1. No Shelter
This is a 2 fold mistake that will cost you your life during a wilderness survival scenario. The primary fold of this mistake isn’t having a correct shelter with you, the second fold isn’t having the knowledge to make a shelter from nature’s tools which are all around you. When talking regarding somebody or a group of individuals who died in the wild there’s a typical term that you just can hear come up, exposure. Whether it’s hypothermia or heat stroke, the bottom line is you either didn’t have shelter, tent, tarp, sleeping bag with bivvy, otherwise you didn’t have the information to make an acceptable shelter to protect yourself from the weather. Remember, staying dry is the 1st rule of survival.
2. Lack of Good Navigation Tools
People who venture into the wilderness without a map, compass, and GPS are flirting with disaster. Anyone who has hung out in the woods knows that within seconds even the simplest woodsman will get turned around in thick trees and bushes and start to walk the incorrect way. The key to navigation is having a back up technique to seek out your way to safety, keep in mind two is one and one is none ne’er rely on GPS alone. Having a decent understanding of cardinal directions using the sun and stars is additionally useful if you’re thrown into a scenario where prior preparation wasn’t available plane crash, boat wreck.
3. Poor Knowledge
Be ready is the slogan of the Boy Scouts, unfortunately most of the people who find themselves in a wildernessa survival scenario have very poor information on a way to survival and are sometimes totally unprepared.
Know the 5 keys to Wilderness Survival
1. Know how to build a shelter
2. Know how to signal for help
3. Know what to eat & how to find it
4. Know how to build and maintain a fire
5. Know how to find water and prepare safe water to drink.
4. Miscalculating the Risk
Most wild survival things start off very innocent; like a fishing trip with friends, a day hike on a familiar path, or a planned father and son hunting trip. Then things go really wrong and suddenly you’re faced with a life and death situation. The only factor you’ll do is plan for the surprising. Sit down and go through contingencies before you set off on your trip. Once you leave, it’s too late. there’s an old military saying “Failing to plan is planning to Fail.” Ensure you’ve got done this same process with your emergency car kit.
5. The Wrong Clothes
As a rule you must always dress one layer warmer than you need. You’ll always take stuff off and wrap it around your waist, stuff into your pockets or put it in your backpack if you get hot. But once you leave an article of clothing behind there’s nothing worse than being cold knowing that you left your jacket in the closet. Also keep in mind the outdoor sayings regarding cotton. Friends don’t let friends wear Cotton, and Cotton is Rotten, find and wear clothes that retain their warmth even after they become wet. Also have a shell jacket and pants of some kind for rain and snow. Remember, most cases of hypothermia happen in temperatures over forty degrees fahrenheit.
6. Getting Drinkable Water
We all understand that the human body doesn’t last long without water. The question you’ve got to ask yourself in a wilderness survival scenario is “Will this water make me sick?” Waterborne organisms like cryptosporidium and giardia will cause severe diarrhea and vomiting that will increase dehydration and reduces your ability to carry on your different survival efforts like building shelter, finding food, and signaling for help. On the flip side dehydration can kill you in a matter of days. Without a good provide of pure drinking water, the body can become dehydrated terribly quickly. Along with dehydration comes poor judgment, loss of energy, and eventually you’ll lose the will to survive. There are many strategies for purifying water, Boiling it, Chemical tablets and Water Filters, and there are many ways for catching rain water or dew. Learn these ways and be prepared.
7. No Signal Plan
Being able to signal for assistance is a key trait in wilderness survival. If you go to almost any outdoor store they will have a whole section dedicated to these devices. The most common ones are whistles and signal mirrors but you also have to think about being able to use fire starting devices and high beam flashlights. Other good tools to own are radios, bright clothes, and emergency beacon devices like ACR or SPOT. If you’re caught during a wilderness survival scenario without any of these tools, have an understanding for creating an emergency signal mistreatment rocks, trees, snow, or dirt.
8. Fire
It is just one word but in wilderness survival it’s several meanings. Warmth: a goodfire can keep you and your loved ones heat in some of the worst conditions. Protection: a powerful fire can keep you safe from predators and a long burning stick has scared more than one animal away. Signal: a blazing fire may be seen for miles away in the dark and the smoke may be seen during the day. Purifier: a hot fire may be used to boil water and keep your drinking water safe. Keep many ways of creating a fire with you when traveling in the wilderness and also find out how to create a fire the old fashion way with two sticks.
