A Survival Tips and Techniques Blog | UrbanWoodsman.com

Beaver Mt. Ski Patrol’s Mike Carlise shows you how to build a snow cave

Most emergency survival kits you see in stores are designed for outdoor trips. While they would certainly do as well, they would nevertheless cost more than it should. Here are a few tips to make your own budget-friendly emergency home kit.

One Kit Per Person
To ensure that every person’s need is covered, it’s best to have one emergency kit per person.

For maximum safety and protection, consider basing your emergency home kit on a 72-hour period prior to receiving help. Lastly, every emergency home kit must be capable of meeting any type of disaster or emergency, whether it’s natural or man-made.

Food and Water
Medication can only go so far. To stay alive in any emergency, you’ll need sustenance. Include a sufficient amount of Aqua Blox water boxes – at least a gallon of water per person per day, but you may need more depending on climate conditions. Remember also that shelf life for Aqua Blox is five years. Bottled water, water purification tablets, and water storage bags should also be included.

As for food, carbohydrate-rich foods are your best bet because they’re effective in replenishing your energy. Canned goods are always useful as they require little to no preparation.

Clothing and Shelter
Instead of thermal blankets, you’ll be a lot dryer, warmer, and safer with 2 large-sized garbage bags per person. Wool blankets would be better while sleeping bags, albeit bulky, are the best. Include one set of working clothes and boots.

First Aid
Bandages of all types, adhesive tape, gauze pads, various kinds of antiseptics, analgesics, and antibiotic ointment are the basics of first aid. Be sure to take note of special medication needs of your loved ones such as diabetic medication or a spare pair of eyeglasses for those visually impaired.

Tools
Include flashlight, matches, camping stove with fuel or burner if possible. Forks, spoons, and various sizes and types of knives (not just for culinary use) would be handy. Swiss army knife sets, screwdrivers, and a hammer and pry bar would definitely be helpful.

Special Needs during Emergencies
Your emergency home kit will naturally differ in terms of content and size if you have an infant with you. Because their immune system is not as strong as those of adults, you need to be extra careful in choosing the right foods, medicine, and supplies to ensure their health and safety. Last but not the least, remember to have an emergency home kit ready for your pets, too!

Reggie Bennett from Mountain Shepherd Survival School teaches how to build a lean to in the wilderness. The main benefit of a lean to is that its open front allows you to keep warm with a fire. For the entire playlist of Wilderness Survival Videos visit: youtube.com For more information on Mountain Shepherd Survival School or to sign up for classes visit: MountainShepherd.com

The key to a peaceful and fulfilling trip into the wilderness is having appropriate shelter to protect members of the party from the elements. You do not want to be too cold or wet in winter, nor too hot and humid in the summer. If you are traveling far away from civilization, it is important to keep your shelter to a minimum weight, and, therefore, easy to carry. Otherwise, be prepared to obtain shelter from the natural elements available freely at the campsite.

Many travelers, going into the wilderness spend too much time planning for food, water, and fire requirements. It is also important to think about shelter. While it is true that water is probably the single most important consideration in trip preparation, shelter is, without-a-doubt, the second most important factor. Shelter needs are magnified by the climate of the terrain you plan to tackle. Either hot dry desert wilderness areas or cold high territories can present serious shelter issues. Failing to find shelter from the elements is the prime cause of fear and irrational behavior in case of an emergency.

Simple Shelter to Pack

The simplest shelters can be made from a large waterproof sheet of plastic or other lightweight material. Saving expense and sacrificing durability of the fabric is a classic fault. This plastic sheet or tarp can be used along with a rope, some stakes, sections of a tree, or walking stick to form a triangular shaped tent. If the weather is cold, try closing one end by keeping it pegged to the ground to keep in heat. Face the open edge toward the fire, and away from the prevailing winds.

When planning your itinerary pay special attention to known caves, natural shelters, and public agency provided wilderness shelters. Before starting the trip be sure to have the appropriate map, which shows these shelters. Ask about existing natural shelters when talking to wilderness management. Know how long you will be in the wilderness and plan your route realistically. Do not assume you will be able to locate shelter if the weather or other conditions turn against you.

Making a Debris Hut

If you find yourself in a situation with no natural shelter, and your packed shelter provisions are inadequate, debris shelters can often be built. The idea is to take the building materials you find in the wilderness and transform them into a suitable weather tight shelter. To construct a debris hut, plan to make it big enough to cover your body but small enough to allow very little extra air space that would allow the cold air to get to you inside.

Form a frame with some larger branches so you can crawl inside at one end and extent your body full length. The amount of free space should only be that which is needed for you to make this trip into and out of the debris hut. Cover the large branches with smaller branches, pine boughs, ferns, large leaves, and anything that is hearty enough to stay on the pile and retain the heat. If you find a tree stump, it can often be the closed end portion of the debris hut, and a perfect place to start the placement of the first large branch. Avoid spots where there are large protruding rocks on the surface of what will be the floor of the hut.

A completed debris hut should be about eight feet long, and four to five feet tall. The opening should be two feet high and three feet wide. If you are using a fire for heat, remember to place the hut far enough away from the flames to keep it from burning. Test the fire safety by starting the fire, getting it burning at its maximum level, and checking the edges of the hut to see if they are warm. If they feel much more than body temperature, the fire is too big or the hut is too close. Safety should be your first priority.

Learn how to build a good camp fire in this free wilderness survival video. Expert: Karl Jensen Bio: Karl Jensen has been hiking for seven years in the New England area. Karl is currently interning in the adventure program at Smith College to gain more knowledge about hiking. Filmmaker: Christian Munoz-Donoso

A snow coffin could save your life. Warm up to the idea by watching this video. For more info visit: www.meetup.com

Anyone who might someday get lost while hiking, hunting, canoeing or backpacking should know the basics of how to build a wilderness survival shelter. There are several types, ranging from snow caves to poncho tents to modified rock-ledge shelters. They all have their place, but this article will cover just one: the lean-to.

One advantage of a lean-to is that it can be built almost anywhere there are trees. Another is that it requires no tools. Finally, it can be built with a variety of materials.

The most basic design starts with a small tree or pole or stick which is lodged horizontally in the branches of two trees. This is the peak of the roof, and so should be high enough so you can be comfortable inside the finished shelter, but also low enough in cool weather so the space created can be warmed (at least in part) by your body heat. The length should allow for you to stretch out underneath.

Against this main “roof beam” you lean any sticks you can find. Interweave a few horizontally for added strength. At the sides lean other smaller sticks to further enclose the space. If you leave one side open you can have a fire in front. Otherwise you can lean sticks on the other side of the beam as well, creating a kind of “a-frame” shelter (leave a hole to crawl inside).

To keep out wind and precipitation (the primary purposes of a survival shelter), you’ll need to “shingle” your roof. This can be done using flat evergreen boughs (just break the lower ones off small trees), bundles of grass, large pieces of tree bark, or even pieces of plastic and junk, depending on your circumstances. The important point here is to start by laying the materials against the bottom, where the roof slopes to meet the ground, and then add overlapping layers higher up.

Done right, a shelter like this can be made in an hour or so and keep out most rain, snow and wind. Unless you do plan to have a fire in front for warmth, keep the shelter small. In this way the heat from your body can keep the space heated to at least several degrees warmer than the outside air.

Lean-To Tips

It can help to have some way to tie sticks together, so experiment with any vines or pliable branches and strips of bark you see. Some evergreen roots work well too, and can be found in the soft soil less than an inch deep.

If you plan to have a fire, make the opening of the shelter parallel to the expected direction of the wind. This will minimize the amount of smoke you breath. Facing away from the wind will actually cause some smoke to swirl back into the shelter.

Always provide some way to keep yourself off the ground as much as possible, since it can steal a lot of body heat. Make a mattress of dry leaves or grass. You can also make a mattress using fir boughs (unlike spruce, these have flatter and softer needles). Stick the broken ends in the ground and work towards them so the branches are layered like shingles, with only the soft tips above.

If you don’t have a fire, make a “door” or covering for the opening. In this way you can close yourself in to trap your body heat.

A lean-to is one of the best wilderness survival shelters because it is so adaptable. Look for other arrangements, like starting with a downed tree you can fit under and building a lean-to using that as the roof beam. Even a partial cave or rock overhang can be enclosed with a simple lean-to.

Knowing how to build a survival shelter can save your life. While lack of food can kill you in 3 weeks, and a lack of water kill you in three days, exposure can kill in a matter of a few hours! Regardless of what type of outdoor survival situation you find yourself in, you may need to build a shelter until a more permanent solution can be found.

Lean-to shelters are the easiest to build and can be constructed from almost any material. A blanket or tarp suspended on one end and weighted down on the other is considered a lean-to. Wood supported by any upright is also a lean-to. All of these will provide some protection from wind, sun, rain, snow and all can be made with items that can be found or carried in a survival backpack.

Conical structures will also provide emergency shelter and while they are a bit more difficult to create can be made from items easily located. Branches, sticks, lumber and pipe are all materials that can be used to construct a conical shelter. Arrange your support material in a circular motion. Starting with two poles on each side, prop them up so that they help support each other. Add two more on the opposite side.

Working on a north/south and east/west grid, create a circle of supports. As you fill in the gaps on each directional side you will find that the structure becomes more stable. Choose one area to leave open for your entryway. You can place a few branches or sticks sideways at this area weaving them into the outer supports to reduce the height of this opening. You can close up this opening with a blanket or a garbage bag once you are inside.

When the basic shell has been constructed you can cover this conical structure with smaller branches, cloth such as blankets, curtains, carpet and so forth. Leaves and grass also work as a covering. If your structure is constructed in an area where there is no danger of escaping natural gas or propane you may build a small pit fire inside. There will be a natural center hole in conical shelters that will allow the smoke to rise and escape from inside.

A tipi structure is also an option for some. Taller supports are tied together at the top forming an inverted ice cream cone shape. Around these poles, fabric such as sheets or blankets, carpet or plastic is placed. Again if this structure is in an area where no danger of escaping natural gas or propane is present, a small pit fire for warmth and cooking may be placed inside.

Tents and other types of pre-made shelters are useful as well. Many modern tents are small, lightweight and some are designed for very cold temperatures. While these modern shelters have specific types of stoves and heating equipment that must be used they can be a valuable shelter option for some.

Canvas was once the fabric of choice for many temporary outdoor structures. Unfortunately, it is heavy and is a poor choice today for the survival backpack. However, it is possible to pack one of those lightweight silver tarps in a backpack and then have it available. Drape it over a pole lodged between two trees, so that each end touches the ground. Anchor the ends with rocks and logs and close one end with branches, twigs and leaves.

Providing shelter during an emergency is as important as water and food will be. Before you find yourself in an emergency situation you need to practice making a survival shelter. Having the supplies for an emergency without having the skills to use them is like not having the supplies in the first place. Be prepared. Practice your skills before you need them.