Ever needed your Survival Skills?

D

[digidude]

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Aug 21, 2005
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There seems to be quite a few people on this board with survival knowledge. Has anyone actually needed it? Ever been stranded or lost?
Personally I never have.



-[digidude]
 
Nope, not here. I am usually too prepared. It will be the time I take off on an adventrue with any of my stuff, then the test will be on.
 
Most of my knowledge is textbook and less practical. I do try some things when out in the backcountry but get too impatient or too tired to really complete any tasks. I know, I will here from all of you that I should work on it more but when out in the backcountry for a few days relaxing, I really do not want to do too much but veg out.

My only thought is that even fairly warm and fully fed when I go out into the wilderness for a few days, I get fed up with some survival techniques so I wonder how I would survive if I were cold, hungry, tired or injured. I tried to start a fire with the old bow friction method but I have never started a fire with this trick. I get smoke and blackened wood but no fire. I hear even some pros take about a couple of hours to start a fire. I am not a big person and my whole body would ache if I did it for hours.

And another time, I tried to make a lean-to but I it looked more like a pile of fire wood. :eek:

So I would probably die in a survival sitution. :p
 
I had opportunity to use fire and shelter skills in the dead of winter, while visiting friends in Idaho. I think I told about it in another thread someplace, but to make a short story even shorter, I got caught in a snow storm and had to get warm in a hurry. So I improvised shelter to block the wind and started a warming fire. Had a great time watching the snow and feeling the heat of the fire.

Don't need to actually be in a survival situation to use the tools and skills needed in one. There have been times that I've practiced getting lost in the Sierra Mtns. and had to fend for myself with a minimum of gear for a few days. Hunted and fished for food, used both natural and improvised shelters, fire building, water purification, etc. I sure tried to add the stress factors in, but it didn't work. I always had a great time. :D
 
I think that the "be prepared mindset" keeps most of us from getting into bad situations to begin with. As for me, no, I've never HAD to use my survival skills but I do practice them.
Gene :D
 
A few years back, my father and I drove into the northern Adirodacks for some deer and bear hunting. We were about 50 miles in the middle of nowhere. We planned to be there for 4 days. The weather was decent, and there was no snow in the forecast at all. On the 3rd morning, we woke up to just under 50" of snow, and it was still coming down. Driving out wasn't an option.

People knew where we were, The rangers knew, our family knew. So we stayed where we were. We were Air lifted out 18 days later, after being in the woods for 3 weeks straight.

Then 2 weeks last fall without power, or grocery stores, etc after Charley/Frances came through, but I'm not sure if that could count as a "survival situation".
 
I think if you spend enough time in the wilderness that you will inevitably run into circumstances in which you will have to fall back on your survival knowledge to overcome some problem you didn’t foresee. Weather changes, equipment fails, you mess up at some point, or expected conditions turn out to be different.

Personally I can’t stand camping around other people. That pushes me into areas that are hard to get into. People don’t go there for the simple fact that they are difficult places to camp. If you mess up out there then you are pretty much on your own.

I have had a few trips where I have “had” to use some of my skills. Most of my trips to the bush are “survival trips” in the intentional sense. I can’t say that I’ve ever been in a situation where my actual life was at stake (yet). Most of the time it is a matter of pushing on and not pitching in the towel.

Some experiences…

PA: It was March, and unseasonably warm. We decided to go camping and due to the perfect weather didn’t bother with a tent. We got caught in a freak snowstorm and had to build a shelter with the contents of my PSK (2 garbage bags, cordage) and pine boughs. Our alternative was to leave the bush so it wasn’t a strict “survival situation”.

Canada: My wife and I were part of a group of 26 high school and college students on a 10-day canoe trip through Algonquin Park. The second day out we discovered that our outfitter had shorted our food supply drastically. This was a series of errors I won’t take time to detail. We had food for about 8 people on normal rations spread between the 26 of us. We held a vote and decided unanimously to continue with the trip. During the trip we supplemented our food supply with walleye, crawfish, freshwater clams, and a few very unlucky chipmunks. I lost 17 pounds. It was a fantastic experience I wouldn’t want to trade for anything, but don’t necessarily want to repeat.

Alaska: We had a serious scare that would have thrown us into survival mode for at least a night. We were scouting hunting locations and when we got back to the truck we couldn’t get the key to turn. Most of our gear was at the cabin, 10 miles away, because when we left we were just going to make a short trip. That short trip got addictive; just a little farther, what’s around that next bend, etc. The weather was about 15 degrees F, windy and snowing off and on. We finally got the truck to start and upon arrival at the cabin we packed the truck with our survival gear, sleeping bags, tent, pack full of MRE’s, axe, etc.

Brazil: Last week, my friend Emerson and I decided to camp out on one of the highest mountains in our area. We arrived on top with about a liter of water between us. All the known springs on top were bone dry. The sun was really low when we decided that he would use my 60 ml syringe and tube to suck water out of bromeliads and I would continue to search. I came up dry after several km and an hour of searching and he was able to produce a liter of stankyplant water. Later that night our water problems were solved in a big way but that’s another story. That 60 ml syringe has gotten me out of several “short water” jams in the past. It is such a lightweight, low cost, and useful piece of kit that you really should include one if water is ever going to be an issue.

LOST: Thomas Linton hit the nail on the head. I’ve never been “lost” but I often get highly confused. This past week we got locked down in thick fog and I had to resort to the compass in my PSK to get my bearings. I have gotten confused enough times to notice a pattern, I only get confused in flat ground or fog. I need to develop the discipline to navigate by compass early and often and not be lazy and overconfident.

SOAKED: The times that I have had to make a fire to dry out are numerous and could have resulted in hypothermia for myself or some other member of the group.

PLANNING ERRORS: I leave my pack packed all the time and have arrived in the bush to discover that I have run out of something or other, usually iodine tablets, battery life, filter contents, or minor meds. Never rely on memory, but verify the contents of your pack before the trip. Things degrade in time, especially when packed away in a survival kit that doesn’t get opened often. Mac
 
Never had to (fortunately) and hope I never do. But living on a major earthquake fault line, and hiking as much as I like to, I feel a little better with my knowledge.
 
I amazed at this one.

I have read so much from the survival experts here....about big,thick,prying knives etc. and this thread is pretty much dead because because nobody has actually had to put their skills to use, to survive. I was really hoping to gain from everyones experiences. :rolleyes:
 
most of what the survival experts teach is how not to get yourself into a survival situation. i have had multiple time when things could have gone pretty bad had we not made the right decision. a lot of survival situations are brought on by making poor choices due to a lack of experience or knowledge.

my first situation was when we were hunting elk in the bighorn mountains late season, all of a sudden a heavy fog rolled in, you could not see 20 feet. then the young guy that was our guide got all wet, from falling in a creek through the ice. so we are up on a mountain about 5 hrs ride to the base, the fog has rolled in, the guide is getting hypothermic, one of the hunters says lets split up--- i at that time started thinking this sounds like one of those "death on the mountain" stories i read in sports afield every year about hunters that separated and were found frozen to a tree five days later.
so a couple of us got together started a fire, put up a space blanket to break the wind, dried out the guide, kept every body within eyesight, got the horses tied up properly. made some hot tea and coffee from my saddlebag kit, ate some jerkey and chocolate bars. after about 4 hours the fog started to lift and we made our way out . correct decision, everyone came home although the story is not too entertaining. had we split up and wandered around on a mountain top, fell into a gorge, broke through the iced up creek, got hypothermic while alone well we could have made sports afield's what not to do collumn even if we did survive.
i even had proper survival gear with me food, fire starters, 4 strong men to gather the wood, put up the shelter, start and tend the fire, strip the wet clothes off the guide, wrap him in a couple of our coats while we dried his clothes. all worked out well and we laugh about it to this day.

oh yea and i forgot we also made some instant hot chocolate while in our little camp. we could have easily overnighted if we needed to. i got a whole bunch of more stories but they all turn out the same as we made level headed decisions and had the knowledge to get past potentially dangerous situations.

alex
 
another story:

there was the time when i was on safari in tanzania, we were stopped beside a lake, now in the bush you do not go anywhere without your heavy rifle. so i got off the safari car with my 416 and my wife was taking pictures of some of the birds. i recognized a village weaver bird, and there was a large nest of the birds hanging over the water, now my wife wanted to go down to get a better photo of the nest and the birds. i vetoed that idea because as you know the weavers tend to build their nests over the areas that large nile crocodiles frequent, it seems that the crocs tend to keep the snakes away from the nests. had we been tourist blissninnies we could have wandered down to the edge of the lake and got to meet one of these large reptiles at bad breath distance, not something a lot of folks have done and lived to tell about it.

pretty boring eh, but if i had not read about the local flora and fauna befor going to africa well we might have had a much more exciting story to tell.

alex
 
It is interesting to note that the type of people who equip themselves properly, learn and practice survival skills and continually update their knowledge are the least likely to get themselves in a situation where the survival skills and equipment are needed.

Onowa, there are many wise heads with a wide variety of experience who post on these forums, and have offered a huge amount of good solid advice to those willing to learn.

I count myself among those who have learned much here, and I urge you to take the time to listen to the accumulated survival wisdom.

If you want "survivalist war stories" perhaps you are in the wrong forum?
 
It really can't be pigeonholed into survival/non-survival situations.

We all use our knowledge and skills constantly, whether we consciously realize it or not.

I don't think many here will have stories of what they did when the **** hit the fan, because we are prepared for what might be, not simply "what is". Preparedness makes one man's emergency into another's "non-event".
 
We are limited here as to what we can share. I mean, we can write about building a shelter and about where to build it in different situations, but we can't show how to build it, or exactly where would be the best place to put it. We can recommend different tools and give examples of where to get them, but we can't illustrate how to use them. We can recommend any number of books, but it's up to the individual to buy them and actually read them. Then, after the tools are bought and the skills are read about, it's up to the individual to put them to use and practice them so that they can perform them one handed, while standing on their heads, blindfolded. :D

My suggestion to anyone wanting to learn, is that they find someone in their area to work with, or do some research and attend a course. There's nothing that will replace good hands on, one on one instruction.
 
Thanks guys,I agree with what you have said.I guess the stories are not that important,its getting experience that is important.
 
Did some "solo" training in survival skills. The fact is that in a survival situation there is no time to hang around, it's hard work from dusk till dawn just to keep you alive. If you are lucky to have a firestarter, a waterpurifier and a thermic blanket you have more comfort. If you wan't to do it the old style it's hard on your system and your mind.

I guess that real survival skills are interresting to aquire just from the fact that you know you have the ability to survive. In a life or death situation it might make the difference between giving up or surviving.

The only problem you face during E&E is that you always in the back of your head have the thought that it is still a training and that you can stop the training when you wan't.
 
The only problem you face during E&E is that you always in the back of your head have the thought that it is still a training and that you can stop the training when you wan't
Click to expand...
When I went through E&E/SERE there was no stopping it. If you decided to stop you'd be in for an ass-wuppin. Sooner or later everyone was caught and went to the camp. The idea was to delay it as long as possible. I finished the full course and had to turn myself in at the final checkpoint. I was treated fairly easy compared to the guys who were captured early.

As for real survival stories, HK2001, pict and alco141 are typical survival stories. A fork in the road occurs when a situation happens. You can do something stupid/heroic and die, or you can think about the Rule of 3. The idea is to walk out alive and not get carried out in a bag.

How about the guy who had to cut off his arm to free himself from a rock climbing accident. He walked out alive, but leaving his arm was really bad form. I'd have left a note telling folks where to look for me and I'd have had a tad more gear. It's good that he lived, but that was not heroic.
 
[digidude] said:
There seems to be quite a few people on this board with survival knowledge. Has anyone actually needed it? Ever been stranded or lost?
Personally I never have.



-[digidude]
Click to expand...

I got turned around while bowhunting deer one evening. The area was new to me and once darkness fell, nothing looked like it did walking in during the daylight. Naturally I had nothing on me in the way of preparations other than a knife and flashlight. Panic set in once I realized I might have to spend the night there. That panic feeling is a killer. Fortunately my hunting buddy wasn't that far off and he heard me call. He knew the area and was able to find me by my voice and flashlight and get us out. No biggie. No great survival story here...but I have always gone out better prepared to spend the night since that day.

Sorry...that was the best I could do for a story. :D

Jeff
 
I agree with ras, the only thing that is going to save your life in a survival situation is knowledge and experience used with a level head. If you are a person who spends a lot of time backpacking, hunting, or doing any activity that might possibly lead to a survival situation, knowing some basic survival skills might not be a bad investment of time. Then if the situation ever arose, panic would not impair your judgement. From there, anything that you have brought with you is a bonus and the "savage" survival situation just becomes nothing more than a delay. Most importantly is to be well prepared and to let people know where you will be.
 
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