It doesn’t matter if you’re planning a quick snowshoe trek or an hour-long stroll along a wooded path. Common sense dictates that basic survival tools be taken along. Above all, this gear, or kit, must be lightweight and convenient to carry, or it gets left behind.

by Leon Pantenburg

That said:  BEWARE! If you don’t know how to use the materials in the kit, and don’t practice with them, you may develop a false sense of confidence. This attitude could get you in a lot more trouble!

Keep basic tools with you at all times. On the keyring: LED flashlight, fingernail clippers, whistle, Boy Scout Hot Spark and Classic Swiss Army knife. The other knife rides in a pouch on my belt.

Mention survival kits among recreationists and an argument/discussion will follow.

At one end of the spectrum is the guy who takes the heavily-loaded backpack full of gadgets, doo-dads, knick-knacks and neat stuff. He may not go far, because of the pack’s weight, but he’ll be safe. Unless, one time, he decides to leave all that stuff at the car, since he’s never used anything and it’s damned heavy. And he’s just going a little way…

Then he becomes the optimist, the guy at the other extreme.  Since he’s never been in an emergency situation, then it stands to reason that nothing will ever happen. He denies the need for survival gear, because he’s never been in an emergency.

Somewhere between these extremes is the common sense approach.

Here’s my take (and of course, this opinion may place me squarely in the survivalist wacko camp!): Everyone should have a collection of survival tools with them at all times.

As I type this, I have a butane lighter in my pocket, a whistle, knife, fingernail clippers, LED flashlight, small knife and magnesium stick on my belt clip, and a Swiss Army knife in my belt pouch. My wallet has firestarter, charcloth and a signal mirror in it. This gear goes with me everywhere it’s legal.

Suppose I have to run out of my house, right now. Let’s say an earthquake just hit and all the pictures are falling off the walls and it’s in the middle of January. If I have to sprint for the door and can’t grab anything else, I have the minimum tools on me to build a fire for ourselves and the neighbors, stay warm, help others and signal for help.

If I can grab my jacket on the way out the door, there is an Altoids tin mini-survival kit in the pocket. And if I can get to my car there is a full component of survival gear in there, including food, water, a sleeping bag, and several tarps. I won’t waste any time looking for equipment, when the walls may literally be falling down around me.  This will come in very handy for a quick evacuation due to a forest fire, urban natural gas leak, tsunami warning, forced evacuation of the neighborhood or city.

Any personal survival kit will ultimately boil down to opinion, knowledge, skill levels and the season.

Let’s start here: Many experts agree that a MINIMUM KIT should contain the following materials. Here are my suggestions and the links to find them below this article:

Carry survival gear in your wallet. I always have (from left) firestarter, charcloth and a signal mirror with me.

• survival knife
• firemaking tool(s) plus the firestarter
• compass
  map and GPS
• mirror (for signaling)
• signal whistle
• flashlight
• Some form of emergency shelter, like a tarp with rope.
• Food and water, plus water filter.
• Layering Clothing (fleece, wool, polypropylene)
• Waterproof packable shell

While commercial survival kits are available, the quality of some items is sometimes reduced to cut costs. Some things, such as fishing hooks, sinkers and line are included because people think they need them. And some items are included in commercial kits because they’re cheap and take up space.

The safest bet is to make your own survival kit. Start with a realistic assessment of your skills and needs, then start researching. One size doesn’t fit all – a survival kit that works in the cold winter of Oregon, will be different than one designed for Florida, and vice versa.

Every town has a survival guru with a website, but that doesn’t mean they know anything. In fact, be leery of any survival website – a lot of people are out to make a fast buck. Start by contacting the people who work with emergencies every day: police, sheriff’s departments, search and rescue, the Red Cross and see if they have recommendations for necessary gear. They will also have a pretty good idea of  who is good teacher and who is a fraud.

If you have certain medical needs or conditions, make sure the kit includes the appropriate medications.

Then, educate yourself. Practice with your survival tools. Don’t take any recommendations at face value, unless the source has been proven to be reliable. Then, make your survival kit, and take it along.

Every time.  Check out the many other articles about personal and wallet sized kits, plus car kits, home kits, etc. by browsing the survival kit category on this site.

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

BOOK REVIEW:  Survival Psychology by John Leach

One idea survival book authors may be able to agree upon is that mental attitude is critical to any survival scenario. Countless documented cases  prove  your attitude and reaction to the situation,  not your survival kit or survival knife, is the most important factor is staying alive.

by Leon Pantenburg

Swampy Lakes Trailhead is on the edge of the Deschutes National Forest and thousands of acres of wilderness. But still, many people who go there deny they will ever need emergency gear or training.

Some twenty years before the rash of “reality” or “Survival” shows, or anybody had ever heard of Les Stroud or Bear Grylls,  psychological studies resulted in a book which documented people’s  reactions  in emergency situations.

“Survival Psychology” by John Leach, PhD, of the University of Lancaster, England,  Survival Psychology was a groundbreaking study, that today is a reference source for many wilderness and urban survival bestsellers. If  some of Leach’s writing or thoughts sound familiar, it is because you’ve read or heard them before!

Leach studied survivors’  reactions, including those of Union prisoners at the horrific  Andersonville prison during the Civil War;  to shipwreck survivors; to people who made it through plane crashes and natural disasters. Distilled down to one sentence, here’s what Leach found: Psychological responses to emergencies follow a pattern.

One goal of  SurvivalCommonSense is to help you develop the survival mindset that will keep you alive. So, start with the baseline knowledge of what happens to people, mentally, in a survival situation. Until you know what might happen in your mind, or in the heads of the people around you, there’s no way to come up with a plan to survive.

Survival situations bring out a variety of reactions – including some that make the situation worse. Leach’s studies show that only 10 to 15 percent of any group involved in any emergency will react appropriately. Another 10 to 15 percent will behave totally inappropriately and the remaining 70 to 80 percent will need to be told what to do. The most common reaction at the onset of an emergency is disbelief and denial.Here’s the typical disaster reaction progression, according to “Survival Psychology”:

Denial: The first reaction will probably be: “This can’t be happening to me!” But an emergency, disaster, accident or crash can happen to anyone, and it can result in a situation where your life is at risk. This disbelief can cause people to stand around, doing nothing to save themselves. The 80 percenters in any survival situation will have to be ordered to help themselves.

Panic: Once you get past denial, there is a strong chance you may panic. This is when judgment and reasoning deteriorate to the point where it can result in self-destructive behavior. It can happen to anyone. To avert this problem, realize it may happen, and use the STOP mindset exercise. (See below).

Hypoactivity, defined as a depressed reaction; or hyperactivity, an intense but undirected liveliness: The depressed person will not look after himself or herself, and will probably need to be told what to do. The hyperactive response can be more dangerous because the affected person may give a misleading impression of purposefulness and leadership.

Stereotypical behavior: This is a form of denial in which victims fall back on learned behavior patterns, no matter how inappropriate they are. The Boss may decide to continue in that role, even though he/she has no idea of what to do. Sadly, the underling may also revert to that subordinate role, even though he/she may be better prepared mentally.

Anger: A universal reaction, anger is irrational. Rescue workers frequently come under verbal and physical attack while performing their duties. A few years ago in Central Oregon, the Search and Rescue team rescued a man who had dumped his raft just before going over a waterfall. Miraculously, he saved himself  by clinging to a mid-stream boulder. During the whole rescue effort, the rafter denied he was in trouble. After being plucked from the rapids, he flipped off the rescuers, and walked back to the parking lot. He never thanked anyone for saving his life

Psychological breakdown: This could be the most desperate problem facing a victim, and this stage is characterized by irritability, lack of interest, apprehension, psycho-motor retardation and confusion. Once this point is reached, the ultimate consequence may be death.

So, according to Leach, one key to a “survival state-of-mind” is to be prepared and confident that you can handle an emergency.

This brings up another deadly behavior pattern: lack of preparation.

People don’t prepare for emergencies (see denial), Leach writes, for three reasons: Planning is inconvenient, preparations may be costly and an ingrained folk myth says to prepare for a disaster is to encourage it.

This is all too common in Central Oregon.

Last November, I was at Swampy Lakes snow park near Bend, getting ready for a snowshoe trek. An older couple pulled up next to me, tourists, apparently, from the looks of their inappropriate clothing and rental equipment. They had no survival gear of any kind that I could see. They struggled to put their snowshoes on, then asked if there were any maps around.

I gave them one of mine, and offered to orient it for them with my compass.

They declined.

They also didn’t want the book of matches and a packet of firestarter I tried to give them. And here comes the quote that keeps the Search And Rescue teams busy:

“We’re just going out for quick outing,” the lady said. “We’re not going to do any of that wilderness survival stuff.”

…And she was absolutely right.

“Survival Psychology” is out-of-print, as far as I know. But I’ve had no trouble getting a copy through the local inter-library loan program. Your library probably has a similar program, so check out Leach’s book. The knowledge from it can be one more tool in your survival kit!

(To check out the SurvivalCommonSense.com survival kit blog, click here!)

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

“Surviving a Wilderness Emergency: Practical advice on what to do when you find yourself in trouble in the backcountry” by Peter Kummerfeldt

Peter Kummerfeldt

by Leon Pantenburg

This book should be required reading for anyone who ever ventures off the pavement. After extensive testing of the gear and techniques mentioned in the publication, I recommend this publication as the go-to book for wilderness survival.

Kummerfeldt stresses practical methods of surviving, not obscure, primitive skills and  his techniques, advice on survival systems and kits and common sense approach to wilderness emergencies could save your life.

His DVD “Skills of the Survivor,” sponsored by the National Bowhunters Education Foundation is great, too, and both are well-worth inclusion in any outdoors library.

Kummerfeldt grew up in Kenya, and came to America in 1965, where he joined the U.S. Air Force.  He is a graduate of the Air Force Survival Instructor Training School and served as an instructor at the Basic Survival School, Spokane, Wash.; the Arctic Survival School, Fairbanks, Alaska; and the Jungle Survival School in the Philippines. He served for 12 years as the Survival Training Director at the U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colo.

Today, Kummerfeldt travels widely, promoting the concept of  practical wilderness survival. I met him several years ago at the Deschutes (Oregon) County Sportsman’s Expo after attending one of his seminars. My motivation for going was more curiosity than anything else – I had been knocking around the western mountains on big game hunting  and backpacking trips for decades, and was confident there wasn’t much more for me to learn about survival gear.

I was also heavily involved in my sons’ Boy Scout troop and went camping and backpacking at least once a month. I enjoyed testing and trying out new techniques and equipment. I thought I knew a lot, but one sign of a survival mindset is your willingness to keep learning!.

I sat spellbound through his seminar on “Survival Myths,” then attended every other seminar he did that day. Afterward, we chatted at his booth, and I bought a copy of  “Surviving a Wilderness Emergency.”  That night, I went home and threw away a lot of the survival stuff I’d carried for years.

For the past few years, Kummerfeldt has been one of my valued sources for stories regarding some aspect of wilderness survival. He does extensive testing of new products, and if  there is something new in the survival market, Kimerfeldt probably has experience with it.

I’ve personally used many of his techniques and recommendations when teaching adult leaders and Boy Scouts wilderness skills, and his instructional DVD is part of our troop’s teaching library.

Kummerfeldt is also a featured guest author for SurvivalCommonSense.com and his expertise and superb photography skills are greatly appreciated!

This book should be in every survival library.

Check out his website

Recommended Reading:
Surviving a Wilderness Emergency
The Survivors Club: The Secrets and Science that Could Save Your Life
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com