy.
Chemical and biological hazards. Many disasters are caused by or include chemical or biological hazards released during the event. If you find yourself in such a situation, try to move away from the source of contamination -- move up hill, up stream, and up wind to minimize the amount of dangerous contaminates you are exposed to. If you come in contact directly with clouds of contaminated dust or gas, minimize the amount of skin exposed and seek to remove the contaminates as quickly as possible. Take off and dispose of contaminated clothing and wash your skin with clean water. Avoid breathing contaminated air. Even a damp handkerchief, washcloth, or shirtsleeve will provide some protection if you don't have access to a mask or respirator. In an emergency you may use your own urine to dampen a face mask. It isn't the most pleasant thought and will likely offensive, but its better than breathing lethal toxic fumes.
Wilderness glue. If you are stuck in survival mode for any length of time, you may have a need for glue. You can make glue from untanned animal hides. Here is an over-simplified description of the process: 1) grind the hide into small pieces, the closer you can make it to powder the better. 2) add the powder to boiling water and cook slowly until the mixture thickens to at least a syrup-like consistency. Some people slow cook their glue for days. 3)Strain the mixture through an old t-shirt or cheesecloth to remove debris and left-over chunks of hide. Use as is or dry it for storage. For more details see
Making Animal Hide Glue.
Your mental attitude is going to do more to determine your chances of survival than just about anything else. Be optimistic. Stay busy and productive. If you are a religious or spiritual person, take advantage of your personal belief system and avail yourself of prayer and/or meditation. Try to remember whatever survival training you have had and logically think yourself through each situation that comes up. If something you try doesn't work, try something else. You aren't beaten until you quit trying. Thomas Edison found 2000 ways NOT to make a lightbulb before he finally hit on the carbon impregnated string filament that worked.
Last but certainly not least: DON'T PANIC! The absolute worst thing you can do in a survival situation is panic. If you find yourself lost, stop, assess your situation, and plan what to do. The acronym is STOP: Stop, Think, Observe, and Plan.
Do not run. Stop and Think about your situation. Observe your surroundings and take stock of your resources (tools, water, food, clothing, shelter, companions, available natural resources). Plan your next steps. If you are any immediate danger, look for an escape route or try to identify a safer place to be. If caught in bad weather it is threatening, you may want to seek shelter immediately. If you panic and run, you will almost certainly make your situation worse. By running you will undoubtedly end up further away from familiar landmarks and could very well become injured by stumbling or falling, or by catching your clothing or body parts on branches or even running smack into trees or rocks -- or wild animals. An experienced woodsman friend of mine taught his Boy Scout troop that if you feel like running, hug a tree. Hugging the tree will give you time to calm down and let you survey your surroundings. It is also surprisingly comforting to hold onto something, even thought the tree doesn't hug you back like mommy did when you were a frightened child. While you're hugging the tree, look around for landmarks you recognize and things that you can use. Is there a source of water or food nearby? Is there any form of shelter or materials to make one? Where would you build your fire? Is there firewood available? When you do move, move cautiously, looking out for hazards that could cause injuries or make it even harder for you to find or make your way back or for rescuers to find you. Sliding or falling into a steep ravine is a common pitfall for panicked hikers. Even a twisted ankle from not watching where you're stepping could have a significant negative affect on your survival prospects. Look for familiar landmarks that can guide you back to camp or back to civilization. One common suggestion is that by following a stream downstream will
eventually lead you to civilization, but it could be hundreds of miles downstream, so try to know something about the geography around you. If you KNOW there is nearby town or outpost
upstream you will be better going upstream. Try hiking to the top of a nearby ridge or mountain or (carefully) climb a tall tree to get a better view or your surroundings. You will be surprised how much you can accomplish and how creative you can become in a survival situation -- if you do not panic! The most important survival tool of all is one you always have with you (hopefully): your brain! That is, if you use it! Remember the key to survival is STOP (
Stop,
Think,
Observe and
Plan).
One of the best ways to avoid panic, is to be prepared. Panic is more likely to grip you if you don't know what to do. Knowing what to do and doing it will help you stay calm and significantly increase your chances of survival. Review the basic survival techniques in this post, then extend your knowledge through additional reading and research, online and in print and hands-on training and practice when you can. Review maps of the areas you will be visiting and note significant landmarks and how they relate to your camp, highways and towns. The more you know, the better prepared you will be. You can never know too much about wilderness survival. Think about what kinds of situations you are most likely to encounter and focus your learning on how to deal with them. If you do a lot of desert camping, learn how to find water and keep out of the sun. If you do a lot of camping in rainy areas, you may want to focus on building shelters and on building fires in wet conditions. If you plan on snow-camping or winter outings, it may be useful to learn how to build an igloo or at least a snow cave. Carry some essential tools with you everywhere you go: a good knife, a fire starter, perhaps a compass. Personally I'm not too worried about a compass. I figure it won't be much good to me unless I already know where I am and the heading to where I want to be and I have a good map with me. If you're like me you usually don't carry extensive maps, but if you're headed into unfamiliar territory it would be a good investment. Learning some basic celestial navigation skills can be useful in almost any outdoor environment. Learn how to find the north star at night. Learn how to use the sun to determine which way is north during the day (mark a shadow of a vertical object, wait 15-20 minutes, and mark it again. Draw a line midway between the two markers in the direction the shadow falls. That will be north-south. In the northern hemisphere, north will be in the direction the shadows fall. In the southern hemisphere, it will be south. And try to maintain some idea of which direction you would need to go to get out of a bad situation. Keep track of landmarks as you travel and stop periodically to check your bearings. If you know you are camped somewhere west of Nowhere, Nevada, you may want to determine which way is east so you can head in the general direction of civilization if you become lost. When you are involved in outdoor activities such as hiking, OHVing, or horseback riding, keep track of where you've gone and the way back to your camp. Stop often to check your recollection of where your camp is located. If you are traveling with a group, make a game out of pointing the way back to camp so everyone helps keep track of where you are. You may encounter roads, railroad tracks, water and gas lines, and power lines that will eventually lead you to a populated area. Since these routes may run through hundreds of miles of wilderness before reaching a populated area, it is a good idea to have some idea ahead of time what features you may find and which direction will be the shortest way to help. It would be very disappointing to follow an old road or railroad line miles and miles only to end up at an abandoned mine or ghost town instead of a populated settlement.
Are you alone or in a group? Your survival techniques may differ depending on whether you are all alone or in a group. Being in a group may increase your chances of survival -- if you all remain calm and work together. A group provides more hands to do the work and more eyes and ears to watch and listen for rescuers or useful information. It also eliminates the loneliness factor, that often leads to panic, discouragement and depression. If you are in a group, make sure EVERYONE has a job to do and does it. It is critical to individual and group morale and to everyone's survival. Even children should contribute appropriately -- gathering berries, collecting kindling, baby-sitting younger children, regular camp chores. Take advantage of every resource available to you. If you are in a group you are going to need a larger shelter and more food and water. But you will also have more hands to help build the shelter and obtain and prepare food and find water. However, if a group turns into a mob, you may be better off striking out on your own. Mobs are often both a product and a cause of panic, which is highly detrimental to your chances of survival. If your companions become a mob instead of a support group, you MIGHT be better off on your own, especially if you are well-prepared and can take care of yourself! How do you know if a group turns into a mob? It will pretty much be obvious, but some indicators are irrational decisions, blind dependence on unqualified "leaders", and emotional rather than logical actions. Mobs tend to expend a lot of energy without accomplishing much. Sounds a lot like Congress, doesn't it? If you know what you're doing and keep your head you may be able to provide leadership that will help avoid your group becoming a mob. Thoughtful, logical, confident decisions and actions will go a long way toward organizing your group into a functioning survival mechanism and avoid self-destructive behavior.
To find out more good survival tips, search for "prepper" in your favorite search engine. Here is one site I found very helpful, with dozens of concise, useful survival tips:
www.prepperwebsite.com. Don't want to labeled a "prepper"? Then don't tell a lot of people about your preparations. Why would you care? Well, for one thing, when things go bad, people are going to become desperate, and anyone who is prepared will likely become a target when people run out of food and other supplies that you may have stored.
Survive!
