Recent PostsCategories
Archives
|
March 13, 2013
by 
Having to start a fire on top of snow is one of those things that you never really think about, until you have to do it. In areas with little snow, you can always dig down to the soil surface to build your fire. But if the snow is very deep, you lack digging tools, or you don’t have time to dig, building a fire on top of the snow is the best option—if you do it right. You can certainly start a fire literally on top of the snow, but it won’t last very long as the snow will melt and douse your coals.
[ Read Full Post ]March 11, 2013
by Snow blindness can be a painful and debilitating injury in the winter season, leaving you temporarily blind for up to a day and helpless in a winter emergency.
This temporary form of blindness can be caused by the reflected glare of sunlight from snow, ice, water, or even sand. Most commonly, snow is the culprit, as the intense glare reflected from white snow on sunny days can actually cause your eyes to become sunburned. Snow blindness can happen even when it’s overcast, if the right amount of reflected light is magnified. The symptoms of snow blindness can include:
[ Read Full Post ]March 8, 2013
by 
Skewers and spits are hard to beat for quick cooking accessories; but if you have a little more time and some flexible sticks, you can bend together a snowshoe-shaped grill to cook meat, fish, and many other tasty foods—with no heavy skillet required.
The snowshoe grill (also called a tennis racket grill) can be used as a portable, reversible cooking surface. If it’s not too low to the flames, you should be able to cook several meals with it before it burns up. Cooking your food like this can give you greater control over temperatures than you have with other cooking methods, as the distance of the food from the fire can be modified easily.
[ Read Full Post ]March 7, 2013
by 
The clear air and strong sun of late winter, plus the freezing winter temperatures, give you the best opportunity of the year to pull off the “fire from ice” trick in a real-world scenario. Whether you have seen it in books, or watched it on television, there’s still something incredulous about a lens of ice starting a fire. It just seems so unnatural. And I guess the real question you’re asking is, “does this really work?”
I’m a little surprised by the answer, myself, which is yes, you really can get fire from ice.
[ Read Full Post ]March 5, 2013
by 
There are many ways to call wild game. But how can you call those critters if you brought no calls with you? What if it’s an emergency and you need to lure animals in for your food?
The answer: build your own calls with things you find in the field. Check out these three time-tested calls.
[ Read Full Post ]March 1, 2013
by 
Hunger can make anything look like food. As winter wears on, the wild foods tend to become scarce. Squirrels finish off the last of the tree nuts, and other animals put a dent in the remaining wild forage. After awhile, the only stuff left out there is the stuff that nobody eats – neither man nor beast.
So if you get stranded out in the wild this winter, you’ll want to skip the following list of plants.
[ Read Full Post ]February 28, 2013
by Last May, we did a post on emergency preps for two dollars or less. Since many would say that we are in worse economic territory now than we were a year ago, it seemed only fitting to consider “Cheap Preps, Part 2.”
When checking the cost of survival equipment, pricey gear seems to be the new normal. But the frugal shopper can still find real bargains that could prove to be lifesavers at the right time and place.
Here are some more preparedness items hovering around the $2 mark:
[ Read Full Post ]February 25, 2013
by 
While teaching an Urban Survival class this past weekend, the topic of storing your own drinkable water came up in conversation many times. How much water you should have on hand, how you bottle it, and where you store it are the three most common concerns.
So let us suppose for a moment that your town’s or region’s normal water supply has been cut off. You’ll be on your own for drinking, cooking, and some basic hygiene. In the realm of water, being prepared for emergencies means keeping water on hand, and also being ready to disinfect more water as needed.
[ Read Full Post ]February 22, 2013
by 
The signal whistle is probably the most useful piece of survival gear that people are NOT usually carrying today. Sure it’s natural for us to crave a wicked looking survival knife. And your instincts are right on the money if you want to have explosive fire starting tools. But that humble signal whistle can end up catching someone’s attention, and draw in your rescue team if you are too banged up to be using that survival knife or fire starter. And that rescue is your ticket home.
[ Read Full Post ]February 21, 2013
by 
There are always dangers and benefits to look for when selecting a base camp or survival camp location. I always encourage everyone to look up, look around and look down when surveying a potential site. The following guidelines can help you determine a good place to build. But remember that there is no perfect campsite, so don’t spend precious hours wandering around.
[ Read Full Post ]
|
