Make a Winter Survival Kit For Your Vehicle
Travel can be very dangerous this time of year. Black ice, slippery pavement, high winds and blowing snow, or reduced visibility due to fog, rain and snow storms can all happen within a few miles.
It doesn’t matter if you live in the Oregon high desert or the frigid
A survival kit for your car can be indispensable when the weather turns bad.
Midwest. If your car slips off the road in an isolated area, during a blizzard, a routine drive to visit the family can turn into a nightmare.
by Leon Pantenburg
Nationwide attention was brought to winter survival in a stalled vehicle in 2006.
In December, Californian James Kim, 35, died in Oregon’s Rogue River Wilderness after leaving his wife and children to get help. The family car was stuck in snow on a remote road for several days.
After Mr. Kim departed from the car, he left the road and apparently got lost in the deep snow. He bushwhacked five miles down steep canyons, covering about eight miles through rough country, but ending up only about a mile as the crow flies from his car. Mr Kim’s body was found several days later, and he had apparently died of hypothermia . His family was found alive in their car a few days later.
(To view the complete story, click on Kim Tragedy video)
Here are some things you can do for a car trip – before you leave – to make that road trip safer.
- Leave a note, telling someone your route, and when you intend to reach your destination. If you don’t arrive on schedule, the designated person should contact the area highway patrol or state police. If you have changes in plan, call that person to update the schedule.
- Warm clothing: Make sure everyone in the vehicle has, as a minimum, a warm coat, hat, gloves and boots along. Throw in a couple of blankets and a sleeping bag in the trunk for extra protection.
- Lots of Gas: The vehicle should have a full tank of gas before you leave to go anywhere. Top off the gas tank when it gets to about half full.
- Daytime travel: If possible, schedule your travel in the daytime.
- Known routes: Only travel routes you know to be safe – not rural service roads and cut-off roads that are unfamiliar to you.
- Food and Water: Assemble a complete emergency kit to carry in your car. Periodically update the kit by checking the food and water and making sure you have spare batteries for emergency flashlights. These days you can acquire car chargers and solar charging kits for cell phones.
Winter survival can start by assembling a selection of easily-obtained items. Here are some suggestions from Oregon AAA on what items to include in your car kit. Take a look at Leon’s personal selection of survival kits that he keeps on his person at all times.
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Sounds like you’re prepared! I would add some water, and food, and possibly a light sleeping bag. I don’t know what panty hose have to do with a water hose – sounds like somebody is funnin’ with you!
I live in the south and not a traveler but do have a first aid kit in the car.I have added rain ponchos for emergencies. They are compacked about 3″x3″,I was told to carry panty hose in case a water hose on the car broke,carry fix a flat also.Have plastic floor mats w/ little tits that would give traction in case car gets stuck. I carry cables to jump the car in case of battery problems. I have my car serviced every 3ooo miles w/ oil and filters changed. thanks for all the ideas.
I re-posted the article to coincide with local snow storms.
great site & article – i c posted a month ago, with comments going bak a year, hmm. anyway – a favorite topic of mine, having grown up in the northern mtns, and done much winter travel. i find it curious that i hear so little any more about the ‘bread bag’ backup for keeping feet warm. when i was a kid, we spent entire days out playing in sub-zero snow, and never ever suffered cold feet, due to our most excellent winter boots – no longer available i believe, but i think they were called ‘thermoboots’. in any case, they were totally waterproof rubber boots. not popular items these days, but these boots were rubber inside & out, with a very thin layer of insulation, (possibly reflective), totally no more than an eighth of an inch thick. We could walk thru slush & puddles with these without getting wet feet, but of course, after a long day of play (or later, hunting or hiking), our feet were always soaked with sweat, but never cold, even with just simple cotton socks. the trick as i found out was DRY insulation. this system can be easily & cheaply reproduced by any pair of socks (wool best of course) worn between plastic bags, to protect the socks from outer or inner moisture. hence the ‘bread bag’ solution! a pair of any socks & 4 bread bags (no holes, of course) is a much more manageable emergency backup stash than a spare pair of boots for everybody. If someone gets wet feet, regardless if they are wearing slippers, sneakers, or expensive boots, this backup will fix it. It’s best of course to wear socks against your skin, but even if these socks are initially soaked, they will warm up with walking, as long as one pair of socks stays dry between the bags. Warm feet, by themselves, won’t stave off hypothermia in dire straits, but in my experience cold feet are the most common cause of often extreme discomfort in emergency winter conditions, and needn’t be with such an easy fix.
Good choices! All those items could prove to be very, very useful!
I carry my car kit in daypacks so should we need to leave the vehicle we can carry our stuff. For the SUV I carry fix a flat, road flares, tire patch kit, small tool kit, military shovel, fuses, hose clamps, WD-40, a power inverter, duct tape, tarps, sleeping bags, and a few spare light bulbs. For GP survival gear I carry, at least a case of water (bottles can be refilled), a cooking kit, backpacking stove, extra fuel, fire starters, food, solar flash lights, lighters, magnesium fire stick, candles, space blankets, hatchet, machete, knives, leatherman, Gatorade, cliff bars, snickers, hygene kit, extra warm gear, rain gear, and a bottle of whiskey. I also carry a bible and firearms of assorted size and ammo to sustain them in a worst case scenario.
Good idea. You would think that cooler could insulate from both extreme heat and cold.
I live in the South, so the my problem with my car survival kit is too much heat. I solved this problem with a small, but very thick styrofoam cooler. I place the heat sensitive items in there (actually the whole kit) and all is well. It can be 120 degrees in the car, and chocolate bars still hold their shape. I am sure this same technique would help protect from freezing issues.
Last night, I was bopping along the Alcan at 22:45 on my weekly 410 mile round-trip to Fairbanks, and was about 30 miles from home when I came along a broken truck along the highway. It was thirty-something below zero. I stopped to see what’s up and turns out that it was a friend from my town who’d broke a serpentine belt and was waiting for his brother to come out and tow him back. He was prepared for cold weather. What would have been a dire survival situation just turned out to be an inconvenience because he was prepared. I called his brother’s house when I got within phone range just to make sure he was on the way. Same thing happened to me last winter, and I was prepared, too. Besides all the proper gear, never overlook the essential rule of survival: Set your attitude that you WILL survive, and realize a survival situation when it happens. Don’t be a victim!
With fleece, regardless the fabric it is the small open air voids that hold the air which eventually is warmed by the body heat to provide a layer of insulation. Once that layer is soggy with water it serves as a “heat sink,” to wick off the body heat. Water is such a great transfer medium of heat or cold! Imagine a wet fleece layer (either from perspiration or rain) and the wind blowing! You will loose body heat faster then you can replace it and eventually become hypothermic, even on a relatively “Mild,” day.
Jim
By fleece, do you mean synthetic?
Good choices! My stuff is similar, though I carry some kitty litter or salt for added traction in ice. I don’t intend to spend an uncomfortable night out. Unexpected, maybe, but my intention is that at worst, the situation is inconvenient.
I would strongly suggest replacing plastic water bottles with either a stainless steel/aluminum or old fashioned GI metal canteen/cup/stove, in an ALICE LC2 type carrier with water purification bottle pocket. That way, water can be heated for soups, bullion or other hot pick-me-up meals or melt or boil water for sterilizaton or melt snow/ice! Fleece is useless when it becomes wet, substitute wool or synthetic insulations. Layer up the clothes and do not stay so bundled up that you perspire and dampen your clothing. Cotton clothing is a killer! ALWAYS allow some ventilation in confined spaces to avoid carbon monoxide dangers! Best item in your kit is, good planning/preparation and most important of all COMMON SENSE!
While I don’t spend alot of time driving mountain passes, I do routinely drive 60-120 miles a day through Central Oregon, into & through the Cascades. Besides proper clothing when getting dressed for the climate and checking local weather, DOT, and law enforcement info on highway & weather conditions, I carry these items Every Day in my vehicle: Extra Clothing for the weather-Heavy jacket, Sweater, Under Armor Under Clothing, “YakTrax” for walking on ice/snow, Water-min of 1 gallon per person, Food/MRE’s/Mountain House, Jumper Cables, Shovel, Axe, 1-bag Cat Litter for traction aid, Flares, Space & Wool Blankets, 2-3 person tent. sleeping bags, Mess Kits incl Pot for boiling water/snow, & B.O.B. at all times through out winter-While peeps may often believe I carry too much, I’ve never had a single problem I couldn’t handle or get through comfortably when prepared….As a friend of mine often says; “You’re either always prepared or never prepared”
Good choices! I always struggle with ways to carry water, since it will freeze. BUt I figure it’s better to have ice then to try and gather enough snow or ice outside to melt for drinking!
I spend a lot of time driving in extreme weather and in mountain passes, what I have is a bit different. I carry tire chains, shovel, axe, sand, jumper cables, tow strap, flares, extra gas, maps, ice scrapper, 2 led lights, wool or fleese blanket, boots (snow or wet weather), gloves, knit hat, cold weather coat, rain coat and hat, change of clothes, space blanket, tarp, 24 hour candle, water proof matches, first aide kit, water and mre’s.
I remember when that entirely-avoidable tragedy happened, being an Oregonian who is somewhat familiar with that area. As I recall, they only got stuck because they took a “shortcut” off the main highway, thinking it would save them a few hours of driving. The moral of the story, besides the importance of having a car emergency kit, is not to take chances when traveling in unfamiliar areas — especially during less-than-ideal weather!
Or you’re on the New Jersey turnpike and an accident combines with a snowstorm to force an overnight stay alongside the road!
This is a very good idea, especially when you live in mountain country or off in the backwoods somewhere.
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