Emergency Outdoor Survival- Anything from a Plane Crash to just getting Lost.
Created | Updated Nov 22, 2005
Rule #1: DON’T PANIC
This is the most important thing. A positive mental attitude will keep you alive and get you through the situation better than any survival gear in the world. Your attitude will determine if you survive.
This information will apply equally no matter what kind of a situation you find yourself in. Whether you're pulling an Owen Wilson and shot down Behind Enemy Lines, have been made the victim of a natural disaster, or are just lost and alone in the sticks, go through this step by step. Ignore what doesn't apply and stick to what does. You'd be amazed at how well it will work.
Follow these steps.
Step 1: Check yourself for injuries. This isn't as idiot proof as you might think- especially severe injuries may shut down your nervous system. Look -closely- and don't discount any injury, no matter how inconsequential it may seem. Even minor cuts or fractures can quickly develop into gangrenous infections or serious injuries. Remember, DON'T PANIC. If you feel yourself on the verge of panic, lay down, elevate your feet, and breath deeply. Count backwards from twenty or thirty or fifty. Pull on a warm blanket and take sips of water or a warm beverage. Singing familar, soothing music can help. Sometimes, just a few minutes of quiet 'down time' are enough to keep you moving. This is the best and easiest way to prevent shock or hysteria from setting in.
Step 2: Assess the situation. Are there lights? Is the air fresh, or are there industrial smells? Can you move around? Do you hear anything such as machinery, voices, gunfire? Be wary if you are in potentially dangerous territory.
Step 3: Try to find others. Look, call around, listen. Call for them to bang on things to make noise if they cannot reply. If there's an accident site involved, go to it and walk outwards in a spiral search pattern, then go back and repeat the process, moving in the other direction. Look under, over, behind everything! If you were attacked mid-flight, be careful, as it's likely enemy forces may be en route to the area to recover survivors or equipment as well.
Step 4: Check each other over for injuries. Watch out for dizziness, shortness of breath, bleeding, etc. Don’t move people with neck or back injuries, if it can be helped. Give CPR or first aid if needed. This is not a time to be a hero. If you are injured, get it looked at immediately. A wound that may not seem to be especially deep could be bleeding you dry much more rapidly than you would expect.
Step 5: Check your equipment. This includes not just survival gear, but also objects around you, whatever is in your pockets or backpacks, your clothing, and most important- you! A positive mind will get you further than all the equipment in your pack. Think creatively!
Step 6: Once you get your people together, sit tight and wait for help. If you're on a registered flight plan or just off a major hiking trail, then chances are that help will be forthcoming soon. Otherwise, it's best to start looking for the four key elements of survival: Fire, Shelter, Water, and Food.
Step 7: ALWAYS Stick together and ALWAYS maintain a positive mental attitude. You -will- make it out alive!
Part II: Survival
So you’ve cheated death. Now, how do you survive? Remember to think positive; second, remember to think! Your brain is the best tool at your disposal. Use it! Improvise, imagine, and come up with creative ways to make do with what you have! Become the next MacGuyver. You may need to change these steps slightly if needed. For example, if a snowstorm is moving in, fire's going to be your number one concern. If there are winds or inclement weather, you may wish to consider building up some shelter first.
Step 1: Find Shelter. Make sure it will keep out wind and rain and not fall down on you. Work smarter, not harder- if you've got a hollowed out cave or a v-shaped deadfall, you may as well expand on it, rather than trying to build the shelter up from scratch. Shelter can be made from almost anything. In wooded areas, tree limbs and leafy boughs can be assembled into a lean-to or shelter halves. In large fields, it's possible to dig a small burrow to fit inside, perhaps shorn up with branches or rocks to keep it upright. It's possible to dig burrows in thick snowbanks or pack snow into an igloo, which does work extremely well. Ideally, you want your shelter to be above ground or with a small depression called a 'sump' near the base, for water to pool in and cold air to settle into. It should be no more than a a few minute's walk from a source of water, well removed from obvious game trails, slightly elevated, fairly flat, and easy to identify based on a landmark such as a clearing, boulder formation, or mountain. You do want to be rescued, don't you?
Step 2: Get a fire going. Fire is your best friend, especially when you are alone. If you need to, you can cook food, clean bandages, purify water, and sing songs around it. It’s vital in all climates and situations. The trick to building a good fire is graduation of material...light and fluffy, such as cotton balls or dried moss, followed by pine needles, splintered twigs, normal twigs, sticks, and the branches. Slower is definately better. Ideally, you want matches or a lighter. Failing that, a magnesium firestarter is a very useful tool. In rocky or mountainous areas, sometimes it's possible to find flint in the rocks. It's also possible to do the old glass lens trick, like a kid with a magnifying glass. Even an old battery can be coaxed into creating an arc between two wires.
Take a look at A784091 The Bow Drill - Fire without Matches! for additional information and an excellent guide to using a bow drill.
Step 3: Find Fresh Water. Make -sure- to purify water by boiling or with something like bleach or iodine tablets. Five minutes at a rolling boil is usually sufficient to clean water. Your other alternative is to filter the stuff. Take three squares of cloth and build a tripod, tying them above one another in tiers. In the first put tiny pebbles, the second sand or dirt, and in the third and bottom, charcoal if you have it. Let the water drip down from top to bottom and collect it underneath, and it should be somewhat pure water, though not guaranteed. Another alternative is to collect plant dew, which is chemically and biologically pure, or build a dew catcher. Clear water is not necessarily clean water! Water is your main priority; you can only make it a few days without it.
Step 4: Try to find food. Avoid bad or rotten food; it’s not worth getting sick! Pre-sealed foods, ones that don’t need to be refrigerated, are best. Be careful to ration food, if you don’t have much. Learn what kind of wild plants you can eat in the area you may be travelling in. Avoid onion-like tubers, red and white berries, and anything that you don't see a variety of animals eating. If you are absolutely dying for food, eat only a very tiny amount, with plenty of water. Give it an hour and try some more. Wait at least six hours, then have a bit more. After about 12 hours, if you are still feeling all right, it's likely safe to eat. You can go 48 hours without tapping into your body's fat stuffs, and for an average person one can live for about two weeks without food at all. Wild game is your best bet for food, as it's got more calories for the amount of energy expended to hunt it. Stewing is the best way to cook it, followed by frying, followed by BBQing over an open flame.
Step 5: Rescue me! Try to get a hold of search parties. Use smoke signals, flares, lights, anything you can to get you out of there and to shelter!
ABOVE ALL: STAY CALM. DON’T PANIC. THINK!
Other very useful links to examine reiterate some of the material presented here.
A799383 Making a Tepee Fire
A4063330 - How to Start a Fire
A505801 - Ten Essentials of Outdoor Survival
Shelter Building
Shelter Building
This is the most important thing. A positive mental attitude will keep you alive and get you through the situation better than any survival gear in the world. Your attitude will determine if you survive.
This information will apply equally no matter what kind of a situation you find yourself in. Whether you're pulling an Owen Wilson and shot down Behind Enemy Lines, have been made the victim of a natural disaster, or are just lost and alone in the sticks, go through this step by step. Ignore what doesn't apply and stick to what does. You'd be amazed at how well it will work.
Follow these steps.
Step 1: Check yourself for injuries. This isn't as idiot proof as you might think- especially severe injuries may shut down your nervous system. Look -closely- and don't discount any injury, no matter how inconsequential it may seem. Even minor cuts or fractures can quickly develop into gangrenous infections or serious injuries. Remember, DON'T PANIC. If you feel yourself on the verge of panic, lay down, elevate your feet, and breath deeply. Count backwards from twenty or thirty or fifty. Pull on a warm blanket and take sips of water or a warm beverage. Singing familar, soothing music can help. Sometimes, just a few minutes of quiet 'down time' are enough to keep you moving. This is the best and easiest way to prevent shock or hysteria from setting in.
Step 2: Assess the situation. Are there lights? Is the air fresh, or are there industrial smells? Can you move around? Do you hear anything such as machinery, voices, gunfire? Be wary if you are in potentially dangerous territory.
Step 3: Try to find others. Look, call around, listen. Call for them to bang on things to make noise if they cannot reply. If there's an accident site involved, go to it and walk outwards in a spiral search pattern, then go back and repeat the process, moving in the other direction. Look under, over, behind everything! If you were attacked mid-flight, be careful, as it's likely enemy forces may be en route to the area to recover survivors or equipment as well.
Step 4: Check each other over for injuries. Watch out for dizziness, shortness of breath, bleeding, etc. Don’t move people with neck or back injuries, if it can be helped. Give CPR or first aid if needed. This is not a time to be a hero. If you are injured, get it looked at immediately. A wound that may not seem to be especially deep could be bleeding you dry much more rapidly than you would expect.
Step 5: Check your equipment. This includes not just survival gear, but also objects around you, whatever is in your pockets or backpacks, your clothing, and most important- you! A positive mind will get you further than all the equipment in your pack. Think creatively!
Step 6: Once you get your people together, sit tight and wait for help. If you're on a registered flight plan or just off a major hiking trail, then chances are that help will be forthcoming soon. Otherwise, it's best to start looking for the four key elements of survival: Fire, Shelter, Water, and Food.
Step 7: ALWAYS Stick together and ALWAYS maintain a positive mental attitude. You -will- make it out alive!
Part II: Survival
So you’ve cheated death. Now, how do you survive? Remember to think positive; second, remember to think! Your brain is the best tool at your disposal. Use it! Improvise, imagine, and come up with creative ways to make do with what you have! Become the next MacGuyver. You may need to change these steps slightly if needed. For example, if a snowstorm is moving in, fire's going to be your number one concern. If there are winds or inclement weather, you may wish to consider building up some shelter first.
Step 1: Find Shelter. Make sure it will keep out wind and rain and not fall down on you. Work smarter, not harder- if you've got a hollowed out cave or a v-shaped deadfall, you may as well expand on it, rather than trying to build the shelter up from scratch. Shelter can be made from almost anything. In wooded areas, tree limbs and leafy boughs can be assembled into a lean-to or shelter halves. In large fields, it's possible to dig a small burrow to fit inside, perhaps shorn up with branches or rocks to keep it upright. It's possible to dig burrows in thick snowbanks or pack snow into an igloo, which does work extremely well. Ideally, you want your shelter to be above ground or with a small depression called a 'sump' near the base, for water to pool in and cold air to settle into. It should be no more than a a few minute's walk from a source of water, well removed from obvious game trails, slightly elevated, fairly flat, and easy to identify based on a landmark such as a clearing, boulder formation, or mountain. You do want to be rescued, don't you?
Step 2: Get a fire going. Fire is your best friend, especially when you are alone. If you need to, you can cook food, clean bandages, purify water, and sing songs around it. It’s vital in all climates and situations. The trick to building a good fire is graduation of material...light and fluffy, such as cotton balls or dried moss, followed by pine needles, splintered twigs, normal twigs, sticks, and the branches. Slower is definately better. Ideally, you want matches or a lighter. Failing that, a magnesium firestarter is a very useful tool. In rocky or mountainous areas, sometimes it's possible to find flint in the rocks. It's also possible to do the old glass lens trick, like a kid with a magnifying glass. Even an old battery can be coaxed into creating an arc between two wires.
Take a look at A784091 The Bow Drill - Fire without Matches! for additional information and an excellent guide to using a bow drill.
Step 3: Find Fresh Water. Make -sure- to purify water by boiling or with something like bleach or iodine tablets. Five minutes at a rolling boil is usually sufficient to clean water. Your other alternative is to filter the stuff. Take three squares of cloth and build a tripod, tying them above one another in tiers. In the first put tiny pebbles, the second sand or dirt, and in the third and bottom, charcoal if you have it. Let the water drip down from top to bottom and collect it underneath, and it should be somewhat pure water, though not guaranteed. Another alternative is to collect plant dew, which is chemically and biologically pure, or build a dew catcher. Clear water is not necessarily clean water! Water is your main priority; you can only make it a few days without it.
Step 4: Try to find food. Avoid bad or rotten food; it’s not worth getting sick! Pre-sealed foods, ones that don’t need to be refrigerated, are best. Be careful to ration food, if you don’t have much. Learn what kind of wild plants you can eat in the area you may be travelling in. Avoid onion-like tubers, red and white berries, and anything that you don't see a variety of animals eating. If you are absolutely dying for food, eat only a very tiny amount, with plenty of water. Give it an hour and try some more. Wait at least six hours, then have a bit more. After about 12 hours, if you are still feeling all right, it's likely safe to eat. You can go 48 hours without tapping into your body's fat stuffs, and for an average person one can live for about two weeks without food at all. Wild game is your best bet for food, as it's got more calories for the amount of energy expended to hunt it. Stewing is the best way to cook it, followed by frying, followed by BBQing over an open flame.
Step 5: Rescue me! Try to get a hold of search parties. Use smoke signals, flares, lights, anything you can to get you out of there and to shelter!
ABOVE ALL: STAY CALM. DON’T PANIC. THINK!
Other very useful links to examine reiterate some of the material presented here.
A799383 Making a Tepee Fire
A4063330 - How to Start a Fire
A505801 - Ten Essentials of Outdoor Survival
Shelter Building
Shelter Building
