Travel can be very dangerous this time of year. Black ice, slippery pavement, high winds and blowing snow, or reduced visibility due to fog, rain and snow storms can all happen within a few miles.

It doesn’t matter if you live in the Oregon high desert or the frigid

A survival kit for your car can be indispensable when the weather turns bad.

Midwest. If  your car slips off the road in an isolated area, during a blizzard, a routine drive to visit the family can turn into a nightmare.

by Leon Pantenburg

Nationwide attention was brought to winter survival in a stalled vehicle in 2006.

In December, Californian James Kim, 35, died in Oregon’s Rogue River Wilderness after leaving his wife and children to get help. The family car was stuck in snow on a remote road for several days.

After Mr. Kim departed from the car, he  left the road and apparently got lost in the deep snow. He bushwhacked five miles down steep canyons, covering about eight miles through rough country, but ending up only about a mile as the crow flies from his car. Mr Kim’s body was found several days later, and he had apparently died of  hypothermia . His family was found alive in their car a few days later.

(To view the complete story, click on Kim Tragedy video)

Here are some things you can do for a car trip – before you leave –  to make that road trip safer.

• Leave a note, telling someone your route, and when you intend to reach your destination.  If you don’t arrive on schedule, the designated person should contact the area highway patrol or state police. If you have changes in plan, call that person to update the schedule.
• Warm clothing: Make sure everyone in the vehicle has, as a minimum, a warm coat, hat, gloves and boots along. Throw in a couple of blankets and a sleeping bag in the trunk for extra protection.
• Lots of Gas: The vehicle should have a full tank of gas before you leave to go anywhere. Top off the gas tank when it gets to about half full.
• Daytime travel: If possible, schedule your travel in the daytime.
• Known routes:  Only travel routes you know to be safe – not rural service roads and cut-off roads that are unfamiliar to you.
• Food and Water: Assemble a complete emergency kit to carry in your car. Periodically update the kit by checking the food and water and making sure you have spare batteries for emergency flashlights.  These days you can acquire car chargers and solar charging kits for cell phones.

Winter survival can start by assembling a selection of easily-obtained items. Here are some suggestions from Oregon AAA on what items to  include in your  car kit.

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In a survival situation, be it urban or wilderness, your gear alone will not save you. YOU must save yourself. There are three major areas a survivor must be prepared in, before you start being concerned about accumulating equipment!

In this article, survival Expert Peter Kummerfeldt takes you through a survival sequence.

by Peter Kummerfeldt

One of the most important lessons I learned during my survival career is: “Those who are prepared to survive an emergency usually will, and those who are not prepared probably won’t!”

We don’t want to admit we might be the one faced with a life or death situation or some other equally disagreeable circumstance.

Denial leads the list of the coping methods that people use — we deny anything bad is ever going to happen.  It’s often easier to deny than to prepare for a difficult situation and, as a result, we find ourselves totally unprepared when disaster strikes.

It’s easy to say “I’ll assemble a survival kit tomorrow.” It’s easy to rationalize – “I don’t have the money to buy a better rain jacket,” or “I’ll never be in a survival situation. What do I need a survival kit for?”  It’s easy to think that it will always be someone else that ends up in a survival situation.

Consequently the vast majority of people find themselves facing a cold night out without adequate clothing, without basic survival equipment and without having practiced building a fire, erecting a shelter or signaling for help.

To prepare, potential survivors need to consider three areas: Physical, mental and spiritual preparation.
Physical preparation includes careful selection of  your clothing, equipping yourself for an unplanned night out and getting in physical shape.

“Dress to survive – not just to arrive!

What you wear may be adequate for the work commute, but will it keep you warm if you have to spend the night in the ditch when the car skids off the road?  How much protection will your T-shirt and shorts provide if you are caught out in a late summer thunderstorm?
Becoming lost, is probably the most common way that people end up in a survival situation. “Surviving” places a premium on the clothing worn.

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

Cotton Kills! During the colder, wetter times of the year, dressing properly begins by getting rid of your cotton underwear and switching to synthetics (polypropylene, polyester, or Capilene.) Cotton absorbs the moisture your body produces and holds it against your skin causing heat to be constantly conducted away. You will never be warm!

The synthetics are hydrophobic (water hating) and facilitate the movement of water vapor away from your body.  Other underwear fabrics include wool and silk.  Some very good “non-itchy” wool thermal underwear is now available.  Silk, because it is a natural fiber, tends to absorb and hold water.  It is also not as durable as the synthetic fabrics.

The next layer, the mid layer, serves to facilitate the movement of water vapor out to the environment and to trap “dead air” around you to keep you warm. Once again, synthetics work best – the piles and fleeces, with wool coming in a close second.

Under very cold conditions, an additional insulation layer may be needed. The more “dead air” you trap the warmer you will be. Many insulating materials are available to choose from, both synthetic and natural. I choose synthetics primarily because, unlike down, the synthetic insulators do not collapse when wet.

The outer layer may be the most important.  It must keep the inner layers dry and keep the wind out.  If either moisture or wind penetrates the insulation layers, heat will be lost quickly.  Studies have shown that in windy situations, a good outer shell can increase warmth by as much as 50 degrees. Put another way, a good windproof outer layer decreases the amount of insulation needed to keep you warm.

The objective is to use the fewest layers of clothing that will keep you warm when you are inactive. Activity generates substantial amounts of body heat and reduces the need for multiple layers of clothing.  On the other hand, inactivity drives the need to insulate yourself from the environment and to conserve whatever heat your body is producing – very important in a survival situation!

Special attention should be paid to protecting your head and your hands. If your head is not protected as much as 75 percent of your total body heat production can be lost!  Hands suffer quickly when exposed to cool-to-cold conditions. Fine motor skills, the ability to touch finger to thumb, are lost quickly.

This photo demonstrates how a trash bag can be used as a quick, effective emergency shelter. (Peter Kummerfeldt photo)

Could you zip up your jacket if your fingers are frozen?  Could you tie your bootlaces? Gloves and mittens are an important part of your outdoor clothing.

Equipping yourself to spend a night out is the next step.

There are those who advocate construction of survival shelters built from natural materials.  I disagree.

For the average, inexperienced person, building a windproof, waterproof shelter from sticks, boughs, bark and other natural materials may be impossible!

Shelters built from natural materials take hours to build, require cutting tools and adequate supplies of suitable materials, and, most importantly, call for an “able” survivor — one who is uninjured!

Seldom can all of these criteria be met and, for lack of shelter, the survivor ends up spending a very uncomfortable night or two out.  Additionally, inexperienced people will often wait until the sun is about to set or the storm is about to break before they recognize the need for an emergency shelter!

A vital part of your survival equipment is a waterproof, windproof, heavy-duty, plastic bag that you can crawl into!  Alternatively, carry a sturdy tarp or piece of plastic that can be quickly erected to create a lean-to or pup tent style of shelter.

Two plastic match containers have been taped together. One holds cotton balls and petroleum jelly, and the other carries REI Stormproof matches. A Boy Scout Hot Spark is taped to the kit.

The ability to ignite a fire may also be critical to your survival.   Once again, relying on improvised means i.e., rubbing sticks together, is an invitation to disaster!

Because of injury or loss of finger dexterity the usual methods of starting a fire may become very difficult.  How do you strike a match if you only have the use of one hand?  Could you still “flick your BIC” if your fingers are cold and stiff?  It can be done but it may not be easy.

Equip yourself with good matches and a metal match.  Fill a screw-top match case with cotton balls that have been saturated in petroleum jelly – it makes great tinder, can be ignited with either the match or a spark from the metal match and burns for a long time.

The duration of your survival situation hinges on two questions.  Did you file a flight plan?  Do you have any signaling equipment with you with which to attract attention? Always tell someone reliable where you’re going and when you’re going to be back.  Include in your survival kit a good plastic whistle and a signal mirror (glass or a good plastic one)

Improving your physical fitness should be part of the physical preparations you make.  People in good physical shape are less likely to injure themselves. Physically fit survivors  injured in an accident will fare better than those who are not in good shape.

Preparing yourself mentally is as important, if not more so, than preparing yourself physically.

If you can’t visualize situations you might find yourself in, how  will you prepare for them?

What are you afraid of? Confront that fear, and familiarity will make it go away!

What scares you about having to spend an unplanned night out?  Is it the fear of predatory animals? Starving to death? Dying from hypothermia? Isolation?

We all have fears. Unfortunately many are based on stories we were told,  TV programs, or on books we read.  Good entertainment, perhaps, but often poor sources of reliable information  to base our decisions and actions.

Make a list of your fears and apprehensions then contact the “experts” and find out the truth. In most instances, the truth is very different from the myth and, as a good friend of mine says: “When you remove the mystery, you’ll remove the fear!”

Spiritual preparation is the final step.  After interviewing many survivors and prisoners-of-war and after reading the accounts of many other survivors,  it is clear: “There are no non-believers in survival situations!”

Survivors may have started the experience without any strong beliefs one way or the other, but inevitably, at some point these survivors turned to a greater power for additional help.

As Doug Ritter of Equipped to Survive (www.equipped.com) says:

“If you are adequately clothed, if you have equipped yourself and if you have practiced your survival skills, a night or two out should not a be a life threatening experience.  On the other hand if you are not clothed adequately, do not have any emergency gear and have never practiced your survival skills whether you survive or not will depend on your will to survive, your ability to improvise, and LUCK.”

I don’t know about you – I want to be clothed, equipped and practiced!

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

A 68-year-old man died in a sleeping bag in his truck after he got stuck in the snow while camping in February and kept a log of nearly 70 days spent apparently stranded in east Linn County’s high country, authorities said today. To read the complete story, click here.

Let’s hope we can all learn from tragedies.

In this case, apparently nobody knew the victim was missing. Here’s a video about leaving a note before you go anywhere to make sure something like this doesn’t happen to you!

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

• STOP: Use this exercise to reduce stress and focus your thoughts.
• 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

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

The retired couple was just going out on a drive to try out a new camera, then got stuck on an isolated road in the snow. Nobody knew they had gone anywhere. When they were discovered missing, nobody had any idea where they might be.

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

Navigation expert Blake Miller posted this AP wire story Sunday about a couple from Washington state that were rescued after being lost for four days.

“This could have had a much sadder ending, Blake commented. “As you read the article, think about what they did to help themselves once stranded.   Staying with there vehicle was definitely the right thing to do?”

A trip plan would have been great to have left behind with a family member too.  Trip plan.

Read Blake’s post 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

What happens if you have to live just off your food storage? Have you ever tried or used it?  If not, then “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes” has some recipes you need!

This Lodge camp oven and Camp Chef double-burner propane cooker will work very well for cooking off the grid when the power is out.

by Leon Pantenburg

I’ve always maintained that bland, tasteless food is not only unnecessary, but in some survival scenarios, dangerous!

It’s one thing to be set up  and prepared for off-grid cooking. But what happens when  (insert appropriate apocalyptic acronym) happens and all you have  to eat is the stored staples in your pantry. Do you know how to cook those foods?

Maybe you already have a couple of standard recipes that work well. But if you have to alternate them every-other-day, it won’t be long before diet monotony sets in and you have to force yourself to eat.

And that’s why this situation is dangerous. Small children and elderly folks might just quit eating, and that can put everyone at risk.  When a person is weak from lack of sustenance, they can’t function, and that could affect the larger group. Luckily, this food monotony issue has been addressed in Jan LeBaron’s latest cookbook: “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes: Converting Stored Foods into Usable Meals.”

The book is loaded with recipes that cover the gamete of foods from Breads to Vegetables and Potatoes.

Jan is the owner of  Healthy Harvest, a family-owned business based in Vancouver, WA, that has been in operation since 1988. The company sells an extensive line of long-term food storage products including dehydrated and freeze dried vegetables and fruits.

Jan told me in a recent phone interview that the cookbook came about as a result of customer requests.

“People would buy the long term storage food, and ask about recipes or cookbooks that showed how to use the foods,” she said. “One customer said this cookbook is the missing link.”

Jan loves to cook, and raising four children gave her the perfect opportunity to practice.

“I love nothing more than cooking a great meal,” she writes in the cookbook introduction. “The joy in being able to learn how to cook great meals with your food storage in truly rewarding.”

This philosophy lead to years of collecting, experimenting and refining recipes that used only storage food. The resulting collection became “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes.”

My favorite part of reviewing cookbooks is the mandatory recipe testing. It doesn’t matter how slick the cookbook’s cover  may be.  If the recipes aren’t delectable, you won’t use the book and have wasted your money. The several recipes I tested show the cookbook’s cost of  $16.95 is money well spent.

The first recipe I tried was Re-Fried Beans. That dish is a great way to use pinto beans, and re-fried beans are a tasty addition to burritos, enchiladas, tacos and most of my favorite Mexican dishes. (To read the re-fried beans recipe, clickhere). The recipe’s flavor is  also familiar to me, so I know what it should taste like!

The next recipe might be considered unusual from the survivalist perspective: Peanut Butter Cookies. (After all, isn’t survival food supposed to be something durable and institutional-flavored  like MREs?)

But let’s put this in perspective: There is a reason we call some dishes “comfort food.”

In many instances, comfort food is both a morale builder and sustenance. Sometimes, warm good-tasting food  may provide the highpoint in an otherwise dreary day.  A gloomy, rainy morning can be considerably brightened with a cup of hot coffee and a warm peanutbutter cookie.

Jan’s cookbook and recipe collection is a great resource for preppers and survivalists, and it should be part of your survival kit and in your library of preparedness references! Try this recipe, and you’ll see why!

Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 c shortening powder

1/2 c sugar, granulated

1/2 c sugar, brown

I Tbs whole egg powder

1/2 c peanut butter powder

1-1/2 c flour

1/2 tsp

baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3-3/4 c water

sugar

In a medium bowl add shortening powder, sugar, brown sugar, whole egg powder, peanutbutter powder, baking soda and salt until well mixed. Add 3-3/4 cups of water and mix until well-mixed.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, drop dough onto ungreased cookie sheet, dip a fork in sugar, flatten with fork, dipping in sugar as needed, cross-crossing with fork. Bake about 12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from heat and place onto a cooling rack until cool.

You can bake cookies in a cast iron Dutch oven, using coals. (In Boy Scout Troop 18, we do this all the time. The kids love baking cookies and wowing visitors. At one district “Freezoree” winter campout, the scouts baked cookies this way during a blizzard. They were showing off.)

Here’s one proven technique: Get a 14-inch shallow oven, and a round, tin pizza pan. A 12-inch pan will fit just right, and have enough room around the edges to insert your gloved fingers in to lift out the pan.  Put a trivet in the bottom of the Dutch oven to position the pizza pan about half way between top and bottom. Use the pizza pan as your cookie sheet.

(To estimate cooking temperatures inside a Dutch oven, take the diameter of the oven, multiple by two, and that’s the number of coals you need. Divide that number of  coals on the top and bottom. Remove two to four coals from the bottom and put them on top. This should give you a rough approximation of 350 degrees. )

Experiment with this cooking technique, and you’ll be able to impress anyone who visits your camp!

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

Do topographical maps seem confusing? Do you view most maps as a mass of squiggles, color splotches and undecipherable gibberish, with terms like: datum, UTM,  WGS84

A map and compass are vital land navigation tools, but you must first know how to read the map!

and NAD27? In this article, land navigation expert Blake Miller explains how to make sense of your topo map!

by Blake Miller

Reviewing a topographic map is usually the starting point for the planning of any back country trip.  A topographic map is your road map to the outdoors.  It provides you detailed information at a scale that is meaningful and detailed.  For years, the US Geologic Survey (USGS) has been the principal publisher of accurate maps.  Within the last decade we have seen many innovations in mapping products that include new mapping companies and publishers, software, maps for the GPS, and “Apps” for the iPhone.

Still, the USGS map remains the standard for back country navigation (visit the USGS’s site at www.topomaps.usgs.gov.)   I’d also recommend looking at June Fleming’s Staying Found: The Complete Map and Compass Handbook
or Bjorn Kjellstrom’s Be Expert with Map and Compass

Once you develop a map foundation you will easily shift to many of the other products on the market today.

Many publications, videos, and web sites will give you a complete rundown on the features, symbols and components to a map.  This article will discuss a few of the key features that you should be aware of on a 7.5 minute map.

• Scale Consider scale as your view of the map; it is like your “overhead zoom” setting.  To cut to the chase, a 7.5 minute map or quadrangle has a scale that is referred to as 1:24,000; where one inch is equal to 2000 feet.  It is your best source of information of the back country.  At this scale, the map has much more validity and provides more usable information for backcountry planning.  You can view important landmarks, streams and geographic features.  To complete the navigation picture I always refer a second map, such as a map of the national forest (e.g., the Deschutes National Forest.)  Commonly, such a map will be “zoomed” way out and have a scale of 1:100,000 or 1:250,000.  Imagine that such a map would be made up of many 7.5 minute quadrangles.

• Contour Lines: These are the thin brown lines that snake across the map.  Contour lines connect equal points of elevation such that every point on a specific line will be at that elevation above sea level.  Visually, the contour lines give you a mental three dimensional view of the terrain.  These lines provide shape and a sense of texture.  Contour lines provide a view of slope and pitch, depressions, ridge lines and level ground; the highs and lows of the earth’s surface.  There are two primary types of lines, index and intermediate lines.  Index lines stand out as they are a touch wider, a darker shade of brown and indicate the elevation with numbers such as 4500; the elevation is in feet.  Between the index lines are the thin intermediate line that are spaced uniformly and further define the elevation, slope and contour.  The distance intervals between the intermediate lines are specified at the bottom of the map adjacent to the scale data.
• North Features on a map such as trails, roads, mountain peaks and streams are all laid out in relation to true North; the North Pole.  The north-south borders of the map and the small declination diagram are your best references for true North.  Other grid lines (such as the red Township, Section and Range lines) may not be aligned to true north at all.  Be careful of these lines should you need to triangulate your position on a map.

• Declination This is the angular difference between true North and Magnetic North.  The red needle on your magnetic compass points to Magnetic North.  The accuracy of the information found in the Declination Diagram is dependent on the age of the map.  To get the latest declination for any area visit www.magnetic-declination.com.

This compass is adjusted for declination

Personally, I use a magnetic compass that can be adjusted for declination; it just makes navigation easier.  When adjusted, my compass provides bearing information in degrees true north as does my map and my adjusted GPS.

Coordinates Latitude and Longitude (Lat/Long) are the familiar coordinate system to most people.  Coordinate data is found at the top and bottom corners of each map.  Lat/Long coordinate increments are also found every 2’ (minutes) and 30” (seconds) on the sides of the Map.  A scaling device is necessary to pull complete coordinates off a map: (This is a pain!)

In the 1940s a coordinate system know as Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) was developed.  To keep a very long story short, your 7.5 minute map has a new grid laid over it, and the grid dimensions are 1000 meters by 1000 meters.  For more complete information on UTM grid visit the USGS’s web site UTM or Lathem’s GPS Made Easy (GPS Made Easy: Using Global Positioning Systems in the Outdoors).

Simplicity is the essence of UTM.  Scouts, hunters and hikers have joined Search and Rescue (SAR) teams around the country in using this system.

Your GPS receiver can easily be switched to UTM from the set-up menu.

• Bar ScalesNotice the bar scales at the bottom of the 7.5 minute map.  The scales provide measuring data in
  

  True north points to the top of the map; magnetic north is pointed to by the red magnetic needle.

  miles, feet and meters.   On the far left side of the meter scale, the scale is broken down into units of 100 meters, this applies directly to UTM.

Notice on the scale bar (feet) that 1 inch equals 2000 feet. This topographic map scale of 1:24,000 is your best source of information of the back country.  At this scale, the map has much more validity and provides more usable information for you backcountry planning.

• Map Datum Information about map datum is found in the lower left corner of a 7.5 minute map.  The simplest definition of datum from Garmin GPS:

“A math model which depicts a part of the surface of the earth. Latitude and longitude lines on a paper map are referenced to a specific map datum. The map datum selected on a GPS receiver needs to match the datum listed on the corresponding paper map in order for position readings to match.”

The bottom line: Most 7.5 minute maps are made to the North American datum of 1927 (NAD27 or NAD27 CONUS on your GPS).  New GPS receivers are set to datum WGS84.  The difference between the datum could be over 100 meters/yards.  The solution: When pulling points off a map shift your GPS’s datum to match the map.

If precision is not an issue for your outing don’t worry about datum.

As you begin your trip planning don’t forget the magnetic compass, the important partner to any topographic map.  See Selecting a Magnetic Compass for more information about buying a good compass.

Blake Miller

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  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 Global 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 through the Becoming an Outdoor Woman (B0W) program, to students in the local school district, and conservation groups.  He is a member of a Search and Rescue team, and a regular contributor to SurvivalCommonSense.com.

Contact Information:

Phone: 541 280 0573

Email: outdrquest@aol.com or mapcompassandgps@gmail.com

Web: www.outdoorquest.biz

For more of Blake Miller’s navigation-related tips and stories, click on the highlighted words:

• How to choose a magnetic compass.
• How to buy that first GPS.
• Help the searchers find you in the wilderness.
• Is the Bushnell Backtrack the right choice for you?
• Improve your GPS skills now.
• Simple survival tips for using a map and compass.
• Stay Safe Using your SPOT locator.
• Improve your GPS skills now.

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

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

By Leon Pantenburg

My son Dan, and I were visiting  the annual 2001 Fremont District Freezoree to help fulfill a Webelos requirement for Dan’s Arrow of Light. The badge is Cub Scouts’ highest award, but we were also checking out troops to see if Dan might want to continue on into Boy Scouts.

Everybody was friendly and cordial to the visiting Webelos, but there had not yet been a connection between Dan and a troop.

Central Oregon's winter is beautiful, and Boy Scouts get to experience that at the annual BSA Fremont District Freezoree.

We walked around and saw several scouts were building an igloo. One of the boys, Sean Mueller, disengaged from the activity and came out to where we were standing on the road. Sean welcomed us to Troop 18 and we shook hands.

“Want to help us build an igloo?” he asked my son. Dan’s eyes lit up, he joined the group, and was busy for the rest of the afternoon. He joined the troop a week later, as soon as he turned 11.

That was my first Freezoree, and I’ve been to every one since. There have been years of deep snow or no accumulation at all, blizzards and cold temperatures, and bright, sunny unseasonably warm days, that are characteristic of Central Oregon’s winter. Despite the weather’s vagaries, the gathering is my favorite scout outing. I’ve heard that same comment from other adult scout leaders, and from honorees at several Eagle Courts of Honor.

Last weekend, 189 participants from 17 troops and two Venture crews gathered at Three Creeks Snow Park south of

Troop 18's sled team practices for the big race.

Sisters for the annual Freezoree. The weekend events included troop games competitions, campfire cooking, snow shelter building and skills development. The climax of the activities was the sled race, where troops build racing sleds powered by teams of scouts.

And talk about a good time…Most of us enjoy the manly, macho aura that surrounds snow camping in the dead of winter, (“Dude, guess what I did last weekend?”) But we are quite comfortable in our tents or snow shelters and I, for one, have no intention of toughing anything out.

To remain active in Central Oregon, a troop requires ongoing training. Central Oregon is high desert, next to the Cascades Mountains. The area provides extremes of climate and temperature, ranging from arid desert, to rampaging rivers, to several-foot deep snow in the mountains.

Scoutmaster Phil Brummett shows the steelhead fillet he is preparing for dinner.

Winter camping success starts with trained adults and scouts, and area troops have similar programs. For example, the newest troop in the district, Troop 90, went on its first campout last weekend at Freezoree after only meeting three times. Troop 25’s Venture Crew also went on their first winter campout.  But the adult leaders were experienced, trained and prepared and all the kids did great!

Other troops such as 18, 21 and 23 out of Bend, have been winter camping for decades.

Area troops tend to have similar training activities. As soon as a new boy joins Troop 18, usually in January or February, one of his first tasks is to assemble his Ten Essentials.

In March, there is a desert outing, where new scouts learn how to use a map and compass

An igloo can be quite comfortable inside.

and navigate in areas without landmarks.

Later in the spring, there will be events that emphasize different aspects of wilderness skills training. These skills include first aid, making tarp and other survival shelters, fire building, outdoor safety and campfire cooking.

Winter training intensifies right after the Christmas holidays. In Troop 18, meetings are dedicated to winter camping fundamentals. Scouts learn how to dress and stay cozy, what gear to take along and how to make comfortable, warm shelters in the cold.

For some troops, the weekend before Freezoree is traditionally Winter Skills Day, a day-long session where hands-on skills, such as survival firemaking and hasty snow shelters are emphasized.

Members of newly-chartered Troop 90 went to their first campout at Freezoree.

Troop 18’s meeting before Freezoree is a mandatory pack inspection. Every scout brings in his gear, and it is examined to make sure the scout will be safe and warm.

No one is allowed to take shoddy or inadequate equipment, and individuals within the troop have lots of gear that can be loaned out. No scout or adult has ever been left behind on a Troop 18 outing because they didn’t have adequate gear.

So, by the time Freezoree comes around the scouts and parents are ready to go.

Paul Abbott, Fremont District scout executive, says Freezoree is just one of many outdoor events that contributes to a good, overall scouting program.

“Scouting is about outings and being comfortable in the great outdoors year-round,” Abbott said.“The scouts learn the outdoor skills, but they also learn other mental skills, such as team-building, getting along with others, and working together. Both aspects are important. The character building that comes out all of this makes a better-rounded individual.”

(Leon Pantenburg has been an assistant scoutmaster of Troop 18 for nearly 10 years. His two sons have finished scouting, but he stays involved for the fun of it!!!)

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

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

It was just supposed to be a quick, hour or so outing on cross-country skis. The day was beautiful; you got into the ground-covering groove and ended up going a lot further than planned. Didn’t pay much attention to the clouds coming over the mountains… Then, without much warning at all,  Mother Nature shows her other side and  turns vicious and deadly.

by Leon Pantenburg

STOP, then look around to find an area out of the wind. The area on the right is probably the most sheltered.

The sky darkens, the wind starts to blow, and there’s that awful, sinking feeling that, somehow, you have really screwed up. The wind increases, blowing snow sideways and viability drops to nothing. You must do something immediately, because it will be only a few minutes before the full force of the storm hits.

You start to panic. Maybe the best plan is to turn and ski as fast as possible back toward your car….wherever that is…

Before you do anything: STOP (Stop, Think, Observe, Plan). Get off your feet, and calm down. Control the urge to act hastily. Accept the reality of the situation: you can’t possibly outrun the storm. You must make a shelter, quickly.

Here’s how to make a quick snow trench shelter with a tarp. You will need a tarp or quilted Space Blanket with corner grommets, Texsport Blue Reinforced Rip-Stop Polyethylene Tarps, a small snow shovel, Black Diamond Deploy 7 Shovel
an insulated backpacking sleeping pad,Stansport Pack-Lite Camping Pad, bright flagging Flagging Tape 1-3/16″ wide, Solid Colors, 14 to choose from and a signal whistle. Fox 40 Micro 2 pack
(All these items are essential if you are recreating in snowy back country.)  If you work effectively, it should take about five minutes to make a trench shelter that can save your life.

Here’s what to do when you’ve calmed down and can focus on the task at hand:

• Look around and decide where the wind is coming from. Find a snow drift, tree, thicket, terrain feature etc. to get out of the wind. You want to be on the lee (downwind) side of any windbreak where the least wind is.You’ll be able tell where that is by the depression, or the snowdrift in front of it.
  

  If the snow is compacted, you may be able to cut blocks, speeding up the excavation.

• Dig a trench, about waist deep, two-to-three feet wide, and six feet long. The entrance should be on the downwind side so the wind doesn’t blow directly into the shelter.

• Stretch out the tarp on top of the skis and poles, and then shovel snow on all the edges to keep the covering from blowing off.
• Tie long streamers of flagging to trees around the shelter so it is easily visible.
• Get inside the trench, and hold your whistle in your hand.

Rescuers may be on snowmobiles, and may have difficulty hearing shouting over the wind, engine noise, two-way radio headsets and helmet liners. So, as soon as you hear engines, start blowing on your whistle, and keep blowing. The universal signal for distress is three spaced whistles. If you left a detailed note before you took off on the trip, your survival emergency should be over soon.

(To learn how to make a quick emergency tree well shelter in deep snow, click here.)

Recommended Reading:
Surviving a Wilderness Emergency
98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive
Camping’s Forgotten Skills: Backwood Tips from a Boundary Waters Guide

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com