Editor’s note: “Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink…” Recent widespread flooding throughout many parts of the United States makes this quote from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” particularly appropriate. The mariner was stuck in the middle of the sea, so he was surrounded by salt water he couldn’t drink.

But flood victims, people awaiting evacuation, or trapped by rising waters are in the same situation. Being

Click here to visit Peter Kummerfeldt's website!

By Peter Kummerfeldt

The Problem: When the water we use or lose each day, through normal body functions (urination, defecation and sweating) is not replaced, dehydration results.

Where could you find drinkable water?

Dehydration severely reduces the body’s ability to function efficiently which frequently results in poor decision-making and contributes to accidents occurring. The loss of one-to-two quarts of water, from a starting water level of about twenty quarts in the body, can result in a significant reduction in working efficiency.

Contributing Factors:

Altitude – The air we breathe contains less humidity as we travel higher — dry air has to be humidified before it reaches the lungs.

Many of the fluids (coffee, tea, alcohol and colas) we drink daily contain diuretics, chemicals that cause us to lose even more water.

Increased activity increases water loss by sweating.

Injury and illness, especially diarrhea, can increase water loss.

Mouth breathing increases water loss.

Note: Dehydration is a contributing factor in many other medical problems that occur in the outdoors. It is also a significant factor in determining how successfully the body can keep itself warm — a dehydrated person will have a much more difficult time staying warm than a hydrated one.

Water disinfecting:

Boiling – Bringing water to a rolling boil is sufficient to kill all harmful organisms.

Halogens – Chemicals such as iodine and chlorine kill microorganisms.

Filtration – Filters remove all harmful agents except viruses.

Purifiers – remove all harmful agents including viruses.

“TREATING DEHYDRATION IS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT THAN PREVENTING IT AND MAY BE IMPOSSIBLE IN THE

OUTDOORS.”

Peter Kummerfeldt has walked the talk in the wilderness survival field for  more than 40 years.

Peter grew up in Kenya, East Africa and came to America in 1965 and joined the U.S. Air Force. He is a graduate of the Air Force Survival Instructor Training School and has served as an instructor at the Basic Survival School, Spokane, Washington; the Arctic Survival School, Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Jungle Survival School, Republic of the Philippines. For

Peter Kummerfeldt

twelve years, Peter was the Survival Training Director at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He retired from the Air Force in 1995 after 30 years of service.

In 1992, concerned with the number of accidents that were occurring in the outdoors annually and the number of tourists traveling overseas who were involved in unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening incidents Peter created OutdoorSafe.com. He is the author of  Surviving a Wilderness Emergency and has addressed over 20,000 people as the featured speaker at numerous seminars, conferences and national conventions.

Click here to visit Peter’s website!

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

Early in the morning, the hunter hiked north from camp to Mahogany Butte.  With an hour of light left it was time to return.  He had his day pack with map and compass and he knew how to use them.  But he didn’t have a GPS.  The wooded terrain around him didn’t lend itself to triangulation with a compass.

So what was he to do?  If he was paying attention to his navigation before leaving camp at dawn he was all set. All he needed to do was to return to the base line.

by Blake Miller

Returning to a baseline is a pretty straight forward concept.  The idea is that you leave camp from a known location and strike out in a specific direction such as North, or 000°.  When it is time to return aim to the left or right of camp (like 165°T), hit the logging road camp is on and turn right.  That is the concept but there is a bit more to it.

The triad of wilderness travel is the GPS, map and compass. Don't take a GPS without a map and compass, and make sure you have the right map along.

My recommendation is to first purchase a reliable compass that can be adjusted for declination.  A solid compass made by Suunto, Brunton (the 8010G) and Silva  are great choices.  Learn how to adjust the compass for the declination or your location.  (Note: declination is the difference between true north and magnetic north.  Declination for your area can be found at www.magnetic-declination.com. )   Note that some of the inexpensive compasses will indicate that it has declination marking/grid on the packaging.  You want a compass that can be mechanically adjusted.

If the sales clerk’s eyes glaze over, you are in the wrong store.

The essence of backcountry navigation is to keep it simple.  If you are new to compass navigation, having a compass that can be adjusted keeps things simple.  Though the red magnetic needle still points to magnetic north, the rotating dial (that has been adjusted) now provides information in degrees true.

A compass that is aligned to degrees true now works well with the traditional topographic map that is oriented to degrees true as well.

The next tool is your map.  USGS topographic maps and National Geographic maps of the major national parks are great examples of what works well in the backcountry.  Leave the Gazetteer or AAA roadmap at home.  I’ll carry a copy of the Forest Service or BLM map of the area too.

On the map, locate what will be the base line.  A baseline can be a road, river or trail. Key to the selection is that you want a baseline of sufficient length.  It must also be obvious when you approach the baseline; it needs to be distinct.  For example, in the case of the hunter mentioned above, he would have potentially tragic consequences if he over shot his base line and just kept on walking.

So let’s take a look at a map and develop a baseline.

The red arrows on the map (to the left) point to a road. This road travels in a general direction of Northwest - Southeast. Further, the road travels for many miles in either direction

Think of the baseline as a geographic boundary.  The baseline is designed to keep you within a specific area.

Map is zoomed in for greater detail.

Also notice that the planned destination has been added.  The destination is to the Northeast of camp.  Roughly the destination bears 070°T (degrees true) from Camp.

The intent now is to travel from Camp to Destination.

Remember that the compass must be adjusted for declination.  In this location the declination is 16° east (below.)

This Suunto compass is adjusted for 16 degrees east declination.

At this point, adjust the compass such that the adjustable outer dial is rotated to 070°T (T for degrees true) and is aligned with the direction of travel arrow or index line.  After the dial is adjusted turn your body so that the magnetic needle rotates on top of the red baseplate needle (engraved into the plastic of the baseplate (below.)

Now proceed toward the destination.  You have the option of looking down range in the direction of “Destination” or monitoring the compass the entire length of the hike; that is a bit tedious.

Proceed to the destination.

Note that in a hike such as this you are going to the general location of the area you want to be in.  If you decide to go to a specific, defined location you must triangulate to fix your position, use pace count or use a GPS.

Observe how the topographic contour lines (brown lines) in the center of the image are far apart which means that the land is somewhat flat.  The lines in the bottom left of the image begin to merge indicating a hill.

It is the return hike to camp that will take advantage of the baseline.

Rather than trying to go directly back to camp offset the direction of travel to the south. Roughly one will travel in a direction of 230°T.

The key point is that the hiker will knowingly head south of camp to intersect the baseline.

Of course, the option of going north of camp on a direction of 280°T could be considered too.

Upon arriving at the baseline turn right and follow the road back to camp.

That’s it!

Remember the cautions mentioned earlier:

The baseline must be of sufficient length.

The baseline must be obvious when you reach it.

If you are in an area of multiple trails or logging road think carefully if your choice is going to work for you.

Blake Miller has made a career out of staying found and knowing where he is at all times. His formal navigation training began when he joined the U.S. Navy in 1973. He served as an officer aboard several Navy ships over his

Blake Miller

twenty-year career; many of those tours included the duty of Navigator. Blake began working with satellite navigation systems at sea in 1976, culminating with the then-new satellite positioning systems aboard the Battleship WISCONSIN in early 1990.

In 1998 Blake started Outdoor Quest, a business dedicated to backcountry navigation and wilderness survival. Blake has taught classes to wild land firefighters, state agency staffs, Search and Rescue team members, hunters, hikers, skiers, fishermen and equestrians. He regularly teaches classes through the Community Education programs at Central Oregon (Bend) and Chemeketa (Salem, OR) Community Colleges.

As a volunteer, Blake teaches navigation and survival classes to students in the local school districts, and conservation groups. He is a member of a Search and Rescue team.

If you have any questions about land navigation or wilderness survival, you can contact Blake through SurvivalCommonSense.com@gmail.com, or you can go to his website.

Contact Information:

Website: www.outdoorquest.biz

Blog: outdoorquest.blogspot.com

Phone: 541-280-0573

Email: outdrquest@aol.com

To hear the Jan 7, 2010 Blake Miller interview about choosing a magnetic compass and GPS on SurvivalCommonSense.com Radio, click here.

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

by Mark Henderson, science editor

“Times Online” Aug. 21, 2009

It has long been a staple of adventure stories: the hero, lost in the wilderness, painstakingly tries to find his way back to civilization only to stumble across his own tracks and discover that he has been walking in circles.

When nothing looks familiar, and every direction seems to be the same, STOP and think about what to do next!

Now the popular belief that people in unfamiliar surroundings tend to walk round in circles has been confirmed by scientists.

Experiments in a German forest and the Sahara desert in Tunisia have shown that lost people double back on themselves without meaning to unless they have a marker, such as the Sun or Moon, to guide their way.

“The stories about people who end up walking in circles when lost are true,” said Jan Souman, of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, who led the research.

“People cannot walk in a straight line if they do not have absolute references, such as a tower or a mountain in the distance, or the Sun or Moon, and often end up walking in circles.”

The scientists, whose work is published in the journal Current Biology, also debunked a popular explanation that has been advanced to explain walking in circles.

It has been suggested that people might veer in one direction because one leg is slightly longer or stronger than the other. Over time such small differences could cause somebody to walk in a circle.

The new research, however, in which people were blindfolded and asked to walk in a straight line, found that while they ultimately walked in circles, they did not do so reliably in any particular direction. The subjects sometimes veered left and sometimes right, which would not happen if differential stride length or power was a factor.

Dr. Souman said that it was more likely that circular walking patterns tended to emerge from increasing uncertainty about direction. “Small random errors in the various sensory signals that provide information about walking direction add up over time, making what a person perceives to be straight ahead drift away from the true straight ahead direction,” he said.

In the study the research team took six volunteers to the Bienwald forest, in southern Germany, and asked them to walk in as straight a line as they could while their progress was monitored using GPS devices. Four volunteers walked on a cloudy day when the Sun was hidden and two in bright sunshine.

The four who walked under clouds all moved in circles and three of them crossed their own paths repeatedly without noticing. The two volunteers who were able to see the Sun walked in straight lines, except for 15 minutes when it was obscured by cloud.

A similar pattern occurred when three other volunteers were tested in the Sahara desert in southern Tunisia.

Two volunteers, who walked during the day and could see the Sun, veered off course but did not walk in circles. The third, who walked at night, kept to a straight line when the Moon was visible but doubled back on himself when it disappeared behind clouds.

The team is planning to investigate the phenomenon further in the laboratory by asking volunteers to walk through a virtual-reality forest on a specially designed treadmill.

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

By Peter Kummerfeldt

I was driving to Soda Springs, Idaho, this past week to present a risk management program.  My wife was driving and at one point, we were following several other slower vehicles while waiting for a chance to pass, when an oncoming eighteen wheeler drifted toward the double yellow line before returning his side of the road.  I got to thinking about the thinness of the margin that keeps traffic flowing safely.

Disaster can be as close as the next passing vehicle!

When two vehicles pass on a two-lane road the space between them can be as little as a few feet!  As long as the vehicles stick to their side of the road everything works well but a moment’s inattention can result in catastrophe.  The more I thought about it the more I realized that this concept could be applied to many other scenarios. The difference between surviving and dieing, especially in the outdoors, is indeed a thin one.  In fact I believe that we are the thickness of a piece of paper away from a disaster at any given time!

As a society we have become so dependent on technology to keep us safe that we no longer think about the threats to our safety and what we would do in the event that our lives are placed at risk. We have come to depend on others to keep us free from harm. The Federal government, state governments, our employers, family members and others have a role in keeping us all safe but ultimately we each have to recognize that no one is more responsible for our safety than we are.

That “buck” cannot be passed!  Our safety is dependent on the preparation we accomplish before an event.  Our safety is dependent on our ability to recognize danger and react quickly enough to ensure our safety.

Is it possible to guarantee personal safety in the outdoors?  Of course not! But you can increase your knowledge, improve your survival skills, outfit yourself with reliable equipment, thoroughly evaluate the risks and then measure your skills against those risks before undertaking an activity in the outdoors.  A comprehensive analysis of the threats to your safety must be followed by an honest, objective appraisal of your skill level and ability to cope with those threats.

It is easy to talk about the impact of weather, or terrain hazards or perhaps the threats posed by animals when you recreate in the outdoors but the part of risk management and accident prevention that is hard to come to grips with is what the academics call “human factors.”

Here are a few “human factors” that you should think about:

Complacency -  a product of boredom, distraction, lack of awareness, or failure to question old  habits results in a belief that “I’ve done this before successfully therefore there won’t be a problem the next time!” Not necessarily! Sometimes we are suckered into complacency by our past successes!

Risk perception – a situation that is familiar, controllable, pleasant, predictable and avoidable is perceived to be of less risk.   Consequently when an activity becomes routine the likelihood of an accident increases.  Also keep in mind that to be able to deal with a dangerous situation you must first be able to recognize a dangerous situation!

Overconfidence – an unrealistic belief in one’s ability to cope with life threatening situations.  Men are particularly prone to overestimating their ability to cope with a crisis.  Sometimes brute strength isn’t enough!

Goal setting – the inability to adjust goals as situations change often leads to accidents.  You must get out of the “summit or die” mentality.   Remember – it is never wrong to turn back!

Impatience – patience is a virtue, impatience can be disastrous.  Continuing on in the face of bad weather, rough terrain, darkness or other hazards in an effort to “get-back-at-all-cost” can be fatal.

Commitments – do not allow previously made commitments to influence what you should do when you are in trouble.  Do what is in your best interest and don’t worry about what your spouse is thinking or your what employer  is going to think when you don’t show up for work.  Their concerns are no longer important.  Keeping yourself safe is.

Peer pressure - Don’t concern yourself with what others may think.  You can survive teasing, ridicule, and the comments of others but you may not survive the impact of the environment if you fail to protect yourself.  Do what you have to to be alive to be teased!

Failing to test – Nothing gets people in trouble quicker than accepting, at face value, the advice of others,   Test everything before your life’s on the line.   Practice your survival skills and experiment with your equipment before you need to use them in a crisis.

Experience can help you through a tough situation or it can betray you by setting you up to fail when your experience doesn’t take into account a new situation.  Put another way: “People are often setup for a disaster, not by their inexperience, but by their experience.”

While the tangible risks can usually be managed, the subjective, intangible issues, the human factors, are much more difficult to come to grips with.   To be a survivor you must prepare for what you hope will never happen while accepting the possibility that a crisis can happen at any time.

At some point you need to ask yourself “What do I want my newspaper headline to say?”  “Survived in Style” or “Deceased?”

Peter Kummerfeldt has walked the talk in the wilderness survival field for decades. Peter grew up in

Peter Kummerfeldt has taught wilderness and emergency survival for more than 40 years.

Kenya, East Africa and came to America in 1965 and joined the U.S. Air Force. He is a graduate of the Air Force Survival Instructor Training School and has served as an instructor at the Basic Survival School, Spokane, Washington; the Arctic Survival School, Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Jungle Survival School, Republic of the Philippines.

For twelve years, Peter was the Survival Training Director at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He retired from the Air Force in 1995 after 30 years of service.

In 1992, concerned with the number of accidents that were occurring in the outdoors annually and the number of tourists traveling overseas who were involved in unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening incidents Peter created OutdoorSafe.com

He is the author of Surviving a Wilderness Emergency and has addressed over 20,000 people as the featured speaker at numerous seminars, conferences and national conventions.

Check out Peter’s blog at: OutdoorSafe.blogspot.com

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

“What am I preparing for?”  As I see it there are five broad categories that capture most situations where a person may have to “survive” until rescued or until the weather conditions improve and the individual can rescue themselves.

Winter weather presents challenges to drivers. Make sure you have a winter survival kit in your car!

The categories are: Becoming lost, being caught out after dark, becoming stranded, becoming ill or injured and unable to proceed and bad weather that makes continuing on dangerous.

This article will look at the third of these situations, “stranded.”

By Peter Kummerfeldt

The very word “stranded” brings to mind the story of Robinson Crusoe’s lengthy stay on his tropical island or the plight of the Donner Party.  Or the experiences of the Uruguayan rugby team who survived a crash landing in the Andes as told in Piers Paul Read’s book “Alive” also come to mind.

If the truth be told, you can become stranded in far less exotic places than the South Pacific, the Andes or the Sierra Mountains of California.  You can become stranded, and find yourself having to survive, in the woodlot behind your home.  You can become stranded when driving to work or as a result of many other scenarios where suddenly you are unable to continue – or to return to safety.

Weather,  the onset of darkness, mechanical breakdown or other accidents can all result in your having to utilize survival skills and procedures to insure that you see the light of the next day.

A winter storm can make travel particularly dangerous. Make a vehicle survival kit, and let someone know when you left, and your expected arrival!

morning after working the night shift to drive home. A few minutes later, she was stuck in a snowdrift on an isolated country lane unable to proceed.  Some forty-four hours later she was finally found and rescued.

Her advice to others: “It can happen to anyone. Make sure you’re equipped. Stay with your vehicle. Tell someone where you’re going!”

Karen survived becoming stranded because she followed her own advice, believed she would be rescued, didn’t panic,  and she survived!

Unless you have experienced the emotions of finding yourself stranded a long way from help it is difficult to explain in words: The gut wrenching fear felt when you realize you can’t get back, you’re cut-off, you’re alone without anyone to help… YOU MIGHT DIE!

Let’s look at “becoming stranded” objectively, find  the problems faced by the victim and then identify some practical solutions to those problems.

WEATHER

Most commonly,  the onset of inclement weather strands people.  Motorists are stranded in their cars on the highways when driving conditions become too dangerous to continue – or more commonly they continue driving until an accident happens.

Those recreating outdoors suddenly find themselves unable to return home because the snow gets too deep, the water in the river rises and crossing becomes too risky, or fog obscures the landmarks and the navigation becomes impossible.

It is often weather that causes an aircraft to crash land or ditch – particularly light aircraft and helicopters!

A tornado could destroy roads and bridges and strand people on the disaster scene.

It is the weather, or more accurately, the lack of awareness of how quickly that the weather can change, that    precipitates a person into a survival situation!

One moment the sun is out and hiking in shorts and T-shirt is appropriate and moments later the sun goes behind a cloud, it begins to rain, the wind velocity increases a few miles per hour, the temperature plummets and now the victim is in a situation from which they may not recover.

Never assume anything. As Lefty Kreh, the well known author and fisherman once said: “It’s always going to be colder than they tell you.  It’s going to be windier than it should be for the time of year and it’s going to rain more than you expect it to so be prepared for anything.”

 Select the kinds of clothing that will keep you warm and dry and will keep the wind out. With good clothing the need for a fire and even the need for additional shelter may not be necessary.

MECHANICAL FAILURE.

Unfortunately most people have an unfounded faith in their vehicles ability to perform forever!

• It should be a given that if man made it, it can and will break down!
• It should also be a given that if it’s likely to fail, steps should be taken to be able to fix the problem.
• At  the very least you should be able to contact others for help in the event you become stranded.

When traveling to places where help is a long way off, prepare your vehicle accordingly.  Often the malfunction is not something catastrophic.  It’s usually the failure of some part that, had the operator performed a simple visual check; the situation could have been prevented.

Simple steps like checking the fluid levels (all fluid levels, not just the oil), checking air pressure in the tires; checking the condition of belts and hoses is often all it takes to complete an uneventful trip. While it may not be possible to eliminate all mechanical failure, it is possible to minimize the likelihood of becoming stranded because of mechanical malfunction by thoroughly inspecting your vehicle before a trip and equipping it with sufficient emergency gear to keep the occupants safe until found.

MISCOMMUNICATION.

As the pilot flew back to Fairbanks  after dropping my sheep hunting partner and I off, I was left with some misgivings regarding his understanding of when we were to be picked up.  My misgivings became reality ten days later when our ride home failed to show up.

While waiting for the overdue transportation strange thoughts occurred.  Such as: I wonder if the plane that dropped us off crashed on its way back to base. I wonder if the pilot told anyone else where he had taken us. I wonder if anyone will come looking for us!

Several days passed before we finally heard the drone of the Super Cub, our ride home, coming across the tundra.  In this instance it was confusion between “picking us up ten days later” and “picking us up on the 10^th” that led to the miscommunication.

Had we not planned on “weather days” and a delayed pickup, our hunting trip might have become a survival experience. Critical communications should be written down not verbally communicated!  Plan for delays.

CRASHES (car, plane, boat, snow machine, motorbike, etc.)

The problem with modern transportation is that in a very short period time you can find yourself a long way from help after an accident.  In a couple of hours an ATV traveling at 12 mph can put you 24 miles from the trail head. How long will it take you to walk 24 miles? You can find yourself many miles from the marina when the boat that you were speeding across the lake in collides with a semi-sunken log and sinks.  How far can you swim?   A light aircraft flying at 100 mph places you even further back in the wilderness – usually too far to walk out.  Regardless of the mode of transportation you are now a long way from home – you are stranded and must survive until rescue arrives. Will you be able to survive until you are found and rescued?

DARKNESSSuffice it to say that once the sun sets a person can be just as stranded as they are when their car breaks down miles from sources of assistance.  Traveling on foot at night is not generally recommended for all the reasons previously discussed.  Stay put and wait for the sun to come up and then decide what should be done.

Becoming stranded is not the end of the world!  If you have told others of your travel plans they will become worried when you don’t show up and will initiate the rescue process by contacting the authorities.  As the one who is stranded your job is to keep yourself alive until they show up.

Peter Kummerfeldt has walked the talk in the wilderness survival field for decades.Peter grew up in

Peter Kummerfeldt has taught wilderness and emergency survival for more than 40 years.

Kenya, East Africa and came to America in 1965 and joined the U.S. Air Force. He is a graduate of the Air Force Survival Instructor Training School and has served as an instructor at the Basic Survival School, Spokane, Washington; the Arctic Survival School, Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Jungle Survival School, Republic of the Philippines.

For twelve years, Peter was the Survival Training Director at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He retired from the Air Force in 1995 after 30 years of service.

In 1992, concerned with the number of accidents that were occurring in the outdoors annually and the number of tourists traveling overseas who were involved in unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening incidents Peter created OutdoorSafe.com

He is the author of “Surviving a Wilderness Emergency” and has addressed over 20,000 people as the featured speaker at numerous seminars, conferences and national conventions.

Check out Peter’s blog at: OutdoorSafe.blogspot.com

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

Flash floods are the number one weather-related killer in the United States! Here are some of the things to look for if you know you are in an area that might have a flash flood!

A flash flood can happen incredibly quickly in many areas. Know what to look for! (NASA photo)

by Peter Kummerfeldt

Most flash flooding is caused by slow-moving thunderstorms repeatedly moving over the same area, or heavy rains from hurricanes and tropical storms. The two key elements that contribute to flash flooding are rainfall intensity and duration. Intensity is the rate of rainfall, and duration is how long the rain lasts.

Topography, soil conditions, and ground cover also play an important role.  Flash floods can occur within a few minutes or may occur within hours of heavy rainfall.  Rapidly rising water can reach heights of thirty feet or more and can trigger catastrophic mud slides.

Here are some safety rules:

• Pay attention to the warnings and watches announced by the National Weather Service and your local radio.  You will not always have a warning that these deadly, sudden floods are coming.  Many deaths occur because the victims waited too long to take action or were distracted while trying to save personal belongings.
• Never try to walk, swim, or drive through swift water. If you come upon flood waters, STOP! TURN AROUND AND GO ANOTHER WAY. Even six inches of fast-moving water can knock you off your feet and water two feet deep will float your car!
• Plan Ahead.  Determine ahead of time where you would go if told to evacuate.  Select higher ground where you could climb above the high water.  Many flash floods occur at night, greatly complicating evacuation efforts!
• The sound of distant thunder could forewarn you of flooding.
• Watch for quickly rising water and if present take action quickly

A weather radio is the best means to receive warnings from the National Weather Service which continuously broadcasts updated weather warnings and forecasts. Depending on topography, the average range for these radios is about 40 miles.  Purchase a radio that has both a battery backup and a tone-alert feature which automatically alerts you when a watch or warning is issued.

Stay informed about the weather by listening to NOAA weather radio, commercial radio, and television for the latest watches warnings, and advisories. Plan your activities around the forecasted weather.  Decide what you will do when the weather deteriorates and implement the plan before you are in danger.

Weather can make you very uncomfortable but, with some preparation, it shouldn’t kill you!

Peter Kummerfeldt has walked the talk in the wilderness survival field for decades. Peter grew up in

Peter Kummerfeldt has taught wilderness and emergency survival for more than 40 years.

Kenya, East Africa and came to America in 1965 and joined the U.S. Air Force. He is a graduate of the Air Force Survival Instructor Training School and has served as an instructor at the Basic Survival School, Spokane, Washington; the Arctic Survival School, Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Jungle Survival School, Republic of the Philippines. For twelve years, Peter was the Survival Training Director at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He retired from the Air Force in 1995 after 30 years of service.

In 1992, concerned with the number of accidents that were occurring in the outdoors annually and the number of tourists traveling overseas who were involved in unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening incidents Peter created OutdoorSafe.com

He is the author of Surviving a Wilderness Emergency and has addressed over 20,000 people as the featured speaker at numerous seminars, conferences and national conventions.

Check out Peter’s blog at: OutdoorSafe.blogspot.com

For more Peter Kummerfeldt and OutdoorSafe survival tips, click on:

• Are you afraid of the dark?
• STOP: You are lost!
• Preparing to survive
• The importance of water to survival.
• Avoid becoming an altitude casualty.
• Wilderness emergency management
• Making water safe to drink.
• Don’t become a lightning casualty.
• Questionable water: to Drink or Not?
• Self Rescue: when staying put is not an Option
• Survival Kit List for beginners
• Preventing dehydration during emergencies
• Winter Survival Equipment Test: Blizzard vests and emergency blankets

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

The question is “What am I preparing for?”  There are five broad categories that capture most situations where a person may have to “survive” until rescued or until the weather conditions improve and the individual can rescue themselves.

The categories are: Becoming lost, being caught out after dark, becoming stranded, becoming ill or injured and unable to proceed and bad weather that makes continuing on dangerous. This article will look at the fourth of these situations, “injury and illness.”

by Peter Kummerfeldt

As I have analyzed stories of survivors and the survival situations they found themselves in I have come to the conclusion that there are two underlying causes for the difficulties the survivors experienced.

First: There appears to be a lack of understanding of the physiological threats to the human body and the body’s reaction to the threats.

Second: Survivors, lacking specific survival training, appropriate clothing and survival equipment are left to cope with the situation as best they can relying on their will-to-survive, their ability to improvise and luck!  Not a good situation.

This article will look at some of the physiological threats to the body and suggest ways to minimize the impact of the threats.

Disabling illnesses include hypothermia, dehydration, illnesses associated with going too high altitude too quickly and any other illnesses that limit a person’s ability to survive.  These same illnesses can result in a person becoming incapacitated to the point where they can’t help themselves and only outside intervention will prevent a tragedy from occurring.

From a physiological point of view surviving a wilderness emergency is a process of keeping everything in balance.

• To avoid hypothermia (dangerously low body temperature) or hyperthermia (dangerously high body temperature) we must achieve thermal balance.
• To avoid dehydration we must achieve water balance
• To avoid starvation we must obtain food.

Of these, maintaining thermal balance and preventing dehydration are the most important concerns to the survivor.  Surviving also necessitates being able to deal with any injuries that occur.

MAINTAINING THERMAL BALANCE – preventing hypothermia and hyperthermia

In a cold environment, where the human body is warmer than the environment, heat will be lost to the surroundings.  In a hot environment where the human body may be cooler than the environment heat can be gained from the surroundings.  Either situation can be life-threatening.

In a cold environment, body heat lost through the processes of radiation, convection, conduction and evaporation must be balanced by metabolism:  I.E. the heat produced within each of the body’s cells.

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

When there is insufficient energy to produce this heat we experience hypothermia which can quickly impair our ability to function – mentally and physically.  Maintaining thermal balance in cold weather requires sufficient intake of food to produce approximately 3,500 calories of heat per day.  Lacking food, the foods stored in the body in the form of fat, carbohydrates and protein, become the primary source of energy.  Since this is a finite amount, it becomes increasingly more difficult to function as these supplies are depleted.

Maintaining thermal balance also requires the use of appropriate clothing to retain the heat the body is producing within the fabric and between the layers of clothing and in so doing keep us warm.  When there is insufficient clothing, heat lost by radiation, evaporation, convection and conduction can quickly exceed body heat production and hypothermia will result.

In a hot environment,  thermal balance is achieved by continually cooling the body and minimizing thermal gain from the surroundings.  Heat loss by evaporation is the body’s primary way of dumping heat, but this is only effective where there is sufficient water within the body to be evaporated.

Heat gain from the surroundings can be reduced by seeking shade and by minimizing contact with objects that are hotter than the body.  Lacking water and shade can quickly cause the survivor’s body temperature to rise to the point where mental and physical function is impaired and survival becomes questionable.

MAINTAINING WATER BALANCE – preventing dehydration.

Under normal circumstances, a person’s minimum water losses (urination, defecation, evaporation to include the water need to humidify the air we breath) each day will be around 1.5 quarts. Some of this water will be replaced by the water produced by metabolism – the rest, about minimum one quart, must be consumed to maintain water balance.  When available, survivors should drink three to four quarts of water per day to replace the water lost during the process of surviving ( i.e. gathering firewood, building shelters, moving, etc).

Because of circumstance, it is entirely possible that a survivor may not be able to obtain the recommended amounts of water each day and consequently will find himself in a “water deficit” situation very quickly.  Some will even begin their survival episode already dehydrated!

A drainage ditch might be the only source of moisture you can find. Better to drink the water than get severely dehydrated!

There are too many variables to be able to accurately predict how long a person will live with reduced quantities of water.  A better survival strategy would be to develop methods of gathering and using any available water and practicing intelligent water conservation procedures that make the best possible use of the available water.

In North America, lacking the means to purify water, it is better to drink from any available water source and prevent dehydration than to not drink the water and suffer the more immediate effects of dehydration.  “Doctors can cure giardia but they can’t fix dead!

In the absence of water, survivors should not drink any water for the first 24 hours – the body’s reserves should be able to cope in the early stages of a survival experience.   Stringent rationing of available water from the onset can lead to impaired judgment and physical performance – RATION YOUR SWEAT NOT YOUR WATER!

MAINTAINING FOOD BALANCE.

As stated earlier, the requirement for food is subordinate to the need to maintain body temperature and the need for water.  Many have survived for long periods of time without any food, living entirely off of the “food” stored in their bodies in the form of fat, carbohydrate and protein.

Despite this, the lack of food is still a survival threat. As each day passes without food, or with only limited food, your ability to function is increasingly impaired – you won’t have the energy to do what needs to be done. Your ability to keep warm will be reduced.  Since the sources of energy are limited all activities should be carefully considered in terms of “energy expenditure verses the benefits to be gained by the survivor” before they begin.  The survivor has to balance the need to procure food from the land against the energy expended to gather the food.  It usually is best to save your energy!

INJURY

People are injured in many ways but most commonly serious injuries occur when “people fall off of mountains or mountains fall on people” or when they are involved in a vehicle accident.

Few people begin their survival experience uninjured. The survival books and the “how-to-survive” articles written in the popular outdoor press don’t talk about how the injured survivor is to build a shelter, start fires and do all the other tasks needed to live to tell the tale!  Consider for a moment how you would zip your jacket or tie your shoe laces when limited to the use of one hand.

Disabling injuries, such as fractures of the lower extremities, injuries to the spine and head and eye damage usually rule out the possibility of making it back without outside help.  Serious burns covering large portions of the body also make traveling very difficult if not impossible.  Significant blood losses resulting from the trauma following falls or vehicle accidents once again severely limit a person’s ability to travel.   Survival begins with being able to cope with the injuries sustained in the accident and then satisfying the other basic survival needs – protection, hydration, warmth etc.

When was the last time you attended a Red Cross First Aid Course?  Could you perform CPR on your spouse or a child should the need arise?  Have you considered taking a Wilderness First Responder course?  Do your traveling companions have any emergency medical skills in the event that you are the one that needs help?  Do you carry a first aid kit?  Do you know how to use the contents of the kit?

Your answer to these questions could have life saving implications!  If your knowledge and skills are deficient then remedy this problem first, then go on to developing your field survival skills.

Good medical kits are available form Chinook Medical Gear, Inc. www.chinookmed.com 800-766-1365.  One piece of medical equipment that I would not be without is a SAM SPLINT.  This simple, inexpensive device when combined with an elastic bandage makes stabilizing a severe sprain, strain or fracture easy.  Another very practical, inexpensive tool to include in your medical kit is a pair of EMT Shears.  You will find many uses for it.

In addition to the Red Cross first aid training more advanced backcountry medical training can be obtained from many providers to include the following:

Crested Butte Outdoors 970-359-6311

SOLO Wilderness and Emergency Medicine 603-447-6711

Wilderness Medicine Associates 888-945-3633

Wilderness Medicine Outfitters 303-688-5176

Attending one of the many Wilderness Medicine conferences that are held around the country is another way to improve both your knowledge and skills.  Contact the Wilderness Medicine Society at www.wms.org or call 719-512-1372 for the dates and locations of the conferences.

Peter Kummerfeldt has walked the talk in the wilderness survival field for decades. Peter grew up in

Peter Kummerfeldt has taught wilderness and emergency survival for more than 40 years.

Kenya, East Africa and came to America in 1965 and joined the U.S. Air Force. He is a graduate of the Air Force Survival Instructor Training School and has served as an instructor at the Basic Survival School, Spokane, Washington; the Arctic Survival School, Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Jungle Survival School, Republic of the Philippines. For twelve years, Peter was the Survival Training Director at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He retired from the Air Force in 1995 after 30 years of service.

In 1992, concerned with the number of accidents that were occurring in the outdoors annually and the number of tourists traveling overseas who were involved in unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening incidents Peter created OutdoorSafe.com

He is the author of Surviving a Wilderness Emergency and has addressed over 20,000 people as the featured speaker at numerous seminars, conferences and national conventions.

Check out Peter’s blog at: OutdoorSafe.blogspot.com

For more Peter Kummerfeldt and OutdoorSafe survival tips, click on:

• Are you afraid of the dark?
• STOP: You are lost!
• Preparing to survive
• The importance of water to survival.
• Avoid becoming an altitude casualty.
• Wilderness emergency management
• Making water safe to drink.
• Don’t become a lightning casualty.
• Questionable water: to Drink or Not?
• Self Rescue: when staying put is not an Option
• Survival Kit List for beginners
• Preventing dehydration during emergencies
• Winter Survival Equipment Test: Blizzard vests and emergency blankets

.

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

Survival food is sustenance that can be made easily during a survival or emergency situation using mainly simple, long-term storage food items, cooked outdoors, using off-the-grid methods.

Spaghetti is an easy, quick meal to make. With this dry spaghetti sauce mix, it can be even quicker!

by Leon Pantenburg

Spaghetti is a standard dish for feeding a lot of people cheaply and quickly. And a big plate of spaghetti or pasta covered with a tasty sauce can supply a lot of carbohydrates, which translates into energy. This energy may be vital to your survival, since it keeps you warm and  supplies the fuel to do rigorous activities during emergency situations!

But during survival or emergency situations, even a one-pot meal might be a challenge to prepare. And anything that can simplify and/or speed up the cooking process will probably be greatly appreciated!

Here is a spaghetti mix recipe from Jan LeBaron’s “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes.”

Make this up ahead of time, and store it in an airtight container. Then, when you need to whip up a quick meal, just add water to the mix to the desired consistency and serve over cooked pasta. (This is yet another recipe from Jan’s cookbook that  I’m adding to my backpacking favorites, and a container of this spaghetti mix will be in camp on my next big game hunt!)

Spaghetti Mix

1 c onions, chopped, dehydrated

3 Tbs garlic granules, dried

1/4 c parsley flakes, dried

1/2 c cornstarch

1/2 c Italian seasoning, dried

1/2 c mixed peppers, dehydrated

2 Tbs basil. dried

2 Tbs oregano, dried

1/2 c salt

1/4 c sugar

1 c tomato powder

Mix together and store in an airtight container. Use when making spaghetti, pizza and add to Italian soups.

From: “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes: Converting Stored Foods into Usable Meals.” (Page 100)

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

All you have to do to start a “survival” website is to buy the domain name and title. (That’s what I did!) To be a so-called “Survival Expert” all you have to do is proclaim yourself as such! (I don’t know of any credible national or international certification for such a thing.)

But there is a lot more to surviving a wilderness or urban emergency situation than vernacular. So, any conversation about survival tactics, techniques and skills must first start with a very basic discussion: “What is Survival?” In this article, survival expert Peter Kummerfeldt gives his definition.

by Peter Kummerfeldt

Survival situations can occur at any time, in any location.

The word “survival” conjures up a mental picture of a horrendous situation in some remote part of the world where the “survivor” has to “survive” under extreme conditions, without food, with only limited (or no) water while fending of the onslaught of predatory animals!

Let’s get real!  While some survival experiences do occur in such places, many more occur in the woodlots of Wisconsin; while duck hunting in Louisiana, or while tracking deer in Washington – in short, anywhere we recreate.

While there are many book definitions of the word “survival,” none adequately describe the difficulties that outdoor people sometimes find themselves in.  Here’s my definition:

SURVIVAL – The ability and the desire to stay alive, all alone, under adverse conditions, until rescued.

Ability. There are skills in which you need to become proficient if you expect to survive: first aid, sheltering, fire craft, water procurement and signaling.  Without these skills, whether you survive or not may depend largely on luck.  These are skills that cannot be learned “on the job” but must be practiced ahead of time. When the emergency arises, shelter can be built, water procured and signals constructed in a minimum of time and with a minimum amount of expended effort.

The desire to live is one of the most important parts of survival.

Desire. You must want to survive!  You must want to live!  Without the desire to live, it doesn’t matter how much equipment or training you have.

There have been survivors who lacked even the minimum amount of equipment; who had never received any survival training but who had a tremendous tenacity to live – and they did!  There have also been people who were trained and equipped but lacked the will to survive who died when they should have lived!
Survivors, who are inadequately clothed, poorly equipped and those who have never practiced their survival skills will have their “desire to live” severely tested.

On the other hand, those who can stay warm and dry, those who have equipped themselves, and those who have practiced their survival skills may experience an uncomfortable night or two out , but because of their preparations, they should not find themselves in a life-threatening emergency.

Stay alive. First of all, staying alive means being able to administer first aid – to yourself! Few people begin their survival situations uninjured! Few people in survival situations remain uninjured!  Any injuries that incurred during or following an accident must be dealt with quickly – you may be both the patient and the doctor!

When was the last time you attended a First Aid course?  Could you administer effective CPR to a drowning or lightning strike victim?  Would those with whom you travel know what to do if you were the one that needed help?

Practical shelter building techniques are another lifesaver.

In a cold, wet windy environment staying alive also means keeping warm; in a hot environment, staying cool is the objective.

Accomplishing either can be very difficult.  98.6 is the most important number in your life!  A deviation of 5° F. above or below 98.6° F. significantly impairs your brain’s ability to function and reduces your ability to make good decisions.   Since surviving is largely a “decision making” process, your brain’s ability to function must be protected at all costs.

Staying alive also means keeping yourself hydrated.  Every activity that takes place in the human body takes place in a water environment; when that water is depleted those activities begin to malfunction.  Under stressful conditions, dehydrated people quickly loose their working efficiency and worse than that, their ability to think clearly and make good decision!

Under adverse conditions. Because of our past experiences, what may be adverse to one person may be routine to another.  Before venturing off, ask yourself “What is the worst thing that can happen to me and am I prepared to cope with it?”

“What scares me about the thought of spending an unplanned night out?”  Answering these two questions honestly is the first step in overcoming one of the biggest barriers to preparing for a future survival situation – denial of the possibility of an emergency happening.  If you can see yourself in a survival situation, then preparing for it will naturally follow.

All alone. Never count on anyone else being there to help you when you are in trouble.  If there is, you can pool your talents, equipment and clothing for the benefit of all.  But if there isn’t, and you have never developed your survival skills because you reasoned :

“Someone else (husband, father, mother, brother, sister, guide etc.) will take care of me,” you have just fallen into a big trap.  You will be totally unprepared physically and psychologically!  Plan on being alone!

Until rescued. Beyond readying the appropriate signals to attract the attention of rescuers, there is little the survivor can do to expedite the rescue process.  Finding an overdue hunter, backpacker or birdwatcher takes time – especially if you have failed to leave a flight plan!

To the survivor, the time it takes to be found and recovered seems to drag on forever; and remaining in one place, waiting to be found, will take all of your willpower. History shows that those survivors who were able to overcome their impatience and desire to walk out had a better chance of surviving than those that continued to move.

Sit tight, survive and wait for rescue to come to you.

Peter Kummerfeldt has walked the talk in the wilderness survival field for decades. Peter grew up in

Peter Kummerfeldt has taught wilderness and emergency survival for more than 40 years.

Kenya, East Africa and came to America in 1965 and joined the U.S. Air Force. He is a graduate of the Air Force Survival Instructor Training School and has served as an instructor at the Basic Survival School, Spokane, Washington; the Arctic Survival School, Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Jungle Survival School, Republic of the Philippines.

For twelve years, Peter was the Survival Training Director at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He retired from the Air Force in 1995 after 30 years of service.

In 1992, concerned with the number of accidents that were occurring in the outdoors annually and the number of tourists traveling overseas who were involved in unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening incidents Peter created OutdoorSafe.com

He is the author of Surviving a Wilderness Emergency and has addressed over 20,000 people as the featured speaker at numerous seminars, conferences and national conventions.

Check out Peter’s blog at: OutdoorSafe.blogspot.com

For more Peter Kummerfeldt and OutdoorSafe survival tips, click on:

• The importance of water to survival.
• Avoid becoming an altitude casualty.
• Wilderness emergency management
• Making water safe to drink.
• Don’t become a lightning casualty.
• Questionable water: to Drink or Not?
• Self Rescue: when staying put is not an Option
• Survival Kit List for beginners
• Preventing dehydration during emergencies
• Winter Survival Equipment Test: Blizzard vests and emergency blankets

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

After finishing my first Peter Kummerfeldt survival seminar, I threw away the two plastic mylar blankets I had carried for years as part of my survival gear.
Peter’s demonstration with a  mylar blanket – which I have shamelessly stolen and replicated many times for different classes – proves that the flimsy, noisy sheets of plastic cannot be depended on!

So I read with great interest this equipment review Peter did  on the Blizzard  vest and emergency blanket. -  Leon

by Peter Kummerfeldt

Blizzard Products – vests, blankets and sleeping bags. I had actually come across these products several years ago but didn’t pay them much attention to them because of my bias against anything made from “space blanket” material.

The Blizzard blanket was tested and proven in the field by Peter Kummerfeldt's students.

Late last year I was sent some samples by PerSys Medical and asked to evaluate the effectiveness of the devices in a survival scenario.

PerSys Medical is a company that “specializes in bringing life-saving innovations to the market.”

Their mission is to “provide military and civilian caregivers with the most innovative solutions to improve the quality of care and ultimately save lives.”

Initially, again because of my biases, I was very skeptical that the Refelexcell material would stand up to the rigors of a night or two sleeping in an emergency shelter.

I was proven wrong! Not only did they remain largely intact but they also offered considerable protection!

I say “largely intact” only because the outer layer did tear on occasion, but when it was punctured the inner layer remained intact and the users safety and protection was not compromised.

No piece of emergency equipment should be considered a replacement for being adequately prepared in the first place!

Some of my students used all three products during field survival training exercises. First in Montana during the five day survival and navigation training program I run every September and then in Washington in the Olympic National Forest during a three-day field survival exercise.

In each instance the reports I received from those that used either the vest, sleeping bag or the blanket were very complimentary.

The inability of the fabric to breath was the only negative reported by the “testers.” Some condensation accumulated on the inner surface of the fabric during the night. While unpleasant, this relatively small amount of moisture can be tolerated, especially when compared against the possibility of becoming totally wet when lacking any other protective shelter material.

Initially there was some concern regarding the noise created by the fabric, especially if the fabric covered a person’s head. This turned out not to be an issue at all with all users reporting getting a good night’s sleep.

Peter Kummerfeldt has walked the talk in the wilderness survival field for decades. Peter grew up in

Peter Kummerfeldt has taught wilderness and emergency survival for more than 40 years.

Kenya, East Africa and came to America in 1965 and joined the U.S. Air Force. He is a graduate of the Air Force Survival Instructor Training School and has served as an instructor at the Basic Survival School, Spokane, Washington; the Arctic Survival School, Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Jungle Survival School, Republic of the Philippines.

For twelve years, Peter was the Survival Training Director at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He retired from the Air Force in 1995 after 30 years of service.

In 1992, concerned with the number of accidents that were occurring in the outdoors annually and the number of tourists traveling overseas who were involved in unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening incidents Peter created OutdoorSafe.com

He is the author of Surviving a Wilderness Emergency and has addressed over 20,000 people as the featured speaker at numerous seminars, conferences and national conventions.

Check out Peter’s blog at: OutdoorSafe.blogspot.com

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com