There are five given priorities/tasks when one finds themselves in a bad situation in a given landscape. And the whole scope of these articles will assume that there is not a lot of hope for immediate rescue as well as the odds of a doable walk-out for whatever reason being low.
The first two priorities will not be what you think, but after large number of case reviews by a large number of institutions & organizations they are proven.
So there you are. Your in the middle of nowhere for any number of reasons- (you make up the scenario.)
You have no clue which way is home or rescue. You have tracked up the place for the last hours on end to the point of backtracking being practically impossible. You denied the actual degree of the complexity of your situation for so long you have depleted you energy levels, your water levels and perhaps your food/snack levels.
Your soaked with sweat from nervous exertion and anxiety. You have stopped now and standing there in sweat soaked clothing. Your shocked you did not realize you were this cold until now.
Regardless of what your pride says about the following statement, estimates as high as 20% of you “seasoned†outdoorsmen have panicked to the point of throwing away your pack and or weapon and ran wildy & blindly in fear, frequently to the point of significant injury, if not off a bluff in the pitch black darkness.
Welcome to the way it really goes down, when things turn scary “in the woods.†The above paragraph is not creative energies of my mind. It is the basic variation of the “lost†theme for average folk who enter the wilds. (“wilds†can easily be the desert, swamp,____, ____.)
As I said previously I have 10 ++ years in (aircraft based) search & rescue, and have been on several missing craft & person searches. In these venues I was ground team commander, head medic, RO and Field skills Instructor, crash site entry instructor & occasionally FAA photographer.
I also have had instruction at many primitive (survival) skills courses: all this to say I have heard the statistics & actual cases as they occurred in real life, & lessons learned from both sides.
Henceforth: The main initial concern in all things when “lost†is determined and accepted by the individual is for & of PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFIT.
Do not do yourself the disservice of saying in your best billy-bad-Ass voice that “I’d never panic.†Even as a veteran SAR operator -AND- Primitive skills practitioner there was an occasion I determined I was completely , utterly & hopelessly lost, in failing light, at a most inopportune time, in a most inopportune place during the most inopportune weather. I DID panic. I even broke into a wild run though for only a few paces. I thank God I defaulted to my training and SAT DOWN and proceeded to collect myself. And it was unnerving at what effort that took even. and it happens to many seasoned outdoorsmen yearly.
The priority list:
1.Shelter
Home is where the heart (& mind is.)
The first order of business is to create a shelter. Completion of a shelter establishes a place to exist. It gives some sense of power OVER the circumstances and it provides a home, however temporary and a place to retreat & cope. On the physical plane: statistics show that it is better to create a shelter which preserves internal bodily water & food reserves, (easier to stay warm preserving calories, easier to stay cool preserving hydration) than to fumble around seeking a food & water source in the initial phase.
Once we transition to the instructional sections of this article I’ll give you step by step detail on how to create a water proof, cold proof shelter requiring no tools or string. You’ll only need your hands and what is given freely by the landscape.
2. Fire
Yes in the initial phase Shelter AND Fire are more important than water. Fire really does give some sense of not being alone & a sense of companionship. But the main psychological task of fire is that it incredibly instills a huge sense of confidence to have power over one’s current life and ability to improve one’s current existence. In the movie “Cast Away†actor Tom Hanks started his first fire on the island after failing with a ridiculous hand drill set up and succeeding with the Fire Plow. In the ensuing scene Tom danced gleefully and triumphantly around his fire and made claims & announcement (if you’ll notice â€"TO- his fire, his companion- directly) of his abilities & achievements in a “conqueror of the world†type demeanor. This was a REALLY WELL researched scene and NOT Hollywood drama. Ask any single person that has created fire by friction (far older than fire by percussion/ spark) and they will tell you they experienced the same EXACT sensation & emotion.
It is simply not describable to explain the emotion of creating something so close to and vital for basic existence. The emotion comes from accomplishing the primeval act VITAL to survival through ancient primitive means.
This sensation is so profound and dramatic that it is the center piece of wilderness therapy for at-risk teens. I worked as a professional backpacker at one of the leading Wilderness Therapy organizations in this country for a few years. I have had countless students tell me that because they created fire (opposed to “lighting†a fire) that they knew they could do anything they set their mind to once back at home in society.
On the physical plain, our fire provides many utilitarian needs. It provides us light and like the lore can protect us from animals. It fire hardens our wooden tools and weapons etc. It burns out our bowls, spoon, cup and even our dugout canoe. But most important in the physical is that it maintains our core temperature as well as cooks our food and boils our water that we would otherwise be STRONGLY tempted to eat/drink in an unsafe condition when obtained had we not ALREADY created fire.
We’ll go over some of the more reliable means of starting fire by primitive means soon.
3. Yes you can finally say it: Water!
4.Food.
Food is good one. So many “cool guy†survivalists will tell you all about snaring techniques. All you have to do is pull wire or string out of your rear end to use those techniques. I again love the look on their faces when I say, yeah, but it’s so much easier to run down a Dandelion! A wise man puts equal or more time into plant knowledge as he does trapping.
6. Utilitarian items.
The one GREAT thing about a survival experience is you have time on your hands. Keeping up with the production of utilitarian items will keep you plenty busy. These include making string, string, string more string and a bunch more string as well as weapons, tools, more trap parts, clothing, footwear, etc.
We’ll touch on these as well. More to come.
