15 Survival Essentials When traveling in the wilderness there are fifteen essential items that must always be brought

with you. These 15 essentials are your survival insurance against a wide variety of situations you are likely to encounter by design or by accident. The survival gear and skills you bring with you will serve you well. Staying warm and dry, well fed, well hydrated, and in good health will go far in your effort to survive in any environment. With all of your physical needs taken care of your morale will be high and you will be in an excellent position to navigate your way out or make contact with rescuers. Be sure you always have enough to get you through the first night of an emergency. If you can survive an entire day and night then chances are you can survive several days if need be. Making it through the first 72 hours almost guarantees you will make it out alive. Survival Essentials 1

Map and Compass Always bring a map of the area you are traveling in, a good compass, and, if possible, a GPS receiver. And know how to use them. A good map will show your area of travel in excellent detail. Preferably the map is of topographic variety, showing contour elevation lines and the topography of the area. Trails, streams, bodies of water, swamps, roads, towns, hills and mountains should be clearly labeled. The map should have the points of the compass clearly labeled. USGS 15-minute and 7.5-minute quadrangles are excellent choices when moving across country. In some areas local hiking clubs put out excellent maps based on the USGS maps. A map can be of great help in decision making, not only in planning your trip but also in providing possible escape routes should the unexpected occur. Knowing where you are on a map, you will often be able to easily discern obstacles such as steep terrain, cliffs, or swamps that you should avoid. If you do become lost, a map can help you figure out just where you are and provide information on where you should go to extricate yourself.

Headlamp GPS receivers are increasingly popular. It is a good idea to record your starting position so that you can use these coordinates to find your way back should you become confused. Often is the time when you come back out onto the road from which you started, you do not know weather your vehicle is to the left or the right of where you are. Having previously recorded your starting position, finding which way to go is a snap. Even if you do have a GPS unit, always bring a compass. Your GPS unit may malfunction or the batteries may run out, but a compass always works and will keep you from traveling in circles. If you are without a compass, you may be able to make a compass using the materials at hand. Survival Essentials 2

Multi-purpose Tool Always bring a flashlight or headlamp with spare bulbs and spare batteries. Even a trip of a few hours into the wilderness can unexpectedly become overnight due to injury, becoming lost, or miscalculating the time it takes to get from point to point. If you are caught outdoors in the dark, you may need an artificial light source in order to find your way out. Without a light source, it is very easy to injure yourself stumbling around in the darkness. If you do need to spend the night outdoors, your source of light can help you rig a shelter, gather fire making materials, and bed down for the night. A flashlight or headlamp can be used as an excellent signaling device at night, for the light can be visible for many miles.

Parachute Cord A good headlamp has the advantage of allowing free use of your hands and lessens the possibility of dropping it. Survival Essentials 3 Always bring extra food and water. As a general rule, bring at least an extra days worth of food and water you think you will need for the time you are out, and at a minimum bring enough to sustain you for one full day. Even on a trip of just a few hours, bring a full days supply. In an extended emergency situation extra food will give you the energy you need to help yourself. The calories from your emergency food supply can prevent hypothermia or exhaustion. Your extra supply of clean water can prevent dehydration. Taken together, your extra food and water rations will allow you to think more clearly and prevent the possibility of panic.

Insect Repellent Of the two, water is the most important. You can live without food for many days or even weeks, but you won't live without an adequate supply of water for very long. Because water is bulky and heavy, on an extended outing you will need to find additional sources of water and a reliable means of making water safe to drink. A trick I use is to always keep a days worth of dehydrated food such as dried fruit, nuts, and chocolate, and an extra quart of water in my pack. This is my emergency food and water reserve and I do not touch it. Then when I plan a trip, I add the food that I plan to eat. Only in an emergency situation will I tap into the emergency food supply.

Your emergency food supply could also contain MREs or Emergency Food Bars. These are lightweight foods that have long shelf lives. In addition, this kind of food is condensed and easy to pack. Survival Essentials 4 Always bring extra warm clothing. In many places of the world the weather can change drastically in a very short time. Even in mild weather storms can suddenly appear. Unforeseen events such as injury or taking the wrong trail can result in having to spend a night outdoors. The clothing you are wearing may become wet from rain, snow, sweat, or falling into water Your extra clothing should include waterproof jacket and pants. Rain gear can double for wind protection. Extra clothing can serve a variety of purposes. Insect protection, protection from poisonous plants, thorns and shrubs, the sun and wind. Extra clothing can be used for tourniquets, bandages, sacks and pillows. Extra socks can double as mittens. Extra clothing can be used as a poor mans sleeping bag of sorts. If you must spend the night outdoors, rig a shelter and put on all of your clothing. You can even stuff your extra clothing with dry leaves, grass, milkweed or cattail fluff, or any other lofty material that can be used as insulation. Avoid cotton which easily becomes waterlogged and next to useless. Wool is an excellent choice as it remains warm even when wet. There are a variety of modern synthetic materials that are easy to dry and wick away moisture. I recommend adopting the 3 layer system for keeping warm and dry. This allows you the greatest flexibility according to the current conditions you find yourself. Summer or winter, one article of clothing I never leave home without is a warm wool hat. Pound for pound a wool hat is the warmest piece of clothing you can have. Up to 30 percent of the heat your body loses is through your head, so a good hat will go far in keeping you warm. If you find yourself having to spend a night outdoors, wearing your wool hat will go far in helping you sleep warm and comfortable. Survival Essentials 5 Always bring rain gear. If your clothing becomes wet its value as insulation greatly diminishes. Even in temperate climates hypothermia is one of the biggest enemies of the survivor. Bring a rain coat and rain pants and stay alive. Rain gear can also double as a ground cloth to keep dampness from penetrating your resting place. Survival Essentials 6 Always bring Sunglasses and sun screen. Excessive sunlight can cause sunburn and lead to dehydration and even skin cancer. You may find yourself exposed to more sunlight than you planned on due to reflection from sand, snow, fog, or water. If your eyes become sunburned or snow blind", your situation may become very critical.

Sunglasses need to be ultraviolet resistant (uv resistant) and have side flaps that prevent unfiltered light from entering. If you do not have a pair, you can often make sun goggles from materials at hand such as cloth or bark. A hat with a wide brim will bring added protection from the sun and doubles as protection from insects. Survival Essentials 7 Always bring a first aid kit. Your first aid kit should contain the means to treat the usual array of cuts and burns, punctures, splinters, and blisters. In some areas you may need to treat snake bites or allergic reactions. A larger group first aid kit should provide the means to treat broken limbs and digits, heart conditions, hypothermia and other location specific injuries. Survival Essentials 8 Always bring a knife or multipurpose tool. a good survival knife an extremely versatile tool and can be used to make other tools. Useful in the building of shelters, making fires, repairing clothing, performing surgery, making weapons and defending yourself. A multipurpose tool is even better. A built in pair of pliers can be used for a variety of tasks. A can opener can come in very handy. Survival Essentials 9 Always bring a means to build a fire. Knowing how to build a fire is a fundamental survival skill. Waterproof matches, lighter, and some kind of tinder are a minimum. A FireSteel is an excellent lightweight and waterproof backup every survival kit should have. Once you get the fire started, you can use green or wet wood by drying it near or on the fire. Fire is usefully for preventing hypothermia, drying out clothes, making water safe to drink, keeping animals at bay, and for signaling. A good fire will keep you warm in all weather conditions and keep up your morale. You can also use fire to cook food and boil water to destroy pathogens and make it safe to drink. Survival Essentials 10 Always have a way to treat water to make it safe to drink. You can only carry so much water. As the jingle goes, water weighs "a pint a pound the world around". A gallon of water weighs eight pounds and when you are active that is about the amount you will need every day. So on an extended outing, planned or not, you are going to need a local source of water. The problem is, no water is to be trusted. Even a clear cold mountain stream could harbor a host of disease carrying organisms including giardia. On several occasions I have come upon dead moose soaking in small mountain streams that otherwise appeared to be crystal clear.

There are a number of inexpensive water treatment filters that easily fit in your pack. You can also use chemical means to treat water or boil it. If you plan to stay in one area for an extended time, consider using the solar disinfection method to make large volumes of water safe to drink. Survival Essentials 11 Always bring a whistle. This tiny device is light and inexpensive. With little effort you can blow on a survival whistle for extended periods, even if you are injured or exhausted. If you have constructed a survival shelter, it may be difficult for would be rescuers to see you, but the sound of a shrill whistle can direct them to your location. Survival Essentials 12 Always bring an emergency shelter. A 5ft by 7ft waterproof tarp or space blanket can be used to construct a serviceable emergency shelter. The shelter should provide protection against rain, cold, heat, sun or snow. A space blanket or tarp can form the basis of protection to which you can add whatever local materials are available. Sticks, leaves, branches, and other plant materials can be used to extend the insulation of your shelter and help you survive in hot or cold climates. Build a debris hut and you can survive in nearly any environment. Survival Essentials 13 Always bring at least 25 feet of cord. 50 feet of cord is better. Good parachute cord can be obtained at your local Army Navy surplus store. 550 Para cord can be used in a variety of useful purposes including construction of an emergency shelter, climbing, tying objects together, splinting broken bones, building a raft, snaring small game, even constructing a bridge across a small stream. I also recommend bringing several feet of thin wire and several yards of all purpose duct tape. Duct tape is an excellent means of making field repairs to ripped clothing and is useful in a myriad of ways. Wire can be be used to make a variety of repairs, prongs and hooks for fish and frog spearing, or the snaring of small game. Survival Essentials 14 Always bring insect repellent (in the right season). Insect pests can not only make your life miserable, they can be survival risks. Insects transmit innumerable diseases and are a major destroyer of human life throughout the world. Flies, ticks, mosquitoes, and a host of other insect species would love nothing more than to dine on you and leave behind their calling cards of sickness. Survival Essentials 15

Always bring the survivor attitude. With your survival skills and survival gear you know how to handle virtually any situation that comes up. From being lost in the wilderness, injured, or meeting up with unexpected weather, a survivor is always prepared. The will to survive is paramount to your ability to survive. They go hand in hand, so much so that through the force of your will you can often surmount even the most difficult of circumstances. So whether you are lost in the wilderness or simply enjoying yourself in the great outdoors, the 15 essentials for survival will allow you to exist in relative comfort - and may just allow you to survive. The Survival Gear Checklist For your convenience Survival Topics has compiled a printable Survival Essentials Checklist. Use the list as a basic guide - tailor the list to your specific needs, personal preferences, and the environment you are likely to find yourself in and your personal needs and preferences.