Though the modern conveniences seem to equip the man fully to face any disaster but survival becomes quite hard and one becomes utterly hopeless when facing an unwanted situation while going for an outdoor adventure.
10 Important survival skills making your outdoor experience a cheerful memory
Without knowing a few basic survival skills to sustain life in any type of natural and built environment one can face a dreadful end. So bone up yourselves for the skills mentioned below:
1. Clean drinking water:
The most important survival skill is to be able to find clean drinking water in the wild. Humans cannot survive without water, one can meet his end if he doesn’t drink water for three days. So no matter wherever you are whether trapped by a snowstorm or stuck in a desert, the first skill u must-have for your survival is the ability to find out the pure clean drinking water.
Water is everywhere except in deserts but making it drinkable is the real skill. The stagnant water which is mostly available in wild is full of bacteria or toxins, can take your life in seconds. Though the survival situations may vary from one to another but the use of the following tricks and techniques ensure the job of finding drinkable water done.
When stuck around hills and you are without water try to listen to the sound of water, it must be there cascading over the rocks. Streams are there where the hills meet you just need to have the skill to follow the sound. Animals’ living places can give you a hint of nearby water reserves. Even the greenery and damp soil tell you the presence of water under the ground but beware of filthy and contaminated water it can take your life.
Stagnant water is another issue, it is no doubt the home of bacteria and certain poisonous insects, so to make your survival easy and possible you must be able to seek the flowing water.
The clean and flowing water sometimes needs to be boiled or purified. You may get an infectious disease leading you towards your deadly end. To tackle this, you can bring a water filter or water purification tablets with you in order to save yourself from any life-threatening situation.
You can get water from trees, either through making a hole in the bark or by squeezing the leaves. Rain and snow are the reliable sources of clean water that don’t even need to be purified.
2. Building fire
The second absolute survival skill is definitely to start your fire whether to fight with the killing cold or to boil water or to cook food or to ward off predators or to make a signal fire to get help in any life and death situation. Having a lighter or matches is an ideal prepared situation but the real skill is to chop the woods by any good survival knife and build fire through rubbing, scratching, by a magnifying glass or even by short-circuiting your battery.
You need to create a spark then drive it onto your tinder bundle. Once the tinder is lit stack the kindling against the larger log adding the larger kindling as the flame grows high.
To save your energy and time, seek out the dry and dead leaves or branches of the trees. The dry fuel works much better than the fresh green wet grass. To create smoke or when trying to make a signal you can cook the fresh green leaves or even you can simply put them over your already lit fire of dried leaves and branches.
Your patience and creativity work wonder not only to save your precious energy but to make you have an enjoying safe adventure. Always try to burn the smaller fibers, lightening the medium sized branches or anything larger will waste your time and energy so you need to have a small flame to be going then you can move it to the main stack of wood or logs whatever you have as fuel.
Your childhood trick of burning something with a magnifying glass is also a useful skill to ignite your tinder. This skill includes focusing light of the sun into a concentrated beam to make a spark that can burn your huge stack of tinder in no time.
3. Building a shelter:
Shelter building should be the topmost priority when facing a prolonged life-threatening situation. It is an essential skill for your primary survival to have a protective and secures shelter which prevents you from the extreme climatic exposure around you. This is one of the many uses of survival knives that you can easily make a shelter by chopping woods.
Hypothermia is a real killer in extremely cold weather. It is a severe situation when your body temperature drops to an abnormally low level, thus the low body temperature causes death. This is why a well-insulated shelter becomes crucial for your survival. The following two are common and easy to build shelters.
a). Lean-to:
Lean-to structure is considered as the easiest building structure and constructed just by leaning material up against a preexisting natural structure which can be a rock, a wall or a fallen tree. In order to protect yourself from the cold ground make layers of four to six inches of debris on your shelter’s floor to avoid your body contacting the abnormally cold ground.
Although it does not give you complete protection if you don’t have a kind of canvas or cloth or trash bags with you. It cannot even resist water unless you are diligent enough in building your structure.
b). Building a tepee:
This survival structure is also known as wigwam or a lodge, it gives you more protection than a lean-to. It encircles the survivor if builds properly and smartly. A better structure to face any life-threatening situation saving your life from unexpected weather and wild animals, protecting your gears, your surviving tools and your food. Building such a structure takes more time and energy but gives you entire protection.
In all the other kinds of shelter depending on the environment and available material the designing is more or less the same. They include igloo, snow huts and tarp shelters. They also have their own drawbacks according to the variety of circumstances faced by the survivors. For example, a snow shelter can collapse and either suffocate you to death similarly a dry shelter can easily catch fire whether by the gust of wind or by your own campfire.
Moreover, the following tips will help you to build a secure shelter.
- Your built structure must not be close to water or muddy basins.
- Avoid building your shelter in the areas frequently visited by wildlife. The footprints and grown vegetation can give you a hint of animals’ presence.
- Build your survival shelter above the ground to stay away from the dirt, insects and minor downpours.
- You must have some excellent cutting and chopping tools with you to make your building task easier and even possible.
4. Navigation and compass sighting
When stuck in a survival situation screaming for help won’t help you anymore so your navigating skills would help you a lot to find your way, no matter wherever you are.
Navigation is a simple survival skill and can be done even with the help of simple sticks, you just need to fix directions. The skill of navigating the world around you is the best bet for your survival. You can navigate through streams, sun and stars.
a). Navigation through stars:
When traveling by night, navigation is done through stars. Some survivalists love to travel at night as nights are less exhausting especially when traveling through deserts. To navigate through stars you need to find out your position and then locate the North Star.
b). Navigation through streams:
When surrounded by streams you simply need to follow the flow of water which will finally lead you to the larger source i.e. river as human dwellings are commonly found near the river banks. And if you will not be able to find your way and get lost even then the presence of clean water will help you for your next venture.
c). Find The High Ground:
Though it is not necessary but locating your position then finding the right way to go would become easier if you are standing on the top of some hill or climb up a tall tree. It will save you from wandering around.
d). Navigation by Sun:
You are fully aware of how and where the sun moves. Its direction is from the east to the west. You can use a simple trick to find the correct directions; take a long stick and push it into the ground so that it stands up on its own. Then, make a marking in the dirt where the tip of the stick’s shadow is. Wait a few minutes and check to see in which direction the shadow has moved that direction points towards the east.
e). Compass sighting:
The basic understanding of compass sighting helps you in a survival situation a lot. The compass proves to be one of the most useful tool for your survival as it works by its own whereas the other modern gadgets need technology to work. This simple tool contains a needle that always points towards north making your navigating ability to work.
5. Make your food safe to eat
You can’t eat any raw meat, so the skill of making your hunt safe and healthy is truly required. Though the cooking style varies from place to place but there are some general guidelines to be followed to have safe and healthy food.
a). Overcook:
You need to overcook your wild meat to kill off all the pathogens and harmful bacteria. Your overcooked meat might get a bit tougher and less tasty but to avoid any other kind of problem overcooking is indispensable.
b). Get Out The Guts:
Get all the guts out especially the digestive tracts. This is not your city restaurant where you can eat the heart and liver. Go for the muscles and limbs to keep you safe from any other issue. Stomach problems may arise in case of eating such parts. Eat healthy and stay healthy by disposing the guts entirely.
c). Dispose Of All Waste:
The remnants of your meal must be properly disposed away from your shelter setup. It is actually an important survival tip to keep you safe from wild animals which can track you through the smell of your food. You can burry your garbage far away from your resting place.
6. Hunting and searching for food:
When stuck in a survival situation, ordering pizza delivery is definitely not possible. Now you are in wild and you will have to hunt or search for the plants which are edible. Stinging nettle, dandelions, cattails and acorns have great edible properties. They also have some other uses to help your survival.
You can carry some necessities that you think will help fill your needs. For e.g, if you are immune to coffee or tea, you can take coffee maker and some coffee beans along with you. Folgers Ground Coffee is a good option. You can also keep some snacks in your bag, so they can be your companion when you fail to find anything to eat.
Your survival may stretch into days or weeks you need to know how to search and catch food to keep yourself alive. For searching and catching, you must have wilderness survival weapons through which you can get food either by hunting, trapping or cutting.
a). Hunting Game:
Having an appropriate weapon containing a sharp blade will obviously help you to spear a small animal or fish. Having the right tool will make your task easier to pursue but the wastage of energy will also be there as you have to chase the animal to be hunted and risk of getting injured too.
b). Trapping:
It works better than active hunting. You can build small survival traps to get your food without burning your calories. For this, you will have to wait patiently to get your trap’s job done.
c). Fishing:
When you are near a river or pond then a fishing line and hook become the important survival tool to get you food which is completely safe and rich in protein. Your skillfully set fishing line and bait will help you to such healthy food in no time only if the water contains fish in it. But beware of the wild animals which can possibly be there in that water body having an abundance of sea creatures.
d). Foraging:
You must be familiar with the variety of plants which are poisonous and which can be eaten both. Beforehand familiarization will help you to find the best for you and avoid the harmful and poisonous. A hunting guide proves to be your best partner before going on any adventure.
7. Dressing the wound:
The severity of any particular situation increases if you get injured in an emergency. The problems get doubled and worse if you are unable to tackle the situation. Mind preparation and readiness will superbly take you out from a dangerous life and death situation. The following tricks for first aid are the useful steps to be taken in case of some common injuries.
a). Close The Wound:
The common and simple tip to avoid any infection and further complications you need to close the small opening or cut properly after cleaning the wound. Bandaging the wound will stop bleeding and stop certain bacteria to enter your body.
b). Bandaging:
Tourniquets should only be used when there is a life and death situation as the close fitted bandage of a limb can result in that limb’s loss. Always clean the wound no matter how deep it is and then apply the bandage.
c). Tackling a broken leg:
In case of broken leg or limb, you must know how to treat them. Don’t ever try to reset your bone as you can make the fracture even more severe and worse. Try to use a tree branch to tie with your leg or limb making them straight and less painful.
Keeping a first aid kit with you makes your survival easy and possible. It has all the stuff needed to care for up to more than five persons.
8. Knot tying skill
Knots are multipurpose. Its importance is crucial not only in leisurely and sporting activities but this skill is incredibly helpful in a survival situation. The skill of tying knots works wonder if properly learned and executed, they can help with securing hunting traps, fishing line, bandages, survival shelters, and will be useful in several other tasks. With experimenting and training, you can refine your skill of tying knots.
9. Building a camp stove:
Knowing how to build a camp stove with the materials you find in nature is an excellent survival skill. It will simply mitigate the worst circumstances as avoiding your shelter to be burnt just by the gust of wind. Some foldable and tiny stoves are available which are easy to carry and perform multi-tasks ranging from boiling water to cooking your food.
10. Mind preparedness:
The mind and its readiness are critical for one’s survival. The strong will to live in a life and death situation will make you physically and mentally stronger to cope up with the frightening circumstances. As a survivalist, you need to learn the skill of living and fighting under stress. You must have a backup plan with you when the first gets failed.
The above tips are the most important skills for your survival when you are stuck in a threatening situation of your life. You can easily overcome a deadly state through your skillful and wise approach. Just by taking beforehand measures you can enjoy your hunting, camping or hiking or any outdoor adventure.
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