With the benefit of hindsight, experts have put together a list of essential items that anyone venturing out into the wilderness should carry with them. These essentials will help emergency outdoor survival should you find yourself cut off, stranded, lost or incapacitated. Outdoorspeople know they must carry a backpack with them, and they should ensure … Read more
Let’s hope you never need to signal for help in an emergency. Still, if the situation should arise, you want to know that you can do it effectively. You should practice signalling for use before you are stuck out in the wild alone. It is a great idea to keep with you, at all times, … Read more
Survival in the wilderness can be tough. But know that it is possible. One of the first lessons to survival is learning how to make a fire under most conditions. Creating a fire can make the difference between life and death in many outdoor survival situations; for this reason, it is a good skill to … Read more
What is the best tool to ensure survival if you should ever become lost and stranded in the wilderness? Is it your pocket knife or fire starter? No, neither of these items is your best tool for survival. It is your mind that is your greatest asset, and it can help you to survive in … Read more
There are more than 5 important survival skills to know and apply. Given the many outdoor-related television shows and YOU Tube videos available, everybody is offering up what they think is important for surviving the wilderness. While all these presentations help, it is still the time you take to answer the following 5 questions that … Read more
Water is essential to life, and all living things contain it. On average, people lose 2-3 liters of water daily and can only survive for approximately three days without water. The concern for the wilderness traveler comes from the quality of the water in the backcountry. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that 90% … Read more
(Night Travel) So if you don’t have a compass, how do you figure out the direction of travel during the nighttime? Here are 4 different methods for you to try: Crescent Moon: Draw a line from tip to tip in a straight line, and where the line hits the horizon is roughly South. Big Dipper Method: Draw … Read more
(Direction of Travel) So if you don’t have a compass, how do you figure out the direction of travel during the daytime? Here are 3 different methods for you to try: Shadowless Stick Method: Place a stick on the ground and then move or adjust it until the shadow disappears; soon, it will reappear with the … Read more
If you’ve ever been lost or turned around outdoors, then you know what I mean about panic. And, if you haven’t been turned around and spent a significant amount of time outdoors, then it’s only a matter of time before you know what I mean. Psychologists have studied this mental state and found that in … Read more
Before we get into shelters, we should talk a little about how we lose heat and how shelters help prevent this. There a 5 Heat loss mechanisms, and the picture below shows them, and I’ll try to sum them up for you. We lose heat through Respiration or breathing, but there’s nothing we can do … Read more