W&ss fail thread

Rick Marchand

Rick Marchand

Donkey on the Edge
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Jan 6, 2005
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Things don't always go as planned. You may have started 1000 friction fires in the past... that doesn't mean you wont fail miserably when it counts. Always have a back up plan and keep your options open.

Share with us your "learning experiences" so we may think better of our own inabilities.

I was making a simple video demonstration for the 2-stick fireboard method. Something I've done many times with success.... ya right! ....:jerkit:

Rick


First and only take...... at least it has a happy ending.

[youtube]ua_XQETRfdw[/youtube]
 
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We were doing a shuttle hike with a buddy. On the last day we took a long nap at lunch in the sun at a beautiful waterfall.

That put us behind so when we came out it was nearly dark on a Sunday night.

Then we discovered that my buddy had left his radar detector plugged in and had depleted his battery.

The place was deserted and I was contemplating the 5 mile walk on the road back to the other trailhead I had parked my truck at.

Luckily 1 person drove by and gave us a jump. It was the only vehicle we ran into on the way out.:rolleyes:

So what I learned is to always make sure I have my keys and everything is off in my car and especially my friends car if we are depending on him because he's sort of absent minded anyway.
 
LOL...nice. That blade is really growing on me. You got a winner there.

I'd have to say that I really had an eye opening experience when I tried fire building in wet conditions. I tried to half a$$ it like I do when it's warm and dry. It ended up taking longer because after spending time half a$$ing it, I had to start over and do it the right way anyway.
 
I see that you adhere to the great philosophy of "If at first you don't succeed, do something else... you were no good at the first one."

That's how almost all of my two-stick attempts have gone, too. I'm generally too stupid to give up and use my Bic, so I just keep grinding till I fall over in exhaustion.

I like your way better.:D
 
I don't know if it really counts as a true "wilderness" or "survival" fail, but a month or so ago, I tried to do some cold weather hammock hanging, and tried for the first time to bring the dogs along. They didn't deal with the cold well, and having them sleep in the hammocks with us was a bad idea.

We ended up tearing down camp and driving home, around 11pm.



At least I got to blame the mutts for my failure :D
 
Well...now I wish I had kept the video of me trying to baton the notch into a hearth board...and the board being brittle and just fracturing all to pieces and the pieces being thrown in different directions...I just didn't think it was language appropriate for this site...or any site really... and I'm not sure how to add all the necessary beeps :D


Just curious, did it being batoned "heart" wood and not having the outer layers and bark have anything to do with it not working or was it just one of those days?
 
I got stuck on the western cliff face of He Devil, 1500 feet up... what was actually the trail looked way too steep so I took the 3 foot wide ledge out around a nose and that 3 foot wide ledge turned into 3 inch wide ledge real fast. Woops. I remember sidestepping hugging the rock with my 80 pound pack hanging out over the ledge, knees shaking because I was absolutely petrified. I learned it's alot easier to stay calm than it is to panic and try to get calm again-when you panic you lose alot of your reasoning ability, alot of rational thinking, and all you can see is the worst outcome, not the best solution to your problem. I pulled out my pipe and had a smoke, five minutes later I sidestepped back along the ledge and got out of there. Scared the piss out of me though.
 
I just got back.

I had planned to do a quick scout this AM before going into work, up on Judd trail. You cross a usually low Nuuanu stream to get to the trail, few 5-8ft waterfalls along the Nuuanu stream. Well I got up at 6 AM as it was still dark, kissed the wife good by, grabbed the pooch, and Jumped into the car. Drove up to Judd Trail, also known as Jackass ginger pool, but that's another story.

Now as a side note, It's Winter/Spring, the wet season in Hawaii. We don't really have more than 2 seasons, It's more like the cool, wet, rainy season, and the hot and dry season like most places in the tropics. It has been pouring day after day up here in this valley I live in, Nuuanu. Nuuanu means "Cool breeze" in Hawaiian, as it is a channel for the trade winds squeezing through the mountains, and hence gets plenty of rain squeezing the wet clouds riding the trans pacific trade winds.

But! But, last night it was dry. So I knew the trail would be wet, knew that it might shower some, no biggie. It was not pouring, I was ready to rock n' roll, thinking of that possible fatwood find and grabbing some guava wood for making a few first time bows.

Walk down the hill hearing the roar of the stream, and i knew it...

Fail.

That lowly stream was raging like river rapids. Ain't no way in hell I want to attempt to cross it to get to the trail, my dog was too chicken to get close. I walked around the banks seeing that it was running in places that should usually be high and dry, much higher than it is when just a normal post rain high. Must have really dumped up it the mountains.

Did poke about my side of the stream, found a wind downed pine, might be a fatwood find but we'll see.

Lesson learned: Mind the rain, even if it ain't raining. Be safe.
 
Once on a summer trip in the Adirondacks I decided to throw caution to the wind and NOT bring a backup water purification system. Why should I when I had a top of the line water filter in my pack? :rolleyes:

We got caught high up on a series of ridges when we 1.) ran out of water except for a cup to rehydrate a bit of dinner and 2.) couldn't get to the trail down into the valley before nightfall.

After a night of terrible (but not life-threatening thirst) we got up and headed down to the valley to fill up our water bottles. We got to the first beaver pond and my %$^Q&#$ing water filter clogs up with silt. :grumpy: With no tablets to make the water safe to drink, we had to resort to boiling it.

Nothing like coming off a night packed to the gills with sodium from dehydrated meals, no water to drink and having to choke down hot, bean-flavored water just as the temps creeped into the 80s.:barf:

I now carry drops or tablets wherever I go.
 
That was great Rick!
Just like the Indians used to do it.......... :D :thumbup:
 
Dude - I was wondering what you were going to do. When the torch came out - I cried. ;)


Your technique is excellent - your bearing block barely moves - and you don't wobble at all with that short spindle - I think you just didn't have enough dust in one spot - a weakness of the two stick design.

With that said - I had the SAME problem with a V notch the other day. Time after time I kept looking at not enough dust in the notch and not enough friction for fire built up in one spot.

Frustrating - but certainly reminds you that you are never a perfect master of anything.

TF
 
Some years back my late friend Dick Pollard ( a registered Maine Guide) asked me to assist him in teaching a very basic survival course for the local senior college program. We agreed we'd put together two survival kits with slightly different approaches. At one point we demonstrated fire making techniques, Dick used bug dope and toilet paper ignited with a match, I used materials gathered on the spot and a mag block. Dick's fire roared to life. I had a hell of a time getting a fire going, one of those red ears and tight jaw moments. It took some time, but I finally got fire. I used the gaffe to my advantage though, telling the students that sometimes things aren't easy even under the best of conditions, and not to take anything for granted.
 
The thing to remember is is you did get a flame at the end, albeit with the help of the always handy torch. Need to get me one of those!

Talfuchre said:
Dude - I was wondering what you were going to do. When the torch came out - I cried. ;)


Your technique is excellent - your bearing block barely moves - and you don't wobble at all with that short spindle - I think you just didn't have enough dust in one spot - a weakness of the two stick design.

With that said - I had the SAME problem with a V notch the other day. Time after time I kept looking at not enough dust in the notch and not enough friction for fire built up in one spot.

Frustrating - but certainly reminds you that you are never a perfect master of anything.

TF
Click to expand...

I wish more people believed that. Even with years of experience and practice, you can still mess up or simply not achieve something. Doesn't mean it will always be like that, but still. A good example, that I can think of anyway, is when Les Stroud took 3 hours or more to get a fire going using a bow or hand drill....forget the specifics.
 
As they say, "An idiot repeats his mistakes. A smart man learns from his mistakes. But a genius learns from the mistakes of others."

Love the torch, and cringed at bean water.
 
The thing I like about that torch is that it's self igniting (pizo electric?).

Even when your hands are cold, wet and shaking, just aim and flame. That's my kind of gizmo.
 
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