Leon Pantenburg at Smith Rock State Park

A woman sprained her ankle at dusk, in the middle of a forested urban park on a routine evening winter run and almost froze to death. A car got stuck in the snow on a rural road only a few miles from a major highway and the driver died of hypothermia and dehydration.  A man took a day-hike on a well known trail, got lost and was never seen again.  These avoidable tragedies happen all the time.

Most people never think about the need to survive anything. But you, the average person, could easily be one slip, journey, natural disaster or crash away from real trouble.

This website, written by Leon Pantenburg, is about proven and tested common sense survival techniques that anyone should learn whether living in a major metropolitan region or recreating in the wilderness.

• Using your common sense to survive any unexpected calamity can turn a dangerous situation into a mere inconvenience.
•  Pack and easily carry the right tools with the confidence to know how to use them and you and your family will survive any emergency.
• Check out the categories on the left hand side of this page to learn how to be completely prepared for anything that life throws at you.

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Your first line of defence against hypothermia is your clothing. Make the right choices to survive!

by Leon Pantenburg
Dressing to survive starts with knowing what fabrics to wear. Different fabrics have radically different properties. Choosing the wrong type, or mixing clothing of

These Troop 18 Boy Scouts stayed warm on this winter hike because they all dressed correctly for the weather conditions.

different materials, can be disastrous!

You may not be able to tell what a garment is made of by looking. A nice, fuzzy, thick 100-percent cotton flannel shirt will be warm and cozy until it gets wet. Then that wet shirt may suck the heat out of your torso and cause hypothermia!

On the other side of the equation is wool. My hands-down favorite in the winter, wool, is generally a bad choice for a desert hike in August. Wool traps heat, and while it provides some UV protection, the material will prevent your body from cooling.
So, the buyer needs to beware.

Before buying any clothing item, read the labels and find out what the material is. Ignore fashion or what’s trendy (I know that’s hard – I have a 16-year-old daughter!), and make your purchase based on the activity and the clothing protection that will be needed.

Here are some common fabric choices:

* Cotton:  Depending on where you live, cotton clothing can kill you. Cotton is hydrophilic, meaning it is no good at wicking wetness away from the skin, and can become damp just by being exposed to humidity.

Since I’ve spent a lot of time in the Deep South, my favorite hot weather shirt is a medium-weight, white, 100 percent cotton Navy surplus shirt. The shirt has a collar that can be pulled up to shade my neck, and pockets with flaps and buttons. Cotton also has a reasonable amount of UV protection.

Both of these 100% cotton garments would keep you warm until they got wet. Then, this clothing can become dangerous to wear!

On really hot days in a canoe, a cotton shirt can be soaked with water, and worn to cool you down. On a desert hike, help prevent heat stroke by using a few ounces of water to wet the shirt down. (The water can come from anywhere, including that algae-edged stock tank. The evaporation is what cools you!)

Typical urban casual garb is probably all cotton: sweatsocks, Hanes or Fruit of the Loom underwear, jeans, tee shirt, flannel shirt and sweatshirt. This outfit may keep you warm in town, but don’t wear it into the backcountry! Once the cotton gets wet, you could end up in trouble.

Don’t be mislead by the looks and camouflage patterns of 100 percent cotton hunting clothes. These garments may be just what you need for a hot, September dove hunt in Mississippi, but they become cold and clammy when damp or wet, just like anything else made of cotton.

* Polypropylene: This material doesn’t absorb water, so it is a hydrophobic. This makes it a great base layer, since it wicks moisture away from your body.  The bad news is that polypropylene melts, so a spark from the campfire may melt holes in your clothing.

* Wool: Where I live in Central Oregon, wool is the standard for  six months of the year. A good pair of wool pants and wool socks are the first clothing items we recommend to new Boy Scouts in our troop. For our winter scout excursions, any sort of cotton clothing is strongly discouraged. Jeans are banned.

Wool absorbs moisture, but stays warmer than many other fabrics. Wool is also inherently flame retardant.

* Polyester: This is essentially fabric made from plastic, and it’s good stuff. The material has good insulative and windstopping value, and can be made into many different thicknesses.

Dressed completely in wool, I was warm and comfortable on this winter hike. I took off my hat and coat for the photo.

* Nylon: The fabric is pretty tough and can be used on your outer layer. It doesn’t absorb much moisture, and what does evaporates quickly. It is best used as some sort of windbreaker, to keep your clothing from being compromised by the wind.

* Down: This material is not a fabric, but rather, fluffy feathers stuffed inside a garment or sleeping bag. When dry, down is one of my favorite insulative materials.

In addition, a down sleeping bag or garment is virtually impossible to dry out in the backcountry, even with a roaring campfire.

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One of the pervasive folk legends about finding directions  in the wilderness or woods, is that moss grows on a certain side of a tree or rock. Just find your way by observing where the moss is,  according to this theory, and you won’t get lost.

According to my compass, the moss was on the west side of this stump.

by Leon Pantenburg

According to this traditional old “wisdom” the moss is thickest on the north side of a tree in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, the moss is thickest on the south side.

Subsequently, this survival tip will help you to find your way in a forest. Here’s one opinion about that: finding directions with moss

But the newspaper guy in me had to ask: What direction does the moss point? Is there a difference in the location of the forest and the way the moss points? What are the variations? Why? Where did this legend come from? (Check out this video!)

The basis for this directional moss idea may have come from general information about moss. Moss produces spores instead of seeds, and it needs a damp  environment to reproduce.  Moss spores don’t survive in dry areas.

The sun shines from the south in the northern hemisphere, so a tree’s north side is generally more shaded and damp.  It stands to reason that there would be more moss on the damp  – the north – side

The moss myth never got far with me. In the dense, deciduous forests of Mississippi where I used to hunt and ramble, I could never find any pattern for the moss. In any dense, thick forest – where the sun doesn’t penetrate as far – it seems like you’ll see mosses on all sides of the trees. In some of standing water swamp areas where I used to wader-hunt for ducks, the moss was everywhere. It sometimes varied because of the fluctuating water levels!

Moss grows everywhere in this temperate rain forest in Oregon.

As for rocks, well, mosses will grow on almost anything if conditions are favorable.  I suppose you might find more

The moss on these trees at Camp Makulla was also on the west side!

moss on the north side of rocks in an open area, but in a shaded forest, chances are good that the rocks will be completely covered.

There are apparently so many variables about where and when moss grows in a forest  that a firm rule can’t be established.

In July, 2010, I was at Camp Makualla Boy Scout camp in the Cascades with some of the scouts from Troop 18 in Bend. There was a lull in the action, so I took my compass and camera and went walking. The idea was to check out this directional moss theory. (And, I love to ramble through the woods, and never need much of an excuse! )

I couldn’t find a consistent pattern anywhere. In one area, the moss grew on the west side of the trees, because there had been some timbering going on that let in more sunlight. A short distance away, the trees and underbrush were so dense that moss was everywhere.

The lichen on this dead juniper tree in the desert grew on the top!

One of my requirements for a wilderness survival tip is consistency. The skill or technique must work every time, because there is no room for error when it comes to survival.

To me, the bottom line on the moss directional theory is this: Moss grows everywhere in the wilderness. There is not enough consistency, that I could find, to lend creditability to this “survival tip.”

Don’t depend on finding your way, based on directions gotten from the moss on trees. This idea is NOT something to promote or rely on.

Subsequently, I dub direction finding by observing  moss growth a myth. And I proclaim that myth busted!

Recommended Reading:
Surviving a Wilderness Emergency
Build the Perfect Survival Kit

GPS Made Easy (GPS Made Easy: Using Global Positioning Systems in the Outdoors)

Staying Found: The Complete Map and Compass Handbook

For more related SurvivalCommonSense.com tips and stories, click on the highlighted words:

• Dress with the right fabrics.
• Have a plan to make a tarp shelter.
• Carry lightweight, compact firestarter.
• Find the most effective fire ignition system.
• How to make charcloth, a material that can catch a spark from any source.
• Use charcloth as an effective method of catching a spark to make a fire.
• It can kill you: Hypothermia
• Hardtack: A great emergency food
• About Leon Pantenburg

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The thought was to take a quick stroll before dinner, and the plan was to be gone about 45 minutes. But now you’re lost, and the safest course of action is to stay put and spend the night. Luckily, you have your Ten Essentials, and whatever food you packed, but no tent, sleeping bag or insulite pad.

Oh. And your matches don’t work. You have to build a shelter, and figure out how to stay warm, since the temperatures could drop into the 30s.

Have a nice night!

Eagle Scout Jesse Brummett demonstrates a quick shelter made with a tarp.

by Leon Pantenburg

That was the scenario last weekend when 13  Boy Scouts and five adult leaders from Troops 18 and 90, located in Bend, OR. went on a “Ten Essentials Campout.”  The idea was to train for surviving an unexpected night out in the wilderness. The theme was: “No tents, no sleeping bags, no matches, No PROBLEM!”

And it didn’t prove to be a problem.

While some of the scouts and leaders were experienced hunters and backpackers, some of the participants had little or no experience in camping. The scouts seemed to be about equally divided between those who just needed the overnighter requirement to complete the Wilderness Survival merit badge, and those who were just starting that merit badge.

But enthusiasm can be really contagious. After a five-mile cross country hike, using map and compass, the participants set out to make shelters, using whatever natural materials were available. The goal was to have the shelter done before dusk. Then, the idea was to make a warming fire, and if you had something to cook over it, such as a dehydrated meal, that would make your night even better.

The idea was to take a quick hike before dinner...

But this outing was all about training, not camping, and part of the plan was to see what tools worked best. Some scouts made shelters out of trash bags, and got through the night with a minimum of discomfort. (Our bags for this outing were donated by the local Les Schwab tire stores. They are bright yellow tire bags, easily seen by searchers, compact and easy to carry!)

Others found  a small tarp to be a really effective tool for making a shelter. Sometimes, a combination of tarp and tire bags worked best. (I was doing some first-time testing of an Adventure Medical Kits Emergency Bivvy  Sack made from Thermo-Lite reflective fabric. So far, its grade is a C- !)

Though the daytime temperatures were in the 90s, in the Central Oregon high desert, the lows could go  below freezing. Saturday night is was in the 40s and 50s, so everyone had a chance to see how their shelters and gear worked under actual survival conditions. 

The cheap mylar "blankets," as usual, failed miserably under survival conditions!

The end result made us all proud – everyone came through with flying colors!

Here is one lesson learned from this outing: Your gear won’t save you in a survival situation! Knowing how to use that gear can, but only if you have it along!

(Editor’s note to the scouts and leaders: Hey, guys, thanks for letting me come along – this was a lot of fun!  Let’s do another 10 Essentials campout again in a few months when the snow is on the ground!)

For more information on wilderness survival techniques and equipment, check out these SurvivalCommonSense.com affiliate blogs: wilderness survival gear reviews, best survival knife, survival kits, and survival cooking.

This shelter used natural materials, a tarp and Les Schwab tire bags.

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The wind blew sheets of rain sideways and the water dripped off the brim of my hat as I hunched over my charcloth and flint and steel. The original idea had been to demonstrate to Boy Scouts of Troop 18 in Bend, Oregon how to start a fire in the rain using one match, and available natural materials.

The waxed firestarter will burn on snow, or when the weather is wet and nasty.

By Leon Pantenburg

It had rained in the area for two days, and everything was soaked. We found a juniper tree that offered some shelter. I demonstrated how to find the dry side of the tree, strip off dry inner bark from underneath a limb and gather relatively dry twigs from under the trunk. Then I reached from my waterproof match container.

My 11-year-old son Dan had other ideas.

“Oh, c’mon Dad,” he said. “You can get a fire started with a flint and steel, can’t you?”

Typically, Murphy stands at my elbow when I attempt such demonstrations. And Murphy’s Law (as it relates to firemaking) is very explicit. It states: The more people watching you try to show off, the harder it will be to start a fire.

But Murphy had stayed home. I caught the spark on the second whack of the striker, placed the glowing charcloth into a prepared nest of dry and shredded juniper bark and in a matter of minutes had a roaring fire going. Nobody was more impressed than me.

Getting interested in one aspect of history generally leads to other rediscoveries. In my case, an interest in primitive

firemaking lead to a search for an effective firestarter. Surely, I reasoned, the oldtimers had some sort of flammable material that was compact, portable, effective, simple to make and that used easily-obtained local materials. Pitch wood, cedar bark, dry grass, weed stalks, pine needles etc. all work great when the weather is nice. But usually, the fouler the weather, the more desperately you need a fire (another axiom of Murphy’s firemaking law). There had to be some sort of old time firestarter.

The answer came from another seeker of esoteric knowledge, my buddy, Dr. Jim Grenfell. Jim is a former UCLA

Charcloth, made from old denim, will catch any spark and should be included in every survival kit! The finished product should be completely black, but flexible and not brittle.

instructor of dentistry who took up blacksmithing upon retiring. He makes knives, replica tomahawks, fire strikers, and anything the local Boy Scout troops need. Jim is also a former fighter-bomber pilot combat veteran of the Korean War and a graduate of three Air Force wilderness survival schools.

Jim already had the answer to the firestarter situation. We went out to his shop and he pulled out what looked like a waxed pillow case.

“You could make a hat out of this, cover your feet, or use it as a mat to sit on,” Jim said. “But it’s really firestarter. Try it.”

Well, I did, and the waxed firestarter works very well. Here’s how to make it.  The idea is to melt equal proportions of beeswax and paraffin together and dip 100 percent cotton cloth in it.

First, find a large flat pan and a source of heat to melt the wax. I use my propane Camp Chef double burner camp stove outside to reduce the potential mess.

Get some 100 percent cotton that tears easily. Denim from jeans and the stretchy material from old T-shirts will work, but the material is difficult to tear or fray the edges. I prefer old cotton sheets or pillow cases. The material can be torn easily to whatever size is needed.

Paraffin is available in grocery stores. Beeswax can be expensive, so a good alternate material is the wax liner ring used to seal the bottoms of toilets. These rings cost under a buck at most hardware stores and they provide about eight to ten ounces of wax. The toilet sealer wax starts out slightly sticky, but after it’s diluted with paraffin that disappears. I always add a crayon to the mixture. The crayon’s only purpose is to color-code the batch, so if it works particularly well, you can duplicate the recipe.

Set your fire extinguisher nearby. Then heat the wax/paraffin mixture to almost smoking hot, SHUT OFF THE HEAT, and start dipping the cloth. Molten wax can burn you, so wear oven mitts or gloves. I use kitchen tongs to handle the hot cloth, and after dipping, let the excess wax mixture drain off.

Set the dipped cloth out the dry on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil. And that’s it.

To use the material, rip off a piece and roll it diagonally, and fray the edge. It should light almost instantaneously. For lighting campfires, I generally use a piece of firestarter about the size of a cigarette paper. If your tinder, kindling and wood have been gathered correctly, this will be overkill. If the fire starts quickly, you can extinguish the starter and re-use it.

How well does this stuff work? Well, it will burn almost completely up while resting on top of a snowdrift. An eighth-inch by one-inch piece, rolled loosely, will burn for several minutes. I’ve used the firestarter many times in driving rain.

Because the wax mixture is so hot when the cloth is dipped, individual threads completely absorb the wax. This makes

Firestarter, left, charcloth and a signal mirror can all be carried in a wallet. The compact, easy-to-carry firestarter can be included in your everyday wardrobe without ever noticing it!

the material completely waterproof and virtually indestructible.

Several springs ago, a Boy Scout campout south of La Pine, Or., turned into an exercise in sleet and snow camping. In the dark, somebody dropped a piece of  the waxed firestarter in the main path, where it was ground into the slush, mud and snow.

The next morning, assistant scoutmaster Dave Colton of Bend found the piece and brought it over to me.

“Do you think this will work now?” he asked. We brushed off the mud, patted the firestarter dry on my pantleg, and it started like it had spent the night in a waterproof container.

Since discovering the waxed firestarter, I’ve replaced all the commercial versions in all my survival kits. I carry a credit card-sized piece in my wallet. The waxed firestarter takes up virtually no space, is light and doesn’t leave a mess. (But don’t leave a piece on the car dashboard in the summer sun!)

Like all survival tools, this one will do you no good unless you know how to use it. So make some waxed firestarter, practice with it and add another tool and skill to your survival arsenal. (Original story published in the Volume 28, No. 2,  April/March edition, 2006,  of “The Backswoodsman.”)

Check out the SurvivalCommonSense.com Making Survival Kits blog by clicking here

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Currently, the rage among some survival schools is the Mora, a small, inexpensive Scandinavian-style sheath knife with a four-inch blade and a large, easy-to-hold handle.

The Cold Steel SRK (top) and the J. Martinni Mora-style knives are good choices for all around use. Combined with a Swiss Army Classic, they can provide a good survival tool kit.

by Leon Pantenburg

Personally, I think they’re great, and I generally have a Mora close at hand.

It’s all because newspaper guys, like me, research stuff. Sometimes we gather information, statistics and data for no apparent reason, and with a vague idea of what the info might be someday be used for.

That was the case several years ago when I bought my first Mora knife.

While I will never give up my folders, I was looking for a small, inexpensive sheath knife that could be recommended to Boy Scouts.

The knife had to be an all-around, do-everything tool. It would be used for a variety of tasks, which could include whittling, cleaning fish and small game, meat-cutting and peeling potatoes. It needed to be lightweight and small enough to be carried conveniently.

Practicality was paramount: A fighting knife was not in the running. I didn’t anticipate the do-everything knife would ever be thrown, used in a “tactical” application, as a prybar or as a weapon for stabbing bears.

Because you can get excellent Frost brand Moro knives for prices ranging from $10 to $15, I bought several versions and put them through their paces.

I got this background info on Mora knives from Ragnar’s Ragweed Forge:

The town of Mora, Sweden has been a knife-making center for centuries. Smiths in Mora developed a basic, functional style that became known as the “Mora Knife.” Until recently there were two remaining large companies in Mora, K.J. Eriksson and Frosts of Mora. They have merged into “Mora of Sweden.”

Mora knives place function before style. They have the flat Scandinavian grind that goes cleanly to the edge, and come from the factory very sharp.

A Mora specialty is the laminated carbon blade. This is a three-part sandwich, with a core of high carbon steel protected by sides of tough lower carbon steel.

Normally, my knife testing takes a while, and I focus on practical tasks the knife might be used for. Several different

This Mora knife was used to clean these trout, and the blade was still shaving-sharp at the end of the task.

Mora variations were put  through these tests:

• Paper cutting:  An everyday carry knife is used for whatever task is at hand. For me, that might involve opening mail! I cut a bunch of paper up to make notebooks with a Mora, and after about half an hour of constant cutting, the edge was still reasonably sharp.
• Meat Cutting: The Moras worked well for boning and trimming the meat of several elk and a couple of deer. The blades held an edge well, and were easy to re-sharpen with a whetstone and my grandfather’s butchering steel.
• Cleaning fish: For panfish or other small, eating-sized fish, I usually cut off the heads and gut them. Then the fish are frozen in water. A Frost Mora easily got through a limit of eight medium-sized trout last summer, while maintaining a shaving-sharp edge. The soft, smushy handle never got too slippery to use.
• Cleaning upland and small game: The Mora style is superb for taking care of a limit of chukers, pheasants, rabbits and squirrels. The three-to-four inch blade, and easy-to-hold handle work just right.
• Whittling wiener sticks:  The first practical wood carving most of us do is probably a stick to roast wieners, brats or marsh mellows over a campfire. The Mora works fantastically well for this, and is a good knife to loan the kids for that project. You don’t have to worry about a beginner folding the blade over on a finger!
• Spreading peanut butter or cutting up apples: On my 1980 Mississippi River canoe trip, these proved to be the most common tasks my Buck folder was used for. Any practical survival knife must also be able to handle the less-glamorous tasks!
• Kitchen Use: I’ll generally keep the knife being tested on the magnetic knife rack in my kitchen and use it for awhile. This everyday use will quickly point out features you do and don’t like. The Mora is incredibly useful for just about any kitchen task.
• Ease of Carry: While I generally carry my knife in my daypack, it must also be comfortable to carry on a belt. The traditional Scandinavian sheath, which dangles from a belt loop, is incredibly comfortable to carry. The “clipper” plastic sheaths, which clip on a belt, are not so comfortable.

After cleaning an eight-trout limit the handle on this Mora-style carbon clipper utility knife was still easy to grasp and use safely.

While a  Mora can do many things well, my first choice for gutting a deer or elk is still my much-used Cold Steel SRK.

And a Mora doesn’t have the tweezers, scissors, and toothpick of my beloved Swiss Army Classic!

While you could split kindling or baton a Mora to cut  firewood, it isn’t the best choice. An axe is!

And I wouldn’t want to have to dig a very big hole with a Mora, or any other knife, for that matter!

The Mora’s low price is a major attraction. You can get a superb knife for under $20, making a Moro a great choice for inclusion in survival caches, Bug Out Bags or other survivalist and prepper stashes. And several Moras would make a great investment now, for bartering later.

A Mora can do about 90 percent of what I need an outdoor knife to do. And while I’ve yet to find the ultimate, do-everything wilderness survival knife, a Mora can come really close!

(Check out the SurvivalCommonSense.com “The Best Survival Knife?”  blog by clicking here!)

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Everybody pitches in to set up camp!

It seems like spring will never get here in Oregon! But cold, nasty weather has never been a reason for Troop 18 of Bend, OR, to cut short or cancel an outing. After all, rainy, snowy weather is absolutely perfect for practical survival training!

Last weekend, scouts and adult leader went to North Twin Lake, along the Cascade Lakes Highway south of Bend, for a fishing day. Everybody had fun. Check out these pictures and see! (Click here to view some of  the scenery!)

How do you dress to be comfortable in the outdoors? Your clothing’s effectiveness starts with the fabrics they are made of. Check out this video for some suggestions!

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Need energy on the trail? Here is a time-tested favorite from the  Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota! Not only does it supply energy, but also tastes great!

Sunset somewhere in the Boundary Waters (All photos by Bob Patterson)

by Leon Pantenburg

The only item on the lunch menu the first day was a three-inch square of Hudson Bay Bread gobbed with about two tablespoons of peanut butter. I’d worked up quite an appetite paddling and portaging that morning, and privately wondered where I’d get the energy to last the rest of the day.

My oldest son, Dan, and I, along with seven other members of Boy Scout Troop 18 of Bend, Oregon, had just started on a nine-day canoe trip through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota. We left from the Boy Scouts Northern Tier High Adventure base at Ely, Minn., and all the food, cooking gear and a guide were supplied.

To my surprise, the Hudson Bay bread was so rich, filling and full of calories that I could barely finish it. I had ample energy to paddle, portage and hike until that evening. That was lunch for several days, and Hudson Bay Bread fueled many rigorous miles of paddling and portaging! There’s no question that the folks at the High Adventure base know how to fuel hungry paddlers!

Since that canoe journey in 2004, Hudson Bay bread has been put on my short list for high-energy, low-weight outdoor activity fuel. But being a freelance food writer, as well as somewhat of a health nut, I tweaked the recipe to make it a healthier food item.

The Boundary Waters: You must earn this beauty, and food is fuel. But it can also taste good!

Regardless of the recipe, one way to use the bread is to cut it into three-inch squares and put it into individual sandwich bags. For convenience, get peanut butter in one-ounce packets or fruit jam, and use that as a topping.

I assume the bread would last for several months, but don’t really know since it gets eaten too soon to find out!

Here’s the recipe for the bread given out by the High Adventure base at Ely. My suggestions for substitutions may change the flavor somewhat, but you’ll still get the nutritional punch needed for hiking, biking or any activity that burns a lot of calories.

HUDSON BAY BREAD

1-1/2 lbs. margarine or butter (Butter, always!)

4 cups of sugar (substitute raw, unrefined evaporated cane sugar)

2/3 cup Karo syrup (use maple syrup or blackstrap molasses. Get rid of the empty calorie refined corn syrup and add extra iron with molasses.)

2/3 cup honey

2 tsp. maple flavoring (If you use pure maple syrup, you don’t need this artificial additive.)

Cream together the above ingredients.

Add while mixing:

1-1/2 cups of ground nuts (Almonds can supply additional potassium)

19 cups of oatmeal (use steel cut or the kind you have to cook. The less refined the grain, the more nutrition).

Spread in a large sheet pan. Press it down into the pan. Bake at 325 degrees in a wind (or convection) oven for 15-18 minutes. As soon as the bread has been taken from the oven, use a spatula to press it down again. This presses the bread together to keep it from crumbling.

Cut it while still warm. For home-size preparation, cut this recipe at least in half. A conventional oven requires a longer baking time.

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Here in Central Oregon, learning winter survival skills before heading out into the backcountry should be mandatory! So, every year, volunteers and members of local Scout Troops get together to practice winter survival skills in deep snow!

Troop 18 Scoutmaster Phil Brummett made a great tree well shelter, which I was happy to inspect!

by Leon Pantenburg

The lesson of being prepared for a survival situation before leaving for the backcountry is particularly important in Central Oregon. Thousands of tourists flock to this area to enjoy the snowmobiling, downhill and cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and other winter sports.

Unfortunately, many people head out into the backcountry with no idea of the inherent danger, or how quickly they can end up in a potentially life-threatening situation.

On Friday, producer Paul Davis and I were shooting some survival video spots for the local “Good Morning Central Oregon” show that airs on BendBroadBand COTV 11. We were at Swampy Lakes trailhead south of Bend, a popular  take-off spot for the backcountry. It was rainy, windy and chilly. As Paul and I were shooting, people would come over to see what we were doing.

This one-man shelter was made of snow blocks.

Naturally, I asked what survival gear they were taking along. The great majority had nothing! Luckily, I was prepared and handed out several firestarter kits! (This is a great promotion for scout troops. Total investment is about eight cents per kit!) Most of these visitors had no idea how quickly the weather could change, or how rapidly they could be in a survival situation.

In a couple cases, it was clear these folks thought they had just ran into the local kook!

The ability to make a quick survival shelter can save your life. That was the message Saturday Jan. 22 to Boy Scouts from two veteran search and rescue volunteer instructors. Every year, Central Oregon Boy Scouts and guests participate in a day of winter survival training prior to the annual Fremont District winter campout “Freezoree.”

This year, the training was again provided by SAR volunteers Todd Teicheira and Jim Prestwood. Both men are
volunteers in Troop 18, the fathers of Eagle scouts, and Prestwood is the former Troop 18 scoutmaster.

An important part of making an effective survival shelter is to first understand that you are in a bad situation, Prestwood said,  and then slow down and weigh your options. A good exercise, he told the scouts,  is to STOP: Stop, Think, Observe, Plan. Know your limitations and know what you can do.

Then look for a good location to place your shelter. Start by finding areas with piled-up drifts, tree wells, fallen logs, or other terrain features, he said, that show where the wind blows and piles up snow.

“Get behind a snow drift, fallen tree, in a tree well or some sort of terrain feature that is out of the wind,” he advises. “Get on the lee side, where there is a depression or less snow pile-up, and then start making your shelter.”

Don’t waste time trying to make a big, spacious emergency shelter, Prestwood said, because a smaller space will insulate more effectively, be warmer and be faster to make. Take along something to make a shelter with, such as a tarp or a quilted space blanket with grommets on the corners.

Knowing how to make a tree well shelter and fire are great survival skills!

“Look around and figure out how you can combine your gear with the terrain features,” Prestwood suggests.

Quick combinations include digging down into a tree well and covering the opening with the tarp; digging a trench to cover with a tarp or space blanket, or making a three-sided dome out of  snow blocks.

Once the shelter is complete, Prestwood recommends tying a bright handkerchief, flagging or something easily seen near the shelter. Then he suggests, get inside, out of the wind and hold your whistle in hand, ready to blow.

“The search and rescue people may be on snowmobiles. They might not be able to hear you yell over the engine noise, and through their helmets,” Prestwood said. “It may be hard for you to hear through your shelter, too, particularly if the wind in blowing. As soon as you hear an engine, blow your whistle and keep blowing.”

The searchers may see the markers before they find the shelter. Once they see some evidence of the lost person, Prestwood said, the usual protocol is to report the location on their radios and concentrate the search.

Both instructors carry small tarps, flagging, whistles, insulite backpacking sleeping pads, heavy duty space blankets with grommets at the corners, parachute cord, collapsible snow shovels and bivey sacks to make emergency shelters.

They also carry the Boy Scout Ten Essentials gear, Teicheira said, which is the basis of all the gear they carry on winter rescues.

“We carry a lot of the same survival gear you scouts do when we go on a mission,”  Teicheira said.  “I got a lot of my start in wilderness survival training in scouts.”

Editor’s note: The best winter survival shelter suggestion would probably be to carry along a four-season winter tent whenever you venture into the backcountry! But most people won’t be burdened with that extra weight, so you better be prepared some other way!

To see more photos of the Winter Skills Day, click here.

To learn how to make a tree well snow shelter, click here.

For more related SurvivalCommonSense.com tips and stories, click on the highlighted words:

• STOP: Use this exercise to reduce stress and focus your thoughts.
• Write a note to let people know where you went, before you left.
• Take your Ten Essentials on every outing.
• Dress with the right fabrics.
• Have a plan to make a tarp shelter.
• Carry lightweight, compact firestarter.
• Find the most effective fire ignition system.
• How to make charcloth, a material that can catch a spark from any source.
• Use charcloth as an effective method of catching a spark to make a fire.
• It can kill you: Hypothermia
• Hardtack: A great emergency food
• About Leon Pantenburg

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

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This  happened yesterday: I was in line at Ace Hardware in La Pine, Oregon. A round sharpening stone was on my shopping list, and I asked the clerk for help.

A round whetstone is used with a circular motion to sharpen large tools with long edges, such as axes, swords or scythes.

To my surprise, this “If-We-Don’t Have-It-You-Don’t Need-It” store didn’t have one.

“What do you need a round stone for?” asked the gentleman in line behind me.

I explained that I was a Boy Scout volunteer and helped coordinate and instruct wilderness survival for scouts and adult volunteers. I needed a round, disc stone (shaped like a hockey puck) to help teach ax sharpening.
The circular motion used with a round whetstone seems safer to me. (And always wear sturdy leather gloves and eye protection when sharpening knives, axes, saws or other large cutting implements!)

So far in my sporadic, random search, nobody had had one.

“I’m a contractor. Come on out to my truck,” he said. “I’ll give you a round stone!”

Outside, he unlocked the door of a fully-equipped and organized Ford utility van. The man used a variety of wood cutting implements in his work, and on the side, he also sharpened tools. I was  presented with a well-used, circular whetstone.

“I’m a Life scout,” the contractor explained. “I never use this any more and I’m happy to help the scouting program!”

For more related SurvivalCommonSense.com tips and stories, click on the highlighted words:

• STOP: Use this exercise to reduce stress and focus your thoughts.
• Write a note to let people know where you went, before you left.
• Take your Ten Essentials on every outing.
• Dress with the right fabrics.
• Have a plan to make a tarp shelter.
• Carry lightweight, compact firestarter.
• Find the most effective fire ignition system.
• How to make charcloth, a material that can catch a spark from any source.
• Use charcloth as an effective method of catching a spark to make a fire.
• It can kill you: Hypothermia
• Hardtack: A great emergency food
• About Leon Pantenburg

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com