Survival Extras

8/8/2019 Survival Extras

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Chapter 1

Survival: The Last Laugh

Chapter 1 The Beginning

By Ron Hood, Ed.D. (ABD)

Introduction | 1 Beginning |2 Innovation | 3 Woods Master| 4 Exposure

Before we jump into this survival thing, it seems wise to make a few suggestions about rescue. As

basic as the following suggestions may seem, they could make the remainder of this book

unnecessary. The goal of a trained survivalist is simple:

Always try to avoid placing yourself in a survival situation.

If you think you cant avoid a survival situation because "Things like that seem to happen to me," thenthe next best thing would be to ensure that you are rescued with all possible speed.

To Help Assure Your Rescue

1) Tell someone reliable where you are going. Give them a note explaining what route you plan to take

and what equipment you are carrying. Before you leave. If you fail to return on time, and your vehicle

is still where it is supposed to be (leave the vehicle description, License number, etc. with your friend),

the authorities may search for you. Your friend should be given the information needed to report your

absence should you fail to return. It should include the phone numbers of the authorities in the area

you plan to travel to. With this information the ponderous wheels of bureaucracy might begin to turn a

little sooner.

Keep in mind that the authorities have had many unnecessary experiences with foolish and thoughtless

packers. It is up to you to survive until they arrive.

2) Tell your friend when to expect you back.

3) Call that person when you return.

4) If you are delayed, try to send word to that person or to the authorities.

5) While on your journey, avoid changing your plans without leaving or sending word about the plan

changes.

6) Never go alone (Unless you are prepared to suffer the consequences). Always travel with a

companion.

7) Never leave a message on the outside of your automobile if it is parked at the trail road head.

Thieves may make use of the information in your note and strip your machine to its bones. If you

leave a note, leave it inside the vehicle where it can be found by the authorities should they open it.

As you travel into the woods, stop and look back frequently. This will familiarize you with the

terrain behind you and it will be easier for you to recognize the proper path when you return. This rule

applies when you are driving into the woods as well. Forested dirt roads have a way of becoming very

familiar after awhile, even if you havent seen them before.
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Learn to recognize your own tracks,foot and vehicle, as a clue to your previous travels. Learn to use a

walking stick to mark your trail. Marks left by a walking stick are very distinctive.

9) Read the rest of this book so you will know what to do if you have an emergency survival situation.

You didnt follow The Rule

"You didnt follow The Rule," I thought. I sat there on a rock, staring in morbid fascination as I

watched the ants feast on the maggots in his eye sockets. Suddenly the wind shifted in my direction, so

I moved to a position farther away and out of the odor.

I was in the mountains of northern Turkey with a small group of Turkish Askari practicing survival

and pathfinding skills. It was early spring and the snows had just begun to melt from the canyons in

this part of Anatolia. Earlier in the day we had found the remnants of a hunters camp, but no hunter.

We found some tattered clothes, a torn leather knapsack, a small case of 8 mm cartridges, a canvas

shelter, cooking pots and other gear. When we found the camp, we knew that there had been an

accident. When we found the hunter, we learned the rest of the story.

He had walked away from his camp months earlier. His journey had taken him farther from camp than

he expected to go. It must have been getting late when he turned back towards his camp. A storm was

moving in. He struggled against the weather, using every bit of his energy. Finally, spent, he lay downbehind this boulder. The storm took him. The Rule he didnt follow? Perhaps he didnt even know the

Rule of Threes.

The Rule of Threes

The Rule of Threes is an uncomplicated way to remember the basic priorities of the human organism,

and it is a good starting point for an exploration of survival priorities. The Rule of Threes looks like

this:

A person can live for:Three minutes without air.

Three hours without shelter.

Three days without water.

Three weeks without food.

Three months without love.

Lets take a quick look at these priorities and try to understand the them a bit better.

Air

If you cant breathe, make it so you can. If you cant make it so, die. End of story.

Shelter

I frequently ask new survival students the question, "If you were lost in a blizzard without your gear

what would you do?" The answer I hear most (and which confounds me), sounds something like this.

"Build a fire and search for wild food." I can see it now: lost in a howling blizzard, the wind whipping

the trees to rubble, frost forming on even the memories of warmth, while our hopeful survivor tunnels

through snowdrifts in search of "wild edibles." I wonder if my Turkish friend was thinking of food

when he laid down beside that boulder. Without proper shelter, he probably died within three hours.

It seems obvious our survivor must react immediately to the threat posed by the cold blowing storm.Only hours of life remain if the basic shelter needs are not met. Miserable and hungry, cold and

scared, but alive if the shelter is properly constructed.

The wind dies, the snow moves from its horizontal path to one more nearly vertical and then stops

altogether. The trees shiver as great blobs of storm-driven snow loosen and fall to earth. A patch of
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blue as the clouds part. Then the first muted mutterings of the forest are heard as signs of life begin to

return. The hunched form of the rule-following survivor shoves aside parts of the hastily erecteddebris-shelter and he sets forth in quest of the next priority. Water.

Water

Like the sailor lost at sea with "water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink," our survivor first

gobbles a handful of snow to help fill the rapidly developing vacancy in the hungry center. Oops. That

wont do, either. It takes energy to turn snow into water. Snow may be only about 20% -30% water by

volume yet it takes lots of energy to convert the cold snow into warm water. Where is the energygoing to come from? No food to eat, and none in the stomach. There will be no power from the fat

battery for some time. (It takes many hours to start receiving energy from our fat reserves. We need to

stay alive until those reserves are available to us.) Our friend is still powered by the energy stored in

the bones and blood. Water will be necessary to assist the energy extraction processes the body uses

when converting fat into energy. Lack of water, the third priority, can stop us from utilizing even our

own reserves. With dehydration we discover another interesting relationship between water and our

chances for survival.

For each five percent our body dehydrates (by weight i.e. a 100 pound body weight reduced to 95

pounds by dehydration), we lose approximately 25% of our ability to do work. Some authorities claim

an even a greater loss of power.

Remember, this is in addition to the loss of ability to do work caused by insufficient energy. The ratioof work energy lost versus the percentage of dehydration remains relatively constant until the victim is

literally unable to continue to function. The percentages look something like this.

Percentage of Dehydration and Ability to do Work:

% of dehydration = % of work possible

0% = 100%

5% = 75%

10% = 50%

15% = 25%

20% = 0%

(possible death)

Water is the third priority whether you find yourself at the ocean or in a snow storm. I ought tomention at this point that woodsmen and hunters sometimes find themselves uncomfortable and a little

under the weather a day or two after the beginning of a trip. Often this is the result of dehydration.

Though they are drinking much more water than they normally do, they still do not consume enough

to compensate for the increased effort they are putting into their days. Drink lots of water, with a little

salt in the food to stave off those agonizing midnight muscle cramps. Just a happy thought here. Drink

or die.

How do we know if we are drinking enough water? One way to tell is to measure the water we expel.

Every 24 hours a properly hydrated human can be expected to release about a quart of water as urine.

Thats it. Measure your urinary output. "Whoa there Lone Ranger! Pee in a cup!???" Not quite, but

close. Heres the trick. Most of us have a (delicate pause here) delivery rate for our urine. Some folkschip porcelain, others drizzle, but the rate remains constant.

Drizzle or drill into a cup while you count. When the delivery stops, check the quantity. You should be

able to calculate the number of counts needed for you to get your delivery totals up to spec. There I

said it. If you ever hear someone counting in the bathroom, chances are they know me. Recently, in


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fact, a fellow wanderer, Rob Chatburn (Director, Respiratory Care University Hospitals of Cleveland)

sent me this little jewel

"Ron the data are from a 150 lb, male caucasion of average build. Also, since the regression

equation in my case had a y-intercept of -1 oz, I would simply ignore it and estimate that 1 quart was

about 32oz/0.5 = 64 seconds worth of pee."

"I found it hard to believe that flow would remain constant, given various bladder volumes (and hence

driving pressures). So I did a short experiment. I collected 4 urine samples and performed a regression

on the count for each. Unbelievably, the urine output in ounces was a perfect linear function of thecount. This means that your statement was correct, at least for this experiment, and the flow remained

constant despite changes in volume. Amazing! For your entertainment, I have attached a JPG file of

the regression plot."

"Ive been doing scientific research for almost 20 years, and rarely have I seen biological data with so

little variability (in this case, none!). It may be just a coincidence, but amazing none the less. Now that

I have thought about it awhile, it seems reasonable that urine flow would be constant. The pressure in

the bladder must be mainly a result of the weight of the abdominal contents, not the volume of urinestretching the bladder wall. Thus, as the bladder empties, the pressure remains constant. Because the

resistance of the urethra remains fairly constant, flow remains constant due to the relation: flow =

pressure/resistance."

Nuff said!

Food

Food. Those four letters draw pictures in more imaginations than most four letter combinations. How

important is it? If you dont eat your habitual meals, how do you feel? Not too energetic, eh? A little

impatient, a bit short tempered with a funny thrumming in the old gut? The important thing toremember is that the sensation you feel in the pit of the old grub grinder is not a sign that the body is

low on power. It is only telling you that your belly tank is running on empty. It isnt telling you that

for every extra pound of fat on your body (Thank you, Big Mac!) you have nearly 4000 Calories of

energy available. 4000 Calories can do a lot of work. Is that energy available to do work now? Well

Theres the catch, it isnt. In fact the reserve fat calories probably wont be ready to give themselves

up for 18 to 24 hours from the time of your last meal. In a way, thats a comforting thought. You

really only have to survive for 18-24 hours on an empty stomach, and then youll find things are

getting a little easier, energy wise.

Hunger can cause enough discomfort during survival emergencies that you might make somedecisions that will hasten your movement into the next incarnation. Baby bush-munchers sometimes

forget the Rule of Threes when the low food light goes on. A suggestion To get used to the feeling

of an empty stomach,fast(dont eat) for 24 hours once a month. At the very least do a 24 hour fast

every three months. Once youve completed a 24 hour fast, go for 48! Yeah, Team!


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If you fast, drink water. Lots of water. It helps in lots of ways. Remember your count! 1 2 3

The Body Battery

As you know, when you eat food, a number of events occur. Mysterious processes begin, chemicals

are released, muscles convulse, and energy is somehow extracted from whatever it was you chose to

shove down your throat. Later, energy removed, the material re-emerges to become part of a different

energy process. The important part to us? The energy is extracted and made available so you can use it

to do work or simply to store for work to be done at a later time.

Some of the energy we store is converted to fat (a part of the invasion of the inanimate muscle many

of us see developing just under our skin). Another part is stored in another way. Remember, as you eat

you start to feel a little surge of energy? This preliminary surge is the immediate benefit of eating.

Later, when you push the plate away, release some foul gas, and drift off, you know you will be able

to move about for hours on the food just consumed. If you go without eating for hours or days, the

contents of your stomach have been broken up into so many components, you continue to move and

work. Where is that energy coming from?

You already know that it will be some time before the fat power rolls around. The belly battery is

empty, yet still we move. There must be another way to store power in the body. Aha! You got it.

There is. Energy is stored in the blood, in the bones, and in the organs. Wherever there is a bit oftissue, we have the ability to store power in the form of a large branched polymer of glucose called

glycogen. Each individual cell has the capacity to store at least a little of this material. Most of us store

a surprising amount of power in our bodies. This is the power that keeps us going when we find

ourselves benighted in the wilderness. This is the stuff that puts pop in the poop. This is the stuff we

can replenish from the fat if we are given the time to get the process into operation. The time

Theres that word again. All we ever need is time. Again, for a person in a survival situation without

food, it will be 18 to 24 hours before some fat power jumps to the rescue. The power stored in the

blood must keep us alive for that 18 to 24 hours, then we stand a much better chance of working our

way out of the situation.

Its important to understand that most people caught in a survival situation will be rescued or find their

way out if they survive the first 24-48 hours of the emergency. The body reserves must be carefully

guarded until the cavalry of fat can come charging to the rescue. We must do what is necessary to

satisfy the first survival priorities of air, shelter, and water until we get a handle on the fat reserves.

After that there are many simple and wondrous things that can be done to assure continued survival for

prolonged periods.

The Other Priority, Love

Weve talked about all of the most important priorities with the exception of the mind crippler. Love.

I suppose one might say that there are many kinds of love. Spiritual, emotional, physical and mixes

and matches of those. For the survivor, the word is tied to the word hope. It has been noted that many

excellent survivors who find themselves trying to make it on the land, alone, can do so with a great

degree of success for a couple of months. Then about three months down the line comes a sort of

crisis. They feel the loneliness, the homesickness, the tension, and sometimes give up hope. When this

happens there is a definite, if invisible, threat to survival. Those who manage to rally, to drag

themselves through the barrier, will feel a new energy and a renewed purpose.

Sometimes the personal crisis never occurs, the individual may become a hermit and live life as a part

of the natural order. Sometimes the crisis is immediate and as deadly as any of the other crisis waiting

to suck the energy from the hopeless victim. This is the time when faith and love of the self becomesmost important. Concepts like self-reliance, self-confidence, and self-sufficiency help to fill the void

of loneliness. Hang in there.

Working Out the Priorities


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The struggle to set priorities can be simplified if we try to define the problem first. We must ask

ourselves some questions. What forces of nature are acting against us? What forces are waiting to be

summoned? What artifacts do we have available immediately? By asking these types of questions and

giving answers, even unsatisfactory answers like "I dont know," weve taken a big step toward

survival. We are thinking, and it all starts with The Rule.

The Turkish hunter didnt follow The Rule, so I took his rifle and his knife. An Askari took his skull.

"An ashtray," he told me.

Ron Hood

Chapter 2


Chapter 2 Something New Innovation


Introduction | 1 Beginning| 2 Innovation | 3 Woods Master| 4 Exposure

The First Step

The first step in a survival situation, the very first step, is to use the most powerful survival tool

available to us. The mind. When we stop and think, if even for a moment, we have begun to program

ourselves for success. By giving in to mindless activity, we hasten the end. Luck may intervene, but

its chancy. If youstop to think, panic, fear, and all of those counter productive irrational states can beheld at bay. If you dig into your mind, grit your teeth, and shout, "Im gonna make it!" you will.

Some people have suggested various methods for achieving emotional peace and intellectual and

spiritual clarity. Meditation, prayer, exercise, primal screams, and even well taking a dump. It has

been my experience that fear mitigates focus and enhances the need to dump.

No bathroom? Thats OK.The act, right out there in the midst of all that stress, will seem oddly

humorous. Humor will assist your attempts to relax the icy fingers of fear that are sure to grip your

spirit. You may find prayer and/or meditation a bit easier to utilize while you perform your

enlightening. The main point should be clear. The very first act you should undertake is to think. Use

the Rule of Threes to assist you with your priorities and to help direct your thoughts. When you beginto focus your mind muscles on your predicament your chances for success skyrocket.

Some Thoughts for Thought

While you are thinking about the situation, you may actually be threatened by inactivity. In so many

words, if you discover that one of the Rules of Three is already affecting your thoughts, youd better

be doing your heavy thinking a little later. Im certain that you can imagine some conditions when it

would be foolish to sit on a log, chin in hand, just thinking a cold wet wind blowing you get the

idea.

When you do think, what sort of ideas should you toy with? Im certain youll have many thoughts

that will serve no good survival purpose, i.e. The date you will be missing that night who might

come to your funeral after they discover your body the strange and malevolent animals lurking in

the dark. You will be full of useless and possibly undermining memories, thoughts, and ideas. Try to

stop yourself when you feel them coming and refocus your thoughts on the problems at hand.
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Of course, all of this assumes that you are alone. Companionship is no guarantee that the same

thoughts and feelings will avoid you. Indeed, it is possible that you will need to deal with the fears of a

companion(s), as well as your own. Individual idiosyncrasies, being what they are, offer no tried-and-

true formula for response to a threat other than this: the the person with the most survival knowledge

and skills often becomes the leader. Good luck!

A Few Suggestions

There you sit, benighted. Take the time to get a good look at yourself. Examine closely the clothing

that you are wearing. The clothing can serve as a focus for your thoughts. For instance, if thetemperatures are high, you might be better off loosening some of the garments in order to use them as

insulation from the hot atmosphere or sun. If the air temperatures are low, there are steps you can take

to increase the insulating value of your clothes. There will be more about this later.

Do you have a belt? If so you might be able to use it as part of a tool. Can you start a fire? People have

been found dead of exposure in forests full of dry tinder and fuel with matches in their pockets!

Examine the contents of your pockets. Loosen your boots if they feel tight, tighten them if they feel

too loose. House keeping chores of that sort will give your productive subconscience a chance to do

its job.

Is signaling practical? Some years ago, so the story goes, a hiker in Southern California got lost in thedry foothills near Los Angeles. Not wanting to waste any time he decided to build a small signal fire.

His body was later found in the center of a brush fire caused by his signal fire. Think!

The walk to survival begins with these steps:

Think a little. React. Think a lot. Act. Sleep.

Sleep? Of course! You dont feel well if you dont sleep under normal conditions. You need to rest

even more during a survival emergency. Provided, of course, that your last "act" will allow you the

time. Make the time.

Innovation, A New Idea

Just a few words about an idea. Not my idea,youridea. It tickles me when I see the expression of

pleasure on the face of students of mine after they have made something, to do something, from

something, that does something else. Is that clear? What Im trying to say is that one of the most

useful and rewarding skills a survivalist can learn is the ability to make things from other things. Takea belt for instance; it can be sliced (with some effort and a little jig to hold the leather) into long thin

strips. These can, in turn, be double twisted (more about that later) into rope. Once the rope is

available, all manner of permutations are possible. You can make a sling to take small game, a cord

for a fire bow to make fire, a bow string, etc. And if things are really hopeless, you can hang yourself!

Other parts of the belt may be useful. The buckle may work to remove tops from soda or beer bottles.

The sharpened buckle post may work as an awl for drilling leather. It may even be possible to break

the buckle into parts for fishing gear. The buckle can be used as a trigger mechanism for traps and

crossbows, or See what I mean? Take a good look at what you are wearing and start practicing

innovation.

What uses can you put your shoe laces to? List them and try. Next time you load your backpack, take

a close look at the items you plan to carry into the wilderness. How can each item be used in a

different manner so that perhaps some other item can be left behind? The weight you save can be

carried in another more interesting form, or maybe you can just cut your pack weight. A lighter pack

may allow you to lift your head to see the wilderness through eyes unclouded with fatigue.


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Take a close look at the pack itself. You can empty the pack bag and use it to cover some portion of

your body should the need ever arise. Sleep in your pack? Sure, why not? Mice do it.

Look at the frame of the pack, a heavy rock can crush the tubing flat. My God! Why would you do a

thing like that? Its sacrilege! Consider this: if conventions and conservatism stop your innovations,

you may seriously hinder your chances at a long full life.

Back to that frame tubing. I know a fellow who lost his pack into a mountain torrent. The pack was

washed downstream through rapids and finally over a rather evil waterfall. It was seriously modified

by its encounter with the rocks at the bottom. The contents of the pack and the pack bag werescattered and lost, but somehow the battered frame, still attached to the sleeping bag, floated to shore.

Hours later, my friend retrieved the now modified frame and soggy sleeping bag. He decided that his

journey into the woods was over. Three days from the road head, no matches, night coming, and his

food feeding fish at the bottom of the torrent. He had a problem. What to-do?

First step, think. He did. He took the frame, which by that time looked like metallic spaghetti, and

smashed a part of it flat. He worried that part free, converted his shoe laces into a short rope, cut a few

pieces of the appropriate kinds of wood, punched a dimple into the aluminum with a rock, and presto!

A fire bow set. He used the aluminum as a bearing surface for the fire drill, the shoe laces as a cord for

the bow, made fire, and started his survival odyssey. Because of his innovations and his skills, he

managed to turn a possible disaster into a fine adventure. A story, incidentally, he loves to tell againand again and again I sometimes wish that he had a second story to tell, just for variety.

It is clear that there may have been other things he couldve done and perhaps come away with a little

more story. The significant part remains, he survived. And he did it through innovation and

imagination. Now maybe if he had taken the aluminum of his pack, combined it with the nylon from

his sleeping bag, made a hang glider, and Innovation has its practical limit. Remember, too, that

there are always those could ofs andshould ofs. They are easy to imagine after the fact.

Incidentally, could ofs and should ofs are fine. They demonstrate the exercise of the innovative

process. Usually they represent alternative answers to a problem. As I have said before, you are trying

to develop a solution to your situation. If you survive, you succeeded. Anything else is only a matter

of degree, of class, or of comfort.

Remember, too, a rule called Occams Razor. Basically Occams Razor states, "The simplest effective

solution is the best solution." Effective and simple keywords for innovation.

Later, when we begin to explore survival kits, youll see some of the many ways things can be

modified. There will be few hard-and-fast rules. The contents suggested for survival kits can be

changed to suit your personal needs. The kits will give you a handle on survival that can help carry

you through your situation. Funny thing though, after weve decided just what items are useful in your

survival kit, well see how similar items can be made, and functions performed, by materials found innature.

Incidentally, if the suggestion of an alternate use for some item didnt occur to you, relax. Many ideas

are so obvious that they are difficult to recognize at first. Anything that has already been done resides

in the vast unconscious. By opening yourself to innovation, these concepts will leakinto you and you

will have an idea. Survival originality is self-enhancing. Once you try innovation, youll probably start

using it.

Occasionally, I hear someone mumble phrases like, "I cant do things like that." or, "I cant do that

kind of thinking." "Cant" is bad news, and a bad word. "Cant" must be dropped from your

vocabulary. "Cant" implies external control. Self-control and choices are what a competent survivalistis looking for. "Didnt" or "wont" seem to be a closer description of the kind of concept you need to

exercise when you begin to feel powerless. While these words are still negative they carry with them

the germ of control we need. "I cant do that kind of thinking" becomes "I wont do that kind of

thinking." Then you can ask yourself, "Why not?" Why not indeed!


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Everyone can innovate, but many dont. You have to start trying. Start by opening bottles with

something other than a bottle opener. Try eating with something other than a knife, spoon, and fork.

Try chopsticks, sucking, slurping, and picking with your fingers. Try walking on your knees to change

your horizon or to pretend that your leg is broken. Make an effort to modify the use of things you

normally use. Innovate, modify, originate.

Practicing Innovation

Ive been pushing the idea of innovation. Maybe youve already been innovating. Perhaps you can

make strange and wondrous things out of dirt, rocks, and bats eyes. Good for you. Then again, at leastfor the moment, maybe you cant. You may not know how to get started.

The starting point, or a starting point, might be to decide what items you need to assist your survival.

One way to start that process is to think about the most elementary actions you will be required to

perform. Once you have chosen some basic actions, you can look about you for ways to do these

things. Look at the following six jobs and try to think of a way to do these things with the items you

have with you right now.

Six things that need doing:

Cutting Crushing Lifting Poking Holding Throwing

Lets try the first one, cutting, and play with it for just a moment. Lets also assume that you dont

have a knife with you.

Suppose you have a metal belt buckle. You should be able to grind it flat along one side to give you a

knife edge. The grinding can be done with a smooth stream stone. You may also be able to take thestone itself and hit it with another stone to create a sharp flake suitable for cutting. Is there a piece of

trash nearby, perhaps a tin can? The lid is quite sharp. (Im certain that you have personal experience

with that fact!) If it can cut your finger, it can skin a small animal or cut apart edible plants. Do your

boots have an accessible and removable steel shank like the one found in Vietnam jungle boots? To

find out, peel back the inner lining on the bottom of the boot (Dont do this to expensive boots!). On a

jungle boot the shank is visible as a dark plate of steel about 1 inch by four inches and easily

removable with the fingers.

If you go into the wilderness frequently, youve probably noticed the carcasses of dead animals.

Mostly these gross manifestations of once living things are to be avoided. For the survivalist, however,

the bones are a treasure throve of smelly delight. They can be removed, scored, split with a stone, and

ground to sharp edges for knives and arrowheads. Things like the hooves and skin can be converted to

glue through repetitive boiling. Rotten, leathery skin can be treated to make a sort of stinky but

serviceable leather, good for tools, shoes, and cordage. Even if your situation is short term, knowing

that you know howto do these things will contribute to your self-confidence and sense of well being.

By now, youve got the idea. Work with the words I listed first. Make a catalogue of the possible uses

for items that might be able to do the jobs listed and dont hesitate to get a little far fetched. In a real

survival situation youll likely avoid doing involved tasks, but the practice will help you to find easier

ways to do simple jobs. After you are familiar with the strategy, try figuring out a few jobs you know

need doing and follow the same patterns with them. If you can think of a job, it is usually possible todo it eventually.

Remember, too, that though some of your tasks can be done using the more or less conventional

primitive technology, they may be impossible for you until you have the necessary skills. That rock I

mentioned earlier, for instance. The primitive peoples were able to make excellent stone tools from

rocks found here and there. They also had as many hours doing it as you have had reading or watching


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TV. They could recognize the best types and textures of stones suitable for cutting chores. They knew

how to hit the material just right. They were able to manufacture the length, thickness and shape they

needed. Of course, you should still try making stone cutting tools. You will learn what they learned. In

the meantime, you can cut a material with stone by smashing it into its component molecules until it

can be pulled apart. This act is called crushing. You can crush hard, as in sundering, or you can crush

softly to crack nuts. Think.

Sex and Survival

Theres that word again. Only this really isnt about sex. Its about the sexes. Somehow veryincorrectly the word got out that survival experiences are too rugged for most women. I know that

some women readers will bristle with incipient indignation. Dont. I will attempt to explain.

Survival skills are not limited to the male. It seems obvious that it took two sexes to make the species

work. There remains the image of some hairy brute, club in hand, heading out into the primordial

jungle to do battle with some loathsome creature. Meanwhile, his woman sits home grinding flour in a

stone bowl held firmly by grimy thighs. Lets stop right there. Who is keeping the family alive? It

should be clear that it takes both of them, with a careful and appropriate distribution of labor, to stay

alive.

The man may see himself as the hunter. So be it. Who gathers the firewood and the edible plants?Who makes pots and starts fires? Who makes shelters and sets small traps? Who brings water back to

camp and cleans skins? The answer is as simple as the system. They both do. About the only truly

exclusive jobs are related to procreation. Women make babies, men make it possible for them to do so.

Of course, there are certain jobs that seem to be easier for the male to do. Whatever programming is

responsible for this is most probably there as the result of structural differences. As a rule, men can lift

greater weights. They have an inclination to do the heavy manual labor type chores. Women generally

enjoy allowing them the option to do this sort of heavy, sweaty work. It is true, too, that Ive seen

many women happily assume the heavy chores and as happily discard them once they have help with

the work. Countless times Ive seen guys performing mildly incredible feats. Lifting trees, crushing

boulders, and biting bears on the bottom. It fascinates me because so many of these Herculean feats

are unnecessary. The lifted tree can stay and become a seat. The boulders might metamorphose into

fireplaces and the bears are best left alone. Women and men are instinctive survival companions as

soon as they know that they can do it together. A lot of guys and gals already know this.

One day, during a three day survival experience with some University students, I came upon a male

student breaking wood into arm sized pieces. Sweat stood out on his back as he labored to produce his

load. Finally, he looked up in triumph, gathered his wood, and led me uphill to his camp. He and

another fellow were sharing the camp with two women and both of the guys had decided to gather

wood. When we arrived, he tossed down his burden, sat on a rock, and tried to catch his breath. I

looked around and saw no one else. He seemed disappointed that neither of the ladies was present towitness his feat. Just then I heard a crash up the hill from the camp. We both looked up just in time to

see half of a dead tree slowly thump its way down the hill toward camp. It stopped ten feet from us. As

I looked at half a thousand pounds of broken wood. I heard the euphonious tones of the male slaves

camp mate. She had gone up the hill to kickdown the wood. She never broke a sweat. Think!

One other thought related to this sex thing. Women, as a rule, can survive lower temperatures than

men. The difference is probably related to the physiology required for child bearing. According to

studies, the womans body will begin to react to reduced temperatures sooner than a mans. This

reaction begins as a constriction of the blood vessels in the surface of the body and is perceived by the

woman as cold. The constriction reduces heat loss and in this manner saves the energy to be released

to the body core later. The energy saving reaction is a defense presumed to assist the survival of the, asyet unborn, fetus. It is not necessary for the woman to be pregnant to achieve this heat loss protection.

It is a part of the physiological programming.

Of course, there are many variables such as conditioning, fat accretions, energy reserves, etc. that can

effect this presumed advantage. There is also a minor drawback. When blood flow to the skin is


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reduced to stop heat loss, the skin cools. Next, the brain receives signals from the cooling skin telling

it that things are cold. The brain makes this information available to the conscious mind and the

woman feels cold even though a man in the same conditions might not even sense the temperature

drop. She will continue to feel cold while males around her remain warm and feel warm to her. Later,

when their warmth is gone and they are dead, she will still feel cold.

Most often, survival emergencies can be met with skill and technique long before the final, fatal

calorie is withdrawn from the body. In the mean time, the ladies tend to feel colder than the guys.

A Sum Thing

Looking back on what weve discussed, you can see that, from my point of view, the most important

thing you need to do in a survival situation is to think about what you are doing. You need some things

to think about so that the thoughts will be more than just the idle chatter of your memories. You have

to start considering the idea of survival not as something you study, but as something you do. If you

do that, you become a survivalist and a survivor. If you ever become a participant in a survival

emergency, you will probably notice a comforting and, at the same time, disconcerting phenomenon.

The intensity of your participation in the emergency will increase to give you the concentration and

strength to do whatever is necessary. After the first night or two, you might even enjoy it.

Chapter 3


Chapter 3 The Woods Master


Introduction | 1 Beginning|2 Innovation | 3 Woods Master | 4 Exposure

Hes sitting in his office, suit coat on a hanger, tie loose, talking on the phone.

"Ill be back in about five days. Ill fax you a list of where I think Ill be going and some of the

alternate routes. If I change my plans before I leave, Ill call you. The numbers for the Forest Service

will be on the fax Thanks, buddy No, Im going alone this time. I need some time to think Sure,Ill leave the keys to my car in the magnet locker. You know where I hide it. OK, OK Ill be fine. Give

my love to the wife and kids OK. Bye"

Hes driving along a lonely mountain road, stops, gets out, and looks back down the road. He takes in

the view, then climbs back in and drives on.

The most important part of survival training is learning how notto need it. You cant just wait for an

emergency and then hope that your survival "instinct" will bring you through. Theres no such thing as

an uneducated instinct. Instincts are made of correct choices based on knowledge of potential threats.

The Boy Scouts had it right when they choseBe Preparedas a motto.

Some people think that preparing for an emergency is a gloomy process motivated by fear and

insecurity. Nothing could be further from the truth. Preparation is an enlightening process filled with

discovery and freedom. Preparation is when you know the mechanics of nature, when you see thegrand architecture of the skies and the land, and it is when you learn to respect this architecture.

Learning wilderness survival skills is much like learning the meaning of stop lights in the city. The

skills tell you when to stop and when to go, when you should turn and when you should continue on

your way.
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Off in the distance the man can see the glint of a car windshield almost hidden in the trees. He turns

away from the reflection and continues walking down a wooded trail. He stops, bends down, and picksup an old, rusty soup can. He puts it into his shoulder bag. A little further down the trail he spots a

piece of glass on the trail. Its a nice view here. He picks up the glass, walks to a small bolder by theside of the trail, sits down and begins to make a glass knife. He pulls a piece of leather and an old

horn from his shoulder bag and begins to press off pieces of glass. After a few minutes a crude but

recognizable cutting instrument is in his hands.

In ancient times, humans would search for natural materials from which to make their implements.

Today many discarded bits of human flotsam litter the wilderness. These bits can make fine tools forthe woodsman. Using them achieves two purposes. They provide tools and artifacts, and using them

helps to clean the wilderness. Glass can be used instead of flint and obsidian for cutting and for

hunting tools. Tin cans and old canvas can easily replace clay pots and boiling skins.

Finished with the glass, he puts it in his kit and he moves on.

The sun is starting to get lower in the sky. He lifts his hand to the edge of the sun, and counts the

number of hand spans to the western horizon, where the sun will set.

Ancient folks knew that they could estimate how much time was left in their day by simply counting

how many hand spans it is to the spot where the sun will set. Conveniently, the hand, extended at armslength, will bisect about 15 degrees of arc. Because there are 24 of these 15 degree segments in a

circle, that means that the sun will move approximately 1 hour for every hand span. Hell, in the

wilderness, thats about as good as it gets, or as good as you need it to get. Put yourself on a timetable

here and you may as well be back in the city. Still there are times when its nice to have some idea of

the passage of time.

As he walks he punches his walking stick into the ground occasionally. Periodically he stops to lookback. A bush catches his eye. He walks over to it, gathers some and suddenly with a quick motion,

snatches a lizard from a rock. The lizard wriggles in his hand, he strokes its belly and it stops

struggling and lies still. He brings it to his mouth, opens his lips just a bit to blow on the lizard, andthen releases it back to the wilderness.

Lots of folks come up here to get lost, at least it seems that way. They get caught up in the joy of

nature and forget that eventually they need to go home. When they turn around to go back, they dont

recognize the landscape, get panicky, and then they really become lost. One of the keys to not "getting

lost" is to learn what is behind you by looking back occasionally. Its also a good idea to use a

walking stick. The marks it makes in the trail are easily recognizable. If you cant follow your own

tracks, you should at least be able to follow your stick marks. Even light rains will leave behind the

small pits left by a stick. (Other benefits of walking sticks include the fact that they change you from a

relatively unstable biped to a much more stable tri-ped. They distribute the effort of walking to other

parts of your body, and they can be used for digging, investigating snaky places, pushing brush out ofthe way, and a myriad of other things. Learn to use a walking stick. Well discuss the selection of a

good walking stick later.)

Lizards are pretty good food. They taste like chicken. Actually everything tastes like chicken when

youre hungry. The problem is that most lizards are small and it takes a lot of them to make a

difference in your survival chances. Usually it takes more energy to catch them than they are worth. If

you decide that lizards are worth the effort, the best time to catch them is in the early morning when

the night chill makes them slow and the sun hasnt had a chance to warm them. I just like to feel their

bellies and wonder what they think of the giant carnivore thats holding them. (Theyre probably

pretty dim in the wondering department.)

He finds himself in a canyon at an open sandy area near a stream. Theres a nice tree nearby and

some rocks. He walks to the sandy spot, drives his walking stick into the ground, and checks to becertain that it is secure. He bends down in the sand. His finger traces the shadow in the sand. At its

tip he places a smaller stick, point down, into the sand, then moves away. By the rock he finds a pieceof wire. He removes his knife from its case on his belt and, using the knife, makes two small holes


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near the top of the can, on opposite sides. He threads the wire through the holes and using a small

stick as a tool, wraps the wire around itself to form a hook. The can will now hang from a stick. At thispoint he gets up and walks over to the stick. The shadow has moved and he marks the new location of

the shadow tip with another small stick. There is a distance between the two points marked by thesticks. He connects these points with a third, longer straight stick. He draws a line perpendicular to

this longer stick, in the sand. At the tip of the drawn line, farthest from the base of the walking stick,

he writes a big"N" This is north.He really doesnt care. It is important to stay oriented. On otheroccasions he has used the shadow cast by the tip of a tree, and that of a telephone pole, to identify

directions using this technique.

There are a number of methods one can use to tell directions from the sun. Things like moss on a tree,

the bending of the top of a tree, etc. are inconsistent and inaccurate. Sure there may be places where

these techniques seem to be accurate most of the time, but dont count on them. There are better and

more reliable ways the sun compass for one. Even the sun compass has its drawbacks, far north and

far south on this planet, the technique can force circling. There are other ways to tell directions up and

down there

He looks back up at the sun and decides that he has just enough time to find a shelter site. He looks

longingly at the place he just used for hisshadow tip direction finding technique. If he werebackpacking this would be a good site, water close at hand, wood and rocks nearby. He knows,

however, that capable backpackers, deprived of their equipment, have died because they selected thesame sorts of camping sites they did when they had all of their equipment for protection. Backpackingis gear oriented; the gear protects you from the wilderness and from your mistakes. Survival is

knowledge oriented; knowledge protects you from mistakes.

He begins to climb the side of the canyon. When he is higher than the canyon floor by the height of thehighest tree in the canyon, he goes a little higher and starts to search for a spot to make his shelter.

Cold air goes down, warm air rises. This basic information forms the basis of a number of survival

oriented decisions. At night, cold air settles into a valley. In a canyon, it settles to the bottom and then

moves down, following the drainage. The movement of air is called wind. If you were in the bottom of

a canyon you would be in the coldest air as well as in a wind caused by the movement of that cold air.

You would feel a wind chill.

Canyons are subject to an effect called the diurnal wind. That means that the wind moves down the

canyon at night and up the canyon during the day. Count on it. How much colder is the bottom of a

canyon? It varies, but we commonly measure an 8F to 10F degree difference between the bottom of a

canyon and a point 50 to 75 feet up the side of a canyon. Diurnal winds commonly move at about 4

mph giving about 5F to 7F of wind chill. This works out to a 13F to 17F degree difference between a

camp site in the bottom of a canyon and a shelter site up the side of a canyon!

As he searches for an adequate shelter site he notices that the sun is hitting some rocks nearby. At therocks he realizes that this part of the canyon is facing South. Good. The rocks are as large as small

cars and there is a pine tree struggling up through them. Captured between two large rocks, beneath

the tree, is a flat space covered by a thick layer of pine needles. This is home for tonight.

He sits on one of the rocks to enjoy the view and feel the heat of the last rays of the setting sun. He

knows that it will be cold tonight, but probably above freezing. At the bottom of the canyon it willfreeze tonight.

If you want to stay warm in the northern hemisphere, pick a site on a south facing slope. The sun will

have heated the ground and the rocks. The earth will give up this heat during the night creating a

micro climate. You have probably noticed micro climates before. You may have been riding amotorcycle or bicycle at night and noticed that the air is suddenly warmer or cooler than moments

before. The next time this happens, look at the ground over which you are traveling. If it got suddenly

warmer you are probably traveling over asphalt. The darker surface traps the daytime heat and releases

it at night. If it is cooler, it may be concrete you are over. Concrete wont hold as much heat and

therefore cannot give it up at night.


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Solar radiation also effects the character of the land it hits. Sunlight dries out the topsoil faster and

tends to influence the growth of different types of vegetation on the south facing slope. Less moisture

also leads to less complete control of erosion and therefore south facing slopes tend to have more

exposed rocks and less grass. Trees tend to produce thick blankets of insulation to protect their roots.

All of these effects are good for the survivalist.

He moves back from the rock to the thick mat of needles covering the ground below the tree. Carefully

he removes the sticks and pine cones that might make his sleep less comfortable. Moving as little aspossible of the material, he flattens the sleeping area and creates a depression about 1 1/2 inches

deep where his shoulders and hips will go. Then he lays down on his bed. It is comfortable gotta testthe bed. It is comfortable and warm, too

Heat passes from the body by five heat loss mechanisms:

Conduction, Convection, Radiation, Respiration and Perspiration (or wetness).

First, a Law: Heat passes from the warmer body to the colder body.

You are the warmer body. If you want to stop heat loss to the ground, conduction, use insulation

below you. Pine needles are good insulation. They are found under pine trees.

If the wind is blowing (or you are moving through the air), convection will occur. Move out of the

wind. Rocks and trees help block the wind. Moving up the side of a canyon out of the wind also helps.

Radiation is heat loss to space. Cover your head and neck. A hat and a scarf help a lot. A roof over

you head also helps a lot. The spread of a tree over you offers protection, too.

If your feet are cold, cover your head. The brain automatically cuts off blood flow to the extremities

when you lose heat. Reduce the heat loss and the surplus heat will be returned to the extremities. Your

socks are more valuable on your head and neck than they are on your feet. Just be certain to keep your

shoes on and have them laced very loosely.

Respiration: breathe in cold air, breathe out warm air. You are losing heat each time you breathe.

Dont do unnecessary exercise, because it will increase heat loss along with your increased respiration

rate. If you need to do exercises to warm up, do isometrics in place. They are much more efficient in

creating heat and they have a minimal effect on your respiration.

Perspiration Dont sweat. Dont work so hard that you will wet yourself with perspiration. Try to

stay dry. Water increases heat loss by a tremendous amount (but not as much as the 640 times claimed

in some manuals).

If you take steps to control these five heat loss mechanisms you have a good chance at survival. Underideal circumstances, you can do a lot to control the mechanisms. If conditions are rotten sometimes

there is very little you can do.

When you make your bed, try for comfort as well as efficiency. A few minutes making the bed just

right may pay off in hours of much needed and beneficial sleep.

He dozes and as he does he sees himself selecting his shelter Part way up from the valley floor, on asouth facing slope, in a micro climate formed by large rocks, beneath a pine tree and on top of a layer

of insulating pine needles.

Protected from the

Chapter 4



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Chapter 4 Exposure: The Cold Facts


Introduction | 1 Beginning|2 Innovation | 3 Woods Master| 4 Exposure

Well, it looks like its time to drag up a comfortable seat and settle down to some important but kindaboring technical survival facts. Up until now weve been concerned with those interesting weaknesses

of the human body and some of the devious skills needed to assist you in a generalized survival

situation. Now we get specific. After all, who wants to find themselves stuck on some cold and remote

mountain far from assistance equipped with nothing but a vivid imagination and a slowly freezing

body? I doubt that you are interested in having that sort of terminal adventure.

Since we now know that shelter is our second priority, right after air, it is particularly important that

we know what the consequences will be if we fail to build a shelter when we need it.

Exposure

Almost every week, during the colder months, an article will appear in a paper reporting some unlucky

camper or hiker who died of something called "exposure". That word "exposure" gets an awful lot of

play these days. "Hiker dies on Snerd Mt." "Man and wife found dead in storm." "Two climbers

missing and presumed dead." read the articles. Hidden in the text ...Exposure. Sometimes the papers

use even more lurid prose to describe the situation, "Man freezes to death". When I was a kid I used to

have visions of my body hardening slowly in the cold, usually from the feet up. I could see myself

dragging my half frozen body across jagged rocks and blocks of ice. Eventually a frozen foot would

break off at the ankle, or the knee would chip like a hunk of ice dropped on concrete Gaaaaaaa! I

resolved never to freeze to death. I want to die in my sleep, warm, a long time from now.

The fact of the matter is that "freezing to death" or exposure may not be all that uncomfortable a way

to go. Im not recommending that you crawl into a freezer to do away with yourself, if you re

suicidal. As an accidental death it beats being eaten by wild dogs or smothered by slimy things.

Besides that, theres a nice scientific name for the process which makes you dead. The name is

Hypothermia and Hypothermia is the number one killer of outdoor folk.

Something we ought to get clear before we get into the more clinical aspects of hypothermia, A person

does not normally freeze to death". I suppose it is possible if you leaped into a vat of liquid hydrogen,

but in nature it takes longer to die of the cold. You freeze after you are dead, a distinction that is

unimportant to the victim. Another point is that "exposure" can refer to death by heat or cold, and you

dont have to die to say that you suffered from exposure, or for that matter, from hypothermia.However If you want the headlines to say that you "froze to death" you have to go all the way.

Hypothermia

What is "hypothermia"? First some of the things it isnt. It isnt a fear of needles. It isnt "feeling

cold". It isnt that feeling you get when you play in the snow and your fingers are getting stiff. That

kind of cold is much more superficial and can be easily controlled by the body when you stop your

exposure. In fact it isnt even necessary for the temperatures to be at or below freezing for

hypothermia to take place. There have been many instances of hypothermic death that took place in

temperatures over 50 degrees f. What is necessary in order for Hypothermia to occur is that the body

be unable to maintain its operating temperature in the face of whatever heat loss process is inoperation. Hypothermia is heat loss at the body core, and it results from exposure to cold with the

addition of other heat loss mechanisms.

Typically we can say that four elements are present in each case of hypothermia, and without most of

those four elements it almost never happens.
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The four elements

The four elements leading to hypothermia are: Cold,Wind,Wetness and most important, a likely

victim. It should be obvious that many of us have been exposed to cold ,wind and wetness without

ever having experienced Hypothermia. Naturally this is because we were prepared for the conditions

we were exposed to which leads us to another representation of hypothermia as "The killer of the

unprepared".

One of the important goals of this chapter will be to give you the information you need to remove

yourself from the ranks of the "unprepared". This will be easier if you understand more about theclinical aspects of hypothermia as well as the simple and effective methods we can use to survive the

sometimes hostile forces of cold.

In order to be prepared we need to examine the four elements leading to hypothermia a bit more

closely.

Cold

The second law of thermodynamics states in effect: "Heat must pass from the warmer body to the

colder body." This simply means that when you expose yourself to the cold, you lose heat. The heat

you are losing is probably heat that was generated by your body. Your body has a maximum limit tothe amount of heat that it can produce, when the limit is reached, it can produce heat no faster. If heat

is taken away faster than it is produced, the body will begin to cool.

You are already familiar with some of the effects of cold on the human body. For instance you know

that as the body begins to lose heat faster than it is producing the heat it reacts by trying to reduce the

rate of heat loss. This reduction in heat loss is brought about by a restricting the circulation in the

surface of the skin. When this happens you begin to feel the cold. Later, with continued heat loss, the

body will show other symptoms. Blood flow to the extremities will be reduced, giving you a sort of

numbness and a reduction in coordination, strength and control, "Im so cold my fingers are stiff." is

an example of that closing down of blood to the muscles in the fingers. Continued exposure closes

down more systems, the blood temperature throughout the body is reduced and the brain is affected. It

is remarkable how sensitive the brain is to these temperature drops. A reduction of 20 Degrees f. at the

brain will kill you while a drop of over 50 degrees (from normal) in the hands and feet will cause

discomfort but no permanent damage.

Wind

Wind increases the cooling effect of cold or wetness. This occurs when the moving air encounters the

thin layer of warm air clinging to your body. The moving air strips away the warm insulating layer and

the body tries to generate another layer of warm air. As this new layer is removed the body transfers

more heat to warm more air etc. This effect is known as this wind chill effect. Wind chill accounts fora very high percentage of deaths due to hypothermia. It is easy to overlook this factor and to wander

unprepared for wind chill into what appears to be cold weather.

I mentioned that persons have died of hypothermia in temperatures around 50 degrees F. Part of the

reason can be wind chill, take for instance an air temperature of 50 degrees, add the mind chilling

effect of a 40 MPH wind and we have an effective temperature of 26 degrees. Many snow skiers have

felt this effect when they find that although the temperature outside is low, in the sun it feels

comfortable to the skin. Come the clouds, and a fast downhill run and the cold wind will put frost on

the soul.

Another point I want to make is that for the wind to assist the cooling it is only necessary for the air tobe moving relative to the warm body. The same wind chill effect applies when the body is moving

rapidly through the air. A motorcyclist for instance, moving at 40 MPH on a windless day will

experience the same chilling effect as a stationary person in a 40 MPH wind. Imagine if you will, what

would happen to a motorcyclist who is driving along, cold because of the wind chill, and finds stiff

fingers operating clutch and brake controls. Motorcyclists are frequent victims of hypothermia. They
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do not progress through the stages of hypothermia to actual death while astride their bikes, rather they

simply lose some of their awareness, the control of their machines and die of something else. like

compression during a collision.

If a person is adequately protected from the cooling effect of wind, there is a very much reduced

chance of hypothermia. This person is Prepared for wind.

Wetness

Wetness increases heat loss through evaporation. Think about the body for a moment. You alreadyknow what happens when you get very hot. You perspire. Your body doesnt do that simply because it

likes to discharge water and increase your odor. Sweating is an adaptive process that enhances

cooling. You know how good it feels to stand in front of a fan, or in the wind, on hot days, Cool right?

Water increases the cooling effect of wind and vice versa, This water can come from any source, It

may be the result of rain, immersion, perspiration, or from any other source. When the body is wet it

loses heat much more rapidly.

Much more rapidly is something of an understatement. Studies suggest that water may conduct heat up

to 240 times faster than dry air. No wonder the Eskimos arent into swimming. It has been proven that

survival times for an unprotected human in 35 degree water is listed in minutes. Heat is ripped from

the body so rapidly that it loses its strength, coordination and the victim drowns.

A point Id like to make here includes a survival tip I read in an antique survival manual. The manual

was sold to early settlers for the journey across the continent. One suggestion found in the manual

suggests that should you ever find yourself stormbound in an unprotected place, near an unfrozen lake,

with the air temperature at or below freezing, you should climb into the obviously warmer lake and

wait out the storm! The author reasoned that since the lake was unfrozen it should protect the body

from the storm. Id imagine that some folks tried it and discovered that it didnt work. No one

complained because they didnt survive the technique. Stay dry, stay out of unfrozen lakes on cold

days.

If youve got a waterproof covering of some sort and you use it to stay dry during a storm, then you

are prepared for wetness. A suggestion in this vein. It is often inconvenient to carry a poncho or a

tube tent when you take a short day hike Be prepared anyway. The lightest serviceable covering I

know of is the large, heavy duty. trash bag.

To use it simply cut a 9" slit in the bottom, pull it over your body until your head sticks through the

slit, and stay dry. It will protect you from wind and wetness.

The likely victim

The likely victim is the unprepared victim, If you know some of the factors that will contribute to yourheat loss you can be better prepared. if you take some realistic steps you can remove yourself from the

category altogether. simple preparations such as the one I mentioned with the trash bag will improve

your chances for survival. Think about it, How much does that trash bag cost? How heavy and

awkward is it? It actually fits into your back pocket with only a small bulge.

Of course there are many other things you can carry as well as the trash bag to help you to survive.

Most of these things will be small and cheap. But they help you to prepare, AND they help you to

develop your survival mentality.

Time for a short digression. Remember the business of innovation? Consider that trash bag for a

moment. What uses can it be put to? We already know that it will act as an effective rain shield. It canstop the wind and hold trash. Now consider these uses; if it is dark in color it can be used to melt snow

on sunny but cold days. It will carry food plants for dinner. It can be used to carry pine needles and

leaves back to camp for use as insulation in your bed. It can be used as a cozy hat or to carry water

back to camp. It will just about perfectly fit over a loaded backpack to protects the contents from rain.


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Try thinking of some other uses for the bag. You may want to carry two of them with you whenever

you go out.

Trash bags and wind aside, there is another part to being the likely victim. Panic and hysteria,

Previously when we discussed this condition we decided that it can be partially controlled by orderly

thought and directed action. Many persons who find themselves in a survival situation dont know the

tricks you do. They will react mindlessly and try to travel vast distances with limited energy resources.

This activity not only depletes their reserves, it often brings on other parts of the hypothermia

problem. Their thoughtless actions result in sweat, exposure to the wind, and depletes their ability to

ward off even minor environmental temperature changes. They are what can be called the"emotionally unprepared victims". The problem is neatly described by an old saying. "In panic, a

person can run for minutes, crawl for hours, and then lie down from exhaustion for eternity"

The likely victim then can include someone who is faced with the heat loss mechanisms of cold, wind

and wetness to a minor degree. But with an emotional instability capable of magnifying the effects of

simple heat loss much as both wind and wetness magnify the effects of the cold. All of this is part of

the reason for developing your Positive Mental Attitude (PMA). Understanding the problem is half of

the solution, doing something about it is the other half.

The Symptoms of Hypothermia

Once you know that hypothermia exists, and what conditions are likely to precede the problem, it

becomes necessary to know how to recognize the symptoms. That old saw "Forewarned is

Forearmed." fits nicely here since merely recognizing the symptoms can put you on the alert and set

into motion the actions necessary to save a life. It is also important to realize that recognizing the

symptoms of Hypothermia in yourself is sometimes difficult for reasons soon to be explained.

Experiments performed by various public and private institutions have tended to yield similar results.

In most of these experiments Human beings were put through exposure to low temperatures while

their blood pressure, temperature, reaction times, strength and motor skills were monitored. The tests

have shown dramatic losses in the thinking abilities of the subjects while simple motor activities

became nearly impossible. Total incapacitation almost always occurred before loss of consciousness.

During the course of the experiments certain facts became clear. Among those was an agreement on

specific temperature ranges and symptoms, indicating the stages of hypothermia. In other words,

researchers discovered that when the body cools to a certain point a specific symptom develops,

Continued lowering of the temperature brings on the next set of symptoms. These symptoms are

common to most subjects experiencing the same body core temperature. They also discovered that

people have different abilities to resist the onset of hypothermia. Where one individual might drop into

hypothermia at 50 degrees ambient, another in similar shape and condition, might not become

hypothermic until the temperature dropped to 40 degrees.

I realize this fact is not especially shocking as we all know that people react differently to the same

conditions. The reason I point it out is to indicate that the following information, while it has internal

and symptomatic consistency, does not necessarily develop in each person at the same external

temperature.

A "Normal" healthy human, in good condition with adequate energy reserves can maintain the body

core temperature at its "normal" 98. 6 F, while nude in 50F. air. The air of course is still and the body

dry. At this point the body is pumping out heat as fast as it can and the core temperature is stable.

Since the body heater is full on, for each degree the environmental temperature drops, the body core

temperature will drop a corresponding degree.

Figure 1: Symptoms of Hypothermia

Stage of

HypothermiaAir Temp

Body Core

Temp.Symptoms

First 47-50 F 96-99 F Uncontrollable shivering


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Second 42-46 91-95Violent shivering in waves. Poor coordination and

stumbling

Third 37-41 86-90Shivering ceases. Muscles are stiff or rigid. Impaired

thinking and judgment

Fourth 32-36 81-85Rigidity continues, slowed pulse rate and respiration.

Stupor, Immobility

Fifth Below 32 78-80Unconsciousness, most reflexes cease, heart beat erratic,

possible death

Sixth Below 32 Below 78 Cardiac Fibrillation. Edema & hemorrhage in the lungs.White foamy discharge from the lungs. Death

While looking this over it is wise to keep in mind the fact that the temperatures given for the "Air

temp." are approximate. Conditioning, fat accretions etc. all play a part in setting the final

symptomatic display. Even the final temperature prior to death has been exceeded in both directions.

Persons have survived lower internal temperatures and have died with higher ones. The symptoms

however are very commonly associated with the stages as shown.

A few points need to be made here. You will notice that as an individual develops hypothermia the

first symptoms of "uncontrollable shivering" occur. This is not that gentle "Brrrrr Im cold" shiver.

This is a good strong full body shiver of the tooth shattering variety. The victim feels cold inside. Thisshivering stage is the attempt by the body to generate heat with muscular activity of the involuntary

variety. When the temperature continues to drop, the mechanisms in control of the shivering reduce

their activity and the body reduces the flow of blood to most large muscle groups not necessary for

survival. With a reduction in shivering comes the beginning of the end for reasoned action by the

victim Also keep in mind the appearance of the victim to an observer. First the victim is shivering

hard, then there is less shivering. This gives the impression that the victim is warming. After all, there

is less shivering. As you read the symptoms again keep this fact in mind. You may not be able to tell

immediately if the victim is warming or cooling.

When the shivering ceases during the third stage hypothermia, death is at the doorstep. A lone

hypothermic has little chance of survival unless fortune provides some external source of heat as well

as a reduction in heat loss. The wind stops, the sun drives the clouds apart, a bush bursts into flame

while a cup of hot cocoa appears on the ground. Lotsa luck.

Once the victim drops into fourth stage hypothermia its all over but the dying. Even if a rescue is

affected there is a chance that death will still occur. Any first aid measures that take place after the

victim becomes a hypothermic in the fourth stage, must be of an extreme sort administered in a

specific manner. Simply covering the victim may delay death by a few minutes. Still there remains the

chance of survival if certain steps are taken immediately by the rescuer. Even then much of the ability

of the victim to survive is dependent upon the condition and the will of that victim. Injuries and illness

lessen the likelihood of survival. Inappropriate or inadequate treatment may hasten death.

The 1-2-3 of Hypothermia first aid

The treatment for hypothermia is a 1 2 3 matter and neednt be done in sequence for it to be

effective. There may also be complications.First the basic steps.

1.Stop further heat loss: Remove the victim from the cold, cover and/or dry.

2.Add heat: Warm victim with full body contact or some external or internal source of heat.

3.Add fuel: Feed the victim. Hot sweet liquids are good. Cold fat or protein is not effective.

Unfortunately, taking these steps is often difficult and sometimes nearly impossible since

Hypothermia frequently occurs in an emergency when there are few essential resources. If the victim

has progressed into the later stages of hypothermia, simple exposure to heat and protection from the

cold may have little effect. Obviously there are ways to successfully rescue a hypothermic but most of
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these depend on exotic techniques utilizing equipment rarely found in backpacks. The key to

successful treatment of hypothermia will be to correct the problem in its earliest stages. That calls for

early recognition and treatment.

Another factor to be considered is that often the hypothermic does not recognize the symptoms and

will sometimes resist treatment until it is almost too late. To gain the cooperation of the victim

remember that the administration of hypothermia first aid does not have to be a dramatic gesture. One

reason for this is the fact that the steps can be taken as conditions allow.

They can be simply a friendly act done as a favor, like loaning a jacket or stopping for shelter because"Im getting too cold". Try to avoid the dramatic flair sometimes associated with life saving first aid.

There is more to this so lets take a closer look at the steps, the combinations of steps and the cautions.

1) Stop further heat loss

Clearly heat loss is the root cause of Hypothermia. If you stop further heat loss and if the overall

condition of the victim is good, there is a strong possibility that the problem will disappear. It is wise

to remember the conditions that led to the problem, cold wind and wetness. if the victim is only cold,

covering up may do, but remember that cold alone is rarely the cause of the problem. As you know,

wetness and wind will probably also be present. Get the victim to some sort of effective shelter. A

tent, cabin, lean to, plastic sheet, rock shelter etc. will help. Remove the wet clothing, dry the victimand cover up.

Under some conditions total nudity is warmer than wet clothing. This is particularly true in dry

windless cold. Wet cotton clothing is probably the worst thing to wear as cotton holds the water next

to the skin, wicking moisture through its structure, and increases your heat loss by as much as 90%. If

the wet clothing is made of wool the clothing can be wrung out and put back on. Wool tends to retain

warmth even when it is wet. Some new synthetic fabrics have the same qualities. Cover the victims

head! If the body cannot re-warm itself the victim may die. For this reason the remaining steps should

be taken in all cases.

2) Add Heat

Adding heat can occur in any way the second law of thermodynamics will allow (Heat must pass from

the warmer body to the colder body). The only restrictions placed on re-warming involve the rate of

reheating the body. Immersion of the body in molten lava is one of the many techniques considered a

no-no. Oddly enough some of the methods commonly used for re-warming are equally dangerous.

These well meaning techniques include exposing the victim to intense local heat in the form of a

blazing fire.

When an intense form of heat, such as a fire, directs its energy upon one bare area of the body,

unfortunate consequences can arise. To understand these consequences we must first remember whathappens to the body as the heat loss begins. One of the responses to cold was a general constriction of

the blood vessels in the skin and extremities. This blood may reach temperatures as low as 40 degrees

and is slowly circulated as a form of insulation for the body core. If a strong source of heat, not just

warmth, begins to raise the skin temperature to an uncomfortable level, the brain reacts by causing the

heat to be drawn away into the skin through the circulatory system to the core. If the heat is intense

and local, say an area the size of your chest, very little actual warmth will have been transferred to the

blood. The slightly heated but fatally cold blood travels directly to the body core bringing with it a

massive slug of almost ice cold blood. The delicate internal temperature balance is destroyed, the

temperature drops below 78 degrees and the victim dies. Ooops

Therefore, when adding heat to the hypothermic, avoid intense local heating. A gradual raising of thetemperature is preferred. Often this can be accomplished without a heating fire. If a heating fire is

available, feel free to use it but be certain that the victim is heated as evenly as possible through some

intervening layers of fabric.


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Ideally the external source of heat should be at or only slightly warmer than the normal body

temperature and should be transferred to the entire body. A warm bath is acceptable if it happens to be

available and if the "after drop" in core temperature is watched closely. "After drop" is the drop in core

temperature we discussed as related to a sudden increase in skin temperature resulting from sudden

exposure to high temperatures.

Another way to accomplish whole body warming while in the field is to strip the victim to the skin and

put the person into a pre-warmed sleeping bag. If conditions allow, two other persons of normal

temperature should also strip and crawl into the bag with the victim. Heat gained through conduction

and imagination will be rapid. If a sleeping bag is not available, use blankets or mink. Even one extranaked body in the bag will speed recovery. One caveat to keep in mind, the rescuer should not

endanger him or her self by the rewarming process. Body contact rewarming is best used when there

are other fully functioning individuals in the party.

To further raise the temperature and increase the speed of the rewarming process it is also wise to

induce the victim to drink warm liquids. This will tend to raise the temperature at the core. These

drinks should be sweet (no diet sweeteners please) if at all possible. The victim will need energy in

order to feed the rewarming process. More on these drinks later.

If there is no possibility for the dual nude system in the bag, or if the victim is alone and trying to gain

warmth in the bag. Try hot water in a canteen, warming stones etc. to build heat. Keep in mind the factthat just as clothing insulates us from cold, it also slows down our absorption of heat from external

sources. The victim will warm faster while nude in a warm environment than clothed in that same

environment.

Once the victim has regained complete awareness, continue the hot liquids. It takes time to recover

from hypothermia, full recovery may take hours or even days. Hypothermia can easily reoccur while

the victim is weak. If the hypothermic is unconscious, death is close at hand. Only the most drastic

steps are likely to be successful. Even so you should attempt to revive the victim using the resources at

hand. Many times the effort has paid off.

3) Add Fuel

Adding fuel is really very simple. You are providing the body with a generous store of power with

which to reheat. The power should come in some easily assimilated form. Warm sweet liquids are a

favorite because the effect is almost immediate and most hypothermics will accept them. Sweet foods

like candies are next. Many sugars are releasing their energy to the body within 15 minutes of

consumption.

While feeding you should consider the types of foods the victim can easily use since some items

containing protein and fat require considerable time and effort for digestion. Stay away from them

unless significant amounts of heat and carbohydrates are immediately available. Hot soup withnoodles is acceptable, Hot cocoa, hot dextrose or hot coffee or tea with plenty of sugar is acceptable.

Beef jerky or a cube of butter is almost useless in the short term. Any form of alcohol is always

unacceptable.

The Unconscious victim

Since the unconscious victim is usually unable to swallow, it is unwise to try to force liquids, you may

violate the first of the rule of threes "Three minutes without air" by drowning the person in noodle

soup. Still, to revive that cold but alive body, heat must be brought into the core. How to do that? One

way, a method used by some search and rescue teams is to offer heat absorption through the lungs.

Presumably the living victim will continue to breathe. If the air that person is breathing is prewarmedand highly oxygenated a good deal of blood can be quickly heated and recovery can begin. The teams

carry heated air respirators.

These devices utilize a flameless low temperature chemical process to heat air carried in a small bottle.

The device is seldom carried by normal backpackers but there is a field expedient. It may not be as


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efficient but it can work. Try mouth-to-mouth resuscitation with the unconscious victim. Your warm

air, body contact as well as a warm protected environment might be enough to successfully reverse the

problem. Another possibility utilizes one or two of those chemical "HeatPacks". Wrap them in a thin

layer of dry fabric and place them on the Carotid arteries on the sides of the neck just below the chin.

These can heat the blood and air

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