Wilderness Survival
I hope you enjoy the course and pray that you will never find yourself in a life-threatening situation where you will need to employ the knowledge you learn from it.
Survival: noun
The act of surviving especially under adverse or unusual conditions.
Before we dive in with both feet I want to stress to you the definition of survival. I believe with all the professional survival teachers and all the shows on TV now, we have somehow romanticized the idea of wilderness survival. Now don’t get me wrong I love many of these shows and there is value in them if you remember this one important fact…
SURVIVAL IS THE ACT OF STAYING ALIVE UNTIL YOU CAN BE FOUND OR FACILITATE SELF RESCUE!!
Read that again…
The goal of surviving is keeping yourself alive in a life-threatening situation. You’re going to get hungry. You’re going to get cold. You’re going to be uncomfortable. You will be tested both physically and mentally.
Knowledge is going to be your number one ally in the act of surviving. The more you know the more prepared you will be and the more comfortable you can keep yourself in an emergency situation.
The first question we need to ask then is, “what are the threats to our life and safety?” and secondly, “how can we prepare for those threats?”
Hypothermia
Dehydration
Injury
Starvation
Animal Attack
Over the next few days we will address each danger and how you can be prepared to stay alive and hopefully remain somewhat comfortable while finding yourself in a survival situation.
Putting together a basic survival kit.
Remember that people don’t plan for bad things to happen but if we take some basic precautions and arm ourselves with a little bit of knowledge we can keep ourselves alive and may even find ourselves in a situation to help someone else!
In order to be prepared to survive you must collect a few items that you carry with you any time you go outdoors. Your kit should be small enough that you will carry it and useful enough that you want to carry it.
We already explored the things that can kill you. That list was obviously not all inclusive as there is no way to prepare for 100% of every possible scenario. But if we can prepare for the most common situations than we will be ahead of the curve and will be more likely to survive and be able to adapt to any circumstance.
The big items we will need to contend with are Hypothermia and dehydration. So our kit must contain items that will without a doubt keep our core body temperature up and keep us hydrated.
These items are what I suggest in a basic survival kit. The only way to see if these things will work for you is to try them out on a day outing and then modify your kit for how you enjoy the outdoors and the activities you find yourself doing.
So you need a case: I use a portable camera case that can attach to my belt. A friend of mine uses a small water proof otter box that fits in his pocket. Look around and purchase one that is compact and will fit everything you think is important. Remember you want to carry it with you on your person. What if you lose your pack or your bike tumbles down a cliff?
What to pack in it?
A couple zip lock bags.
Para Cord
A few band-aids
Cotton balls
A fire steel of some form
Lip Balm or a small container of vaseline
Some fishing line and a couple hooks
A small flash light or head lamp
Some Imodium AD
A few Tylenol capsules or Ibuprofen
Water Purification tablets or a small filter
A space blanket.
A small compass.
Beyond the basic kit you will of course want a good quality knife. I prefer a good multi-tool that can serve many purposes. Some of my friends carry a sturdy Fixed blade knife. I would suggest a small pocket tool in your kit and a fixed blade knife on your belt.
I know that list seems like a lot but it all packs small and can facilitate staying hydrated, finding food and building a shelter.