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January 2005 Feature Article:

Could You Survive Alone?

Please use this area to post comments or questions about this feature article.

[benjammin]

Yes. The article was fairly thorough, but I would have put more emphasis on the basic three: fire, shelter, and water. Unless you are anorexic to begin with, food is not much of a factor in a survival situation, other than psychological. Discipline and mental preparation is much more effective. If you are injured, first aid is the most important conisideration in a field surival kit. Finding and maintaining a water supply, a shelter, sometimes a fire, and always good signaling devices are the next most important.

Here is a link to the best source of survival information on the website:

http://www.equipped.com/

The author has developed perhaps the best truly portable survival kit I've ever seen.

My survival kit comes in layers, and depends on where I will be and my activities. Above all, you must plan on surviving ahead of time. Don't just let it happen. It is better to have too much than not enough. I have easily spent $500+ on survival gear and supplies, most of which I will never use, but are there just the same. I add about 10 lbs (more if in a hot environment, water is heavy), to my hunting pack for my survival gear. Rather than give you a list of what I have, I recommend you sit down and think about what you might need, take a look at what is available, and decide for yourself.

Basic survival is one of the major topics in our hunter ed class. Even so, we don't get into gear or skills as much as we do philosophy. Not enough time. We do get the students thinking, though.

[Serious Hunter]

Good article. We're in the `off season' - so now is the time for us to take a look at our survival preparations ... re-tool.

Even though they are expensive, I added a satellite phone to my stuff. In Idaho a cell phone hardly works anyway (or should I say, anywhere). The sat phone works as long as you can see the sky - regardless of how far from civilization. And sky includes clouds.

We also often carry pocket water filters.

We also take fat conversion bars. Since I already have a lot of energy stored on my body from Thanksgiving and Christmas, I may as well `burn it' in the outdoors. So [extra] of these let me get to [extra] calories I'm already carrying.

I'm glad the story has a happy ending. Let us outdoorsmen/women hope something like this never befalls us - but prepare in case it does. We don't want to break the hearts of the ones we love and who love us.

JRF

[Wahya]

One item I've found very handy in a survival kit is a tube of super glue. I once had a severe cut on my finger. My partner squirted some glue onto the wound and it sealed instantly. I put another bead on and all the bleeding stopped.

[Serious Hunter]

I'm told that battlefield first aid is where super glue originated.

Interestingly, your local vet Veterinarian can be a source of some pretty good first aid stuff. They have what many call `vet wrap' which is kind of a stretchy roll / wrap thing - good for wrapping large wounds or perhaps sprains. I have recently seen it now in the first aid section of some stores. (But the vet can get it in all various party (fun) colors, whereas the new `human' version is a pretty bland brown.)

The vets also have various wound closure stuff (super glue for dogs).