The Outdoor Adventure Giving you tips, tricks & recommendations to help make adventuring in the Outdoors fun, safe & exciting for you and your kids.
You have probably heard the stories of people caught out in extreme circumstances that managed to get out of a potentially fatal situation alive. The fact is that the survived, but how they managed is what is important for you and me. In three points you can present a summary of what is needed. These things are Gear, Know-how and Will to Survive.
Will to Survive
The most important thing you’ll need is an internal desire to survive. It doesn’t matter what you bring with you, if you don’t want to force yourself to use it, then you’re just as much in trouble as the guy stuck out with nothing.
When stuck, whether up a tree as a kid, your leg stuck under a horse, locked out of your car or even lost in Ikea you have to want to survive. Well you should, anyway. But some would just sit there paralyzed by fear of the situation. It’s those who choose to do something about their situation that will have a far better chance of getting out in better shape.
Now I need to clarify, doing something about your situation doesn’t always mean hiking out to civilization, sometimes it’s actually staying put and simply improving your chances of survival where you are.
Whatever your situation is, you need to get yourself into “survival mode”. Find a motivation for going on, your family, your kids, your little dog fifi, your mortgage payments or maybe just that baseball game your favourite team is playing. You have to WANT to live. You have to keep your mind focused on that, even when things get worse.
Knowledge
Now that you WANT to live, you need to have a plan on how to accomplish that. What this looks like will depend on where and what your situation is, but you need to take care of your immediate needs: Shelter, first aid, fire, food and water. The order of these will change depending on your environment, but they’re all important.
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| A firebow kit |
So, do you know how to light a fire? How many ways? Do you carry matches or a lighter, fire steel, magnifying glass or other form of fire starting equipment? Now is the time to practice.
Do you need a shelter? Can you use the rubble from the crash or the trees and scrub around you? How are you going to keep yourself from getting too hot or too cold?
What about water. Is there a source nearby? Maybe you need to dig for it. How will you purify it?
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| Wild Raspberry Bushes |
Hungry? Can you identify those plants? Know how to make a trap to catch small animals? Maybe a fishhook is what you need.
Can you tend to your or anyone else’s wounds? What’s the name of that plant you can use to sooth burns? How do I make a splint?
Can people find you? What can you do to make search and rescue find you more easily?
Sure, it is unlikely you’ll need this, but it is normally those who have the will to live and the knowledge of how to do that that will make the headlines having survived a normally fatal situation. Always remember this, you can have all the knowledge in the world, but without the will to survive you’re stuck. The key is keeping yourself busy while you wait to be rescued.
What’s in your kit?
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| my daughter’s survival kit |
Do you have a survival kit? What’s in it? A good survival kit will give you all the basics to handle most if not all situations. It will be compact and light.
Do you have the right gear with you for your environment? Or are you relying on that friend who you can’t find right now? Always carry some essentials that will help if you’re separated from a group
Final thoughts
Surviving an emergency is all about the psychology. You need to keep yourself thinking that you can and will make it through this alive. If you can keep your mind confident that you will survive then you will force yourself to do just that. You will immediately start prioritizing your needs and taking care of them. You’ll make the most of your gear and keep yourself busy preparing for your rescue. By so doing will make the lonely waiting time fly by and increase your chances of survival dramatically.
If you’re seriously interested in learning survival skills, consider some of the books below, a few of which I’ve already read and learned some of these skills from:
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