WILDERNESS SURVIVAL

BASIC RULES OF SURVIVAL

1. Relax. Don’t Panic! If you are lost and alone in the wilderness sit down and stay put until the fear, anger, and or frustration has gone from your system. Collect your thoughts. What do you have that can help you in this situation? Your mind is your greatest survival tool!

2. Check your survival kit Be sure that you know how to use everything that is in your survival kit. Take an inventory of your mind, remember what you always thought you would do if you got lost. What wilderness survival skills have you learned?

3. Look around, where to stay? Is there an open area so the searchers can see you? Where will you build a shelter?

4. Create your plan of action. Be sure that you do not overcomplicate things. If you are lost in the early spring or late fall, or are at a higher altitude, keeping warm should be your number one priority. If injured, first aid has top priority no matter what climate you are in. Figure out what order you will do things in. Remain positive, this is a real survivor challenge but you do have the ability to survive.

5. Stay in one place, and wait it out. Do not wander around. If you told someone where you were going then people are probably looking for you. The primary reason you should not move once you realize you are lost is historically people who are lost and alone in the wilderness continue to move, move further away from where they should be.

BASIC CONCEPTS OF WILDERNESS SURVIVAL

WILL TO SURVIVE When faced with a survival situation an individual encounters many stress related behaviors that ultimately impact the mind and affect decision making. Without a desire to survive, acquired survival skills serve little purpose. (Read newspaper article of Aron Ralston)

Basic Needs In a wilderness survival situation you will be confronted with many problems that you need to overcome. There are four basic needs for survival Warmth Water Sleep Food

BASIC STEPS Survival depends a great deal on your ability to withstand stress in emergency situations and to take the right action How do you build the confidence to remain calm and make the right decisions in an emergency situation? You need the knowledge and practical skills that can help you to manage a difficult situation to enable you to remain calm and objective.

8 Basic Wilderness Survival Skills Make a fire with or without matches Make a shelter to protect you from different weather conditions. Find and purify water Find food Use different ways of signaling to attract attention. Navigate with and without a map and compass. Basic Wilderness first-aid Basic weather prediction.

RULE OF 3’s Know the Rules Of 3's. You can survival 3 minutes with out air. You can survive 3 hours without proper shelter. You can survive 3 days with out water. You can survive 3 weeks with out food.

“Nature never deceives us: it is always we who deceive ourselves.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau “I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.” John Burroughs