Survival 101
Okay, I said that I was going to try and do an update on my Survival Weekend excursion, so lets see if I can capture some of the essence of what I did. I’ll cut it for people who aren’t really interested.
I looked online and found a company that is well regarded for teaching survival courses:
Mountain Shepard. They are even mentioned in National Geographic .
As I was to find out the course is taught from a particular perspective: you are out somewhere when something goes wrong and you need to survive until you can be rescued. All of the things I learned are 100% useful for camping trips, but they were taught with the idea that people were going to be looking to rescue you. Apparently almost all rescues happen within one day. The majority of those that don’t happen within one day happen within three days. Sometimes survival experiences last longer, but not usually.
It was taught in the George Washington National Forest in VA; which is about 45 minutes or so from
Lynchburg VA (if that means anything to anyone). The instructor was an ex-US Navy SERE instructor.
This man knew his stuff, inside outside and backwards. Now for those of you who know me, the idea that I’m going to do well with military style instruction is silly - but it was never a problem. This guy, Reggie, was incredibly down to earth; funny, engaging, intelligent and honestly caring. He taught things from simple to complex, making sure that we were all comfortable with each step before taking us on to the next one.
The course went over the 7 priorities of survival:
1. PMA - Positive Mental Attitude
2. Physical Health - First aid and body awareness
3. Shelter-craft
4. Fire-craft
5. Signal-craft
6. Water-craft
7. Food-craft
We discussed each of these things in very great detail. Mental stresses, physical dangers, how to build shelters, etc etc. The course used 4 knots, and roughly 3-4 lashings to create everything. For someone who never had boyscouts teach him anything, this was very very cool. I mean, how cool is that I can now conceptually kill a dear with a small cord and two knots?
There were 7 students in total; myself and 6 others. We had two lawyers (one of which had gotten within about 2 football lengths of summiting K2 ), a programmer for the State Department, a network admin for a stock trading company, a Ukrainian network engineer, and a recent college graduate who majored in philosophy; Eric, Kurt (k2 guy), Aaron, Louis, Bill, and Adam. I was definitely the most liberal of the group, although none of them were Repubs - but to a man they were all against large government. Kurt had so many stories, all of which I believe. He’s a lawyer who beat up 5 cops, got tasered 3 times in the incident, bent a steel door and walked away from it with no charges. Sound amazing? Well, after spending days with him, its either a well craft lie (which I don’t believe) or the truth (which I do believe). I must admit that I had something like awe for this guy, who was totally down to earth and looked like a farmer. He constantly had his can of Skoal, and was always willing to help out. Oh yeah, and he was 100% deaf in one ear, and 2/3s deaf in the other without his hearing aid. I could ramble on about Kurt for pages and pages, suffice to say I found him to cool as hell.
We weren’t allowed to bring a tent because we had to create our own shelters. After this weekend I can create 4 shelters, and have conceptual knowledge of another 4 that are really only useful in either deserts, swamps, or arctic conditions. Here’s the cool thing: I actually think that I could create those shelters easily. We had a pack and sleeping bag, so I didn’t have to go so far as not having those, but we talked about what to do if we didn’t have those things. While I don’t like bugs and insects, I think that I could even survive for days without a pack or sleeping bag. My shelters were all water-proof and the only cold night I spent was the last one where it went down to 34 degrees and I wasn’t allowed to have a fire by my tent. My sleeping bag was NOT made for 34 degree weather. Cold night. I know how to pick a good campsite and how to identify dangerous camp sites. I now know that you should never camp really near a water source - and why that is.
After this weekend I know how to create a knee-high fire in the rain with wet wood using nothing but flint and steel. How cool is that? The same concepts would work in snow, but we only had heavy rain to practice in. When we went car camping a few weeks ago we made fires - we did everything wrong then. Literally if there was a mistake we could make we made it. Now, if you include time for gathering materials I can create a fire in 15 minutes. Under 5 minutes if the materials are readily available and I don’t have to scavenge. Boom - fire.
I know how to find and kill small animals. With a small piece of wire I can kill squirrels, rabbits, etc; one small piece of wire under 1 foot long. I know how to kill a deer with a snare made from simple cord. According to the SERE instructor and several of the group it would actually be easier to kill deer with the snare. It wasn’t until my eyes lit up that they told me that snare hunting is basically illegal. Damn. But in survival situations anything goes, which is why we were taught. Some of you may ask if we actually killed anything with our snares - to those people I again refer to the illegal part of snare hunting in non real survival situations.
I know basic wilderness first aid. Enough to know I don’t know shit, but the basics for what to do if someone needs help. Enough to know that for 90% of it I’d be over my head and my entire goal is to stabilize and get them to help or help to them. I learned about AVPU (among other things). I learned about restriction bands. I learned that carrying out someone on a stretcher would ideally require about 11-12 people because carrying someone out is very very tough.
I learned about signaling rescuers. Do you know what the international symbol for needing rescue is? It’s a “V.” Do you know how you are supposed to alert searchers who are looking for you with a whistle? - 3 shortish blows. If you don’t have a whistle follow the rules of 3. 3 smacks on a pot, 3 clacking together of rocks, etc. Searchers will use a single long blast to differentiate themselves. Oh yeah, other rule of 3: 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food. Back to signaling. Do you know the best way to get white smoke to attract searchers? Pine bows. The smoke goes higher the hotter the fire. Doesn’t work so well on windy days tho. If its snowey white smoke isn’t so good, so what then? If you can, burn something like old tires. If you don’t have that, burn pitchwood. If you want to build a ground sign for air searchers to see, what are the “best” proportions? At least 10 feet wide and 40 feet long. Gods, the list of things just goes on and on.
I now know how to find fresh water immediately off of the ocean. I know one of the best ways to gather relatively pure water from water sources in the wild (very dangerous to trust normally). I know how to gather enough water to fill a 32 ounce water bottle using only a clear plastic bag (even in the desert). I know how to find water in desert canyons even from dry waterbeds. I even know how much daily water the average person needs in a situation like a wilderness survival situation.
Food, well, basically food isn’t considered to be an issue because most rescues happen within 3 days and we can go 3 weeks without *serious* issues. But I know the basic test for if a plant is edible, and how to test it in the wilderness? How long does that test take? Minimum of 16 hours. I know how to find bugs to eat, and how to identify which ones are good to eat and which ones are dangerous. I now know that all snakes are edible. I know that all birds are edible, but that seagulls taste absolutely aweful….however I know how to make them taste better. As I said above I know how to snare animals to eat.
I know about wilderness dangers. I know about the three types of bears (black, brown and white). I know about wolves and coyotes (as well as a really interesting way to kill them). I know about snakes - only 2 poisonous types in the US (pit vipers and coral snakes). So why do pit vipers have that name? I know that reason too - pit vipers have two heat sensing pits on the sides of their faces. Pit vipers have fangs, others snakes have rows of teeth. In 40% of all venomous attacks no venom is released at all. Thats almost half of all attacks where the snake release NO venom. Coral snakes have a neurotoxin and will fuck you up - stay away from them. Most venoms from pit vipers will not in fact kill a healthy adult. They are mostly dangerous to the old and young. Another fact, don't bother attempting to suck out venom - its basically pointless. DON'T attempt to stop the circulation - you actually want it to circulate faster. If you stop circulation then you localize the flesh destroying venom into one small area. Hold the wound at about heart level if you can. If you get bitten by a snake that isn't a pit viper or a coral snake, it really isn't a big deal - kill the snake and eat it. If you do get bitten by a pit viper, deal with it, and get yourself to a hospital just in case. The venom probably won't kill you, but it also isn't necessarily pleasant. Most hospitals with pit vipers in the area also have antidotes.
I now know how to read contour maps and how to use a basic compass in order to orient myself and to be able to handle point-to-point travel using compass bearings. I know what to pack in a self-made emergency medical kit to handle most situations; all for a very low cost.
Sheesh. The list goes on and on. I’m sure at this point that I’m leaving out various things, but as you can see I already picked up one hell of a lot of stuff. What I had not been aware of before this class is that there are places in the US, and world, that legally you aren’t allowed to go to without a wilderness survival certification - I know have that. Legally I can now go to camp and explore the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska.
The course was so great if for no other reason than I found it very empowering. I now believe that I can survive some kind of wildness situation. I walked in and learned and believe that I understood it. I know there is a lot, tons, that I don’t know. I have so much more to learn, but I am now a valuable resource when camping or if something goes wrong and people need to live off the land. I also got some good advice on how to hook up with some hunting groups in order to start to learn to bow hunt. *sweet*
So I began my 2012 survival lessons and I am better for them. Overall I wound up spending about $1000 on the trip. Half for the course and the other half in gear (of which I now need/want more) and travel costs. Give me a small kit and two knives and I will walk into a wilderness survival situation and not only can I survive it, but I think I can come out of it intact and okay.
Wonderful experience. Totally worth the cost. I would totally recommend it to others. Now I want to try something a little more taxing. Maybe in a year or two I will look into
BOSS…
Oh, if anyone has a question then please ask and I will try to answer them. Its quite possible I won't know, but if I do then I'm happy to share info.
I looked online and found a company that is well regarded for teaching survival courses:
Mountain Shepard. They are even mentioned in National Geographic .
As I was to find out the course is taught from a particular perspective: you are out somewhere when something goes wrong and you need to survive until you can be rescued. All of the things I learned are 100% useful for camping trips, but they were taught with the idea that people were going to be looking to rescue you. Apparently almost all rescues happen within one day. The majority of those that don’t happen within one day happen within three days. Sometimes survival experiences last longer, but not usually.
It was taught in the George Washington National Forest in VA; which is about 45 minutes or so from
Lynchburg VA (if that means anything to anyone). The instructor was an ex-US Navy SERE instructor.
This man knew his stuff, inside outside and backwards. Now for those of you who know me, the idea that I’m going to do well with military style instruction is silly - but it was never a problem. This guy, Reggie, was incredibly down to earth; funny, engaging, intelligent and honestly caring. He taught things from simple to complex, making sure that we were all comfortable with each step before taking us on to the next one.
The course went over the 7 priorities of survival:
1. PMA - Positive Mental Attitude
2. Physical Health - First aid and body awareness
3. Shelter-craft
4. Fire-craft
5. Signal-craft
6. Water-craft
7. Food-craft
We discussed each of these things in very great detail. Mental stresses, physical dangers, how to build shelters, etc etc. The course used 4 knots, and roughly 3-4 lashings to create everything. For someone who never had boyscouts teach him anything, this was very very cool. I mean, how cool is that I can now conceptually kill a dear with a small cord and two knots?
There were 7 students in total; myself and 6 others. We had two lawyers (one of which had gotten within about 2 football lengths of summiting K2 ), a programmer for the State Department, a network admin for a stock trading company, a Ukrainian network engineer, and a recent college graduate who majored in philosophy; Eric, Kurt (k2 guy), Aaron, Louis, Bill, and Adam. I was definitely the most liberal of the group, although none of them were Repubs - but to a man they were all against large government. Kurt had so many stories, all of which I believe. He’s a lawyer who beat up 5 cops, got tasered 3 times in the incident, bent a steel door and walked away from it with no charges. Sound amazing? Well, after spending days with him, its either a well craft lie (which I don’t believe) or the truth (which I do believe). I must admit that I had something like awe for this guy, who was totally down to earth and looked like a farmer. He constantly had his can of Skoal, and was always willing to help out. Oh yeah, and he was 100% deaf in one ear, and 2/3s deaf in the other without his hearing aid. I could ramble on about Kurt for pages and pages, suffice to say I found him to cool as hell.
We weren’t allowed to bring a tent because we had to create our own shelters. After this weekend I can create 4 shelters, and have conceptual knowledge of another 4 that are really only useful in either deserts, swamps, or arctic conditions. Here’s the cool thing: I actually think that I could create those shelters easily. We had a pack and sleeping bag, so I didn’t have to go so far as not having those, but we talked about what to do if we didn’t have those things. While I don’t like bugs and insects, I think that I could even survive for days without a pack or sleeping bag. My shelters were all water-proof and the only cold night I spent was the last one where it went down to 34 degrees and I wasn’t allowed to have a fire by my tent. My sleeping bag was NOT made for 34 degree weather. Cold night. I know how to pick a good campsite and how to identify dangerous camp sites. I now know that you should never camp really near a water source - and why that is.
After this weekend I know how to create a knee-high fire in the rain with wet wood using nothing but flint and steel. How cool is that? The same concepts would work in snow, but we only had heavy rain to practice in. When we went car camping a few weeks ago we made fires - we did everything wrong then. Literally if there was a mistake we could make we made it. Now, if you include time for gathering materials I can create a fire in 15 minutes. Under 5 minutes if the materials are readily available and I don’t have to scavenge. Boom - fire.
I know how to find and kill small animals. With a small piece of wire I can kill squirrels, rabbits, etc; one small piece of wire under 1 foot long. I know how to kill a deer with a snare made from simple cord. According to the SERE instructor and several of the group it would actually be easier to kill deer with the snare. It wasn’t until my eyes lit up that they told me that snare hunting is basically illegal. Damn. But in survival situations anything goes, which is why we were taught. Some of you may ask if we actually killed anything with our snares - to those people I again refer to the illegal part of snare hunting in non real survival situations.
I know basic wilderness first aid. Enough to know I don’t know shit, but the basics for what to do if someone needs help. Enough to know that for 90% of it I’d be over my head and my entire goal is to stabilize and get them to help or help to them. I learned about AVPU (among other things). I learned about restriction bands. I learned that carrying out someone on a stretcher would ideally require about 11-12 people because carrying someone out is very very tough.
I learned about signaling rescuers. Do you know what the international symbol for needing rescue is? It’s a “V.” Do you know how you are supposed to alert searchers who are looking for you with a whistle? - 3 shortish blows. If you don’t have a whistle follow the rules of 3. 3 smacks on a pot, 3 clacking together of rocks, etc. Searchers will use a single long blast to differentiate themselves. Oh yeah, other rule of 3: 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food. Back to signaling. Do you know the best way to get white smoke to attract searchers? Pine bows. The smoke goes higher the hotter the fire. Doesn’t work so well on windy days tho. If its snowey white smoke isn’t so good, so what then? If you can, burn something like old tires. If you don’t have that, burn pitchwood. If you want to build a ground sign for air searchers to see, what are the “best” proportions? At least 10 feet wide and 40 feet long. Gods, the list of things just goes on and on.
I now know how to find fresh water immediately off of the ocean. I know one of the best ways to gather relatively pure water from water sources in the wild (very dangerous to trust normally). I know how to gather enough water to fill a 32 ounce water bottle using only a clear plastic bag (even in the desert). I know how to find water in desert canyons even from dry waterbeds. I even know how much daily water the average person needs in a situation like a wilderness survival situation.
Food, well, basically food isn’t considered to be an issue because most rescues happen within 3 days and we can go 3 weeks without *serious* issues. But I know the basic test for if a plant is edible, and how to test it in the wilderness? How long does that test take? Minimum of 16 hours. I know how to find bugs to eat, and how to identify which ones are good to eat and which ones are dangerous. I now know that all snakes are edible. I know that all birds are edible, but that seagulls taste absolutely aweful….however I know how to make them taste better. As I said above I know how to snare animals to eat.
I know about wilderness dangers. I know about the three types of bears (black, brown and white). I know about wolves and coyotes (as well as a really interesting way to kill them). I know about snakes - only 2 poisonous types in the US (pit vipers and coral snakes). So why do pit vipers have that name? I know that reason too - pit vipers have two heat sensing pits on the sides of their faces. Pit vipers have fangs, others snakes have rows of teeth. In 40% of all venomous attacks no venom is released at all. Thats almost half of all attacks where the snake release NO venom. Coral snakes have a neurotoxin and will fuck you up - stay away from them. Most venoms from pit vipers will not in fact kill a healthy adult. They are mostly dangerous to the old and young. Another fact, don't bother attempting to suck out venom - its basically pointless. DON'T attempt to stop the circulation - you actually want it to circulate faster. If you stop circulation then you localize the flesh destroying venom into one small area. Hold the wound at about heart level if you can. If you get bitten by a snake that isn't a pit viper or a coral snake, it really isn't a big deal - kill the snake and eat it. If you do get bitten by a pit viper, deal with it, and get yourself to a hospital just in case. The venom probably won't kill you, but it also isn't necessarily pleasant. Most hospitals with pit vipers in the area also have antidotes.
I now know how to read contour maps and how to use a basic compass in order to orient myself and to be able to handle point-to-point travel using compass bearings. I know what to pack in a self-made emergency medical kit to handle most situations; all for a very low cost.
Sheesh. The list goes on and on. I’m sure at this point that I’m leaving out various things, but as you can see I already picked up one hell of a lot of stuff. What I had not been aware of before this class is that there are places in the US, and world, that legally you aren’t allowed to go to without a wilderness survival certification - I know have that. Legally I can now go to camp and explore the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska.
The course was so great if for no other reason than I found it very empowering. I now believe that I can survive some kind of wildness situation. I walked in and learned and believe that I understood it. I know there is a lot, tons, that I don’t know. I have so much more to learn, but I am now a valuable resource when camping or if something goes wrong and people need to live off the land. I also got some good advice on how to hook up with some hunting groups in order to start to learn to bow hunt. *sweet*
So I began my 2012 survival lessons and I am better for them. Overall I wound up spending about $1000 on the trip. Half for the course and the other half in gear (of which I now need/want more) and travel costs. Give me a small kit and two knives and I will walk into a wilderness survival situation and not only can I survive it, but I think I can come out of it intact and okay.
Wonderful experience. Totally worth the cost. I would totally recommend it to others. Now I want to try something a little more taxing. Maybe in a year or two I will look into
BOSS…
Oh, if anyone has a question then please ask and I will try to answer them. Its quite possible I won't know, but if I do then I'm happy to share info.