Outdoor Survival Skills: Top 10 Skills, To-Do's and Must-Have Products

By Brian Carter

Outdoor survival skills can mean the difference between escape/rescue and tragedy. Fortunately, most survival skills are simple and easy to learn. Here are the top ten things to do in a survival situation, in order:

1. Don’t panic. Breathe. Relax.

2. Give yourself first aid if needed.

3. Inventory your survival items.

4. Assess any imminent weather dangers.

5. Find an open area where you can be seen from the air.

6. Create appropriate shelter.

7. Drink lots of water.

8. Make fire, but safely! Learn how to build fire in a variety of ways and how not to start a wilderness blaze in your quest for survival.

9. Signal for help.

10. Eat the wildlife, including insects, but nothing with more than 6 legs and no plants you aren’t totally sure of.

Ten Essential Survival Skills & Qualities:

Survival isn’t just about skills, but also attitude and mindset. Desire to survive, determination, persistence, willingness to plan, and learning survival skills ahead of time all increase your chances of survival. The best time to learn survival skills is before you need them.

- Will to survive

- Calm, poise, focus

- Make shelter

- Make fire

- Find and purify water

- Find food, hunt, trip

- Signal for help

- Navigate without map or compass

- Basic first-aid

- Weather prediction

The Most Valuable Survival Items:

We could probably debate this list endlessly, but I guarantee you’d much rather have these items with you than need them and not have them.

- Knife

- Poncho

- String/rope

- First aid kit

- Flint, tinder

- Water purifying tablets

- Whistle, mirror

- Wire saw

- Fishing kit

- Emergency blanket

Once you get into a survival situation, it’s too late to prepare and to learn the skills. Now is the best time to prepare to survive. Get your survival gear and get into a survival training class!

Brian Carter is an outdoor enthusiast, and a major fan of survivorman. He reminds you that once you get into a survival situation, it's too late to prepare- learn the skills now. Now is the best time to prepare to survive. Get your survival gear and get into a survival training class!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brian_Carter

Step Up And Survive

By Christine Cederquist

We all worry about how we would survive if the unthinkable were to happen. Where would we get the survival gear, survival food and emergency information that we need? The nightmare morphs into reality when there are small children to care for. Many parents try to shut out those horrific thoughts. What can they do to prepare without having to spend many hundreds of dollars and give up valuable storage space. Fortunately there is such a source. It is as convenient as entering The Survival Gear Source.

The ease of navigating the site allows visitors to quickly decide what they need. Among the hundreds of items available, the very reasonably priced 72 hour survival kits are an eye catcher. The one and two person 72 hour survival kits can be carried in the car. They contain emergency survival warmth, light, food and drinking water if (or when) there are repeat scenerios such as the huge winter traffic back-up on I-78 in PA . This kit would allow a person to survive in the car, in relative comfort, for a few days. Just imagine a young mother with two young children in that situation. What a thoughtful Mother’s Day gift these 72 hour survival kits would make!

Christine Cederquist, owner of Survival Gear Source, studied Criminal Justice and worked for twelve years at the Union County Department of Corrections. She and her husband, who works with Homeland Security, have three young sons, and live in the New York metropolitan area. Chris’s vision is to provide survival gear and emergency supplies at a reasonable price for individuals and whole families. Chris stated, “We can’t expect someone else to take care of us and our kids in the days following a catastrophe. Survial Gear Source can provide everything from survival food like MREs to survival tools, and the products are surprisingly inexpensive.”

Our infrastructure has become strained, and smooth functioning highways, electrical grids, communication networks, and food supplies can suddenly, without warning, crumble into chaos. We all have a responsibility to take care of ourselves in the hours or days following a tornado, hurricane, earthquake or terrorist attack. Emergency survival gear and survival food can make the difference between life and death.

Christine Cederquist and Rick Brairton. Rick Brairton is a member of the Board of Directors of Gold Key Lake in Milford, Pennsylvania. His Board responsibilities include the Lake and Environment and Communications committees. Brairton, a retired high school teacher, served in the US Navy and has traveled and studied throughout the US and Europe. For survival gear, survival food, 72 hour survival kits he recommends http://www.survivalgearsource.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christine_Cederquist

Ten Wilderness Survival Backpacking Tips

By Steven Gillman

Why should you learn wilderness survival skills just for backpacking? They may save your life someday, and for ultralight enthusiasts like myself, skills replace gear, and therefore weight. The best reason, however, may be that it's just a good feeling to know you can deal with whatever comes up. It makes you feel more at home.

To survive means to stay warm and dry, hydrated, uninjured, and to find your way out of the survival situation. Eating is nice too, but not crucial if the situation is for a few days. Below are some more or less random survival tips, just to get you interested.

Wilderness Survival Tips

1. Warmth: Sleep with your head slightly downhill to stay warmer. This may take some getting used to, but it works.

2. Food: In North America, there is no berry that looks like a blueberry, strawberry, or rasberry, that can hurt you from one taste. Just spit it out if it doesn't taste right. If it looks and tastes like a blueberry - it is.

3. Fire starter: If you put dried moss or milkweed fuzz in your pocket as you walk, you'll have dry tinder to start a fire, just in case it's raining later. Experiment with different materials.

4. Direction-finding: Mark the tip of the shadow of a stick, and mark it again fifteen minutes later. The line between the the first and second marks points east. A few techniques like this can save you when your compass is lost.

5. Weather: In the Rocky Mountains you can see the clouds forming just before the afternoon storms. Being able to read the sky can keep you out of trouble. Lightning kills hikers in Colorado regularly.

6. Staying dry: Hypothermia is the biggest wilderness killer, and getting wet is the biggest cause. Watch for ledges or large fir trees to stand under if you see the rain coming.

7. Shelter: A pile of dry leaves and dead grass can keep you very warm in an emergency.

8. Hydration: Fill water bottles every chance you get, and you won't have such a hard time with any long dry stretches of trail.

9. Injury: Pop a "blister" on the trunk of a small spruce or fir tree, and you can use the sap that oozes out as an good antiseptic dressing for small cuts.

10. Fire starter: White birch bark will usually light even when wet.

These are just a few of the wilderness survival tips and techniques you can easily learn. Why not practice one or two on your next backpacking trip?

Steve Gillman is a long-time backpacker, and advocate of lightweight backpacking. His advice and stories can be found at http://www.TheUltralightBackpackingSite.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steven_Gillman

One day ...

One day I will actually have time to write this blog.