Sample Search & Rescue Packlist

 

Wilderness Preparation for Kids

(original)

(updated)

Ah, camping in the National Park.  Warm days and cold nights.  Birds chirping, chipmunks scampering, and a brook bubbling nearby.  Peace and tranquility.  A stark contrast to the chaos of your hectic work and kids' schedules.  For the first time in months, you sit down to read a book.  You glance over to your smiling spouse doing the same.  You catch a glimpse of your two kids playing near the tent.  Time slows down.

Sometime later, your daughter disturbs your serenity, "Colton's gone."
"What do you mean Colton's gone?  Where is he hiding?"
Now, you see on her face and hear in her voice real concern,  "He's gone."

Your son is missing.  What should you do?

Hasty Search

Once you realize your child is missing, actively search, not become a missing person yourself.

Activate Search & Rescue

If you do not find your child quickly, get help.  Search & Rescue (SAR) volunteers would rather be recalled knowing your child is found safe versus losing precious search time while you 'make sure' the child is actually missing.

Preparation

Before you and your family venture out, train and equip each family member to deal with becoming lost and spending an unexpected night alone in the wilderness.  Basic training and equipment greatly increase the odds of surviving the ordeal.     

Stop Moving.  The moment you realize you're lost, find a safe spot^1, and stop moving. This helps rescuers find you faster.

Build a Nest.  Make a nest of boughs², pine needles, leaves, or anything else to keep you directing off the ground.  Sitting directly on the ground sucks the heat out of your body.³  A small foam pad works great.  

Emergency Shelter (immediate action shelter⁴).   Put on your whistle (see below), climb into your emergency shelter, and sit in your nest on a foam pad or your backpack. 

Whistle.  Once in your shelter, start blowing your whistle every 10 minutes or so.  The sound of a whistle carries much further than your voice. 

Water.  Carry at least a quart; more if you are in an arid environment. 

Food.  A favorite candy bar or two will do two things for you:  1) help maintain a positive attitude, and 2) stoke your body's internal furnace generating heat from within.  

Something from home.  A small toy or stuffed animal can do wonders for maintaining a positive attitude.

Footnotes

¹Choose a spot clear of potential falling objects from the environment (branches, trees, rocks, etc.)
       

²Boughs: It could be pine, spruce, fir, etc.

³Conduction:   The transfer of heat through direct contact with an object.  Heat flows from the warmer object to the cooler one.  If you sit on the ground, heat conducts away from your body and into the ground. 

⁴An immediate action shelter is a windproof, waterproof barrier that traps your body's heat.  Choose a blue shelter to maximize your visibility to SAR.

Survival Gear
Whistle
Immediate Action Shelter (adults)
Immediate Action Shelter (children)

98.6F - Cold Weather Clothing

Excerpts from our new book The Handbook for Survival Sense in the Outdoors

Virtually every process in the body, including problem solving capabilities, tie directly to proper body temperature.  Maintaining thermal balance (98.6°F) remains one of the most important personal goals in any survival situation.  Given the human body’s narrow functional temperature range of about 12 degrees (+/- 6°F), self-help becomes impossible below 92°F and above 104°F.

Proper Clothing for Cold

Try to protect areas of the body that lose a lot of heat when exposed, and protect the extremities (hands and feet) critical to solving survival problems.  Pay close attention to the head and neck, the sternum, the lateral sides of the body, the groin, the hands, and feet.

     1.   Wearing clothing in layers helps insulate and ventilate as necessary.  

           (Many thin layers work better than one thick layer.)

           a.   Base layer:  non-cotton long underwear

           b.   Insulation layer:  fleece or wool work well

           c.   Environmental layer:  windproof / waterproof (breathable)

     2.   Avoid constricting garments, especially at wrist, neck, waist, ankles, and feet.  

           (Constriction tends to cause cold hands and feet.)

     3.   Keep clothing as dry and clean as possible.

           4.   Wear darker colors in winter climates.  (Dark colors absorb heat energy from the sun.)

           5.   A warm head usually means warm feet as well.  (Warm cold feet by putting on a hat.)

           6.   Never overheat from excessive activity without shedding layers.  

                 (Try not to get wet from perspiration on the inside of clothing.)

      Order yours here:  The Handbook for Survival Sense in the Outdoors

Physical Fitness + Proper Nutrition = Increased Survivability (and More)

Busy schedules make it challenging to live a healthy lifestyle. Yet, I believe the benefits of physical fitness and proper nutrition justify your time commitment. Below are three benefits from living a healthy lifestyle:

1) Feel better.
Speaking personally, when I feel better, I am an improved husband, father, and teacher.

2) Live Longer.
There are no guarantees, but all things being equal, physical fitness and proper nutrition keep you healthier longer.

3) Increase survivability.
In a survival situation, your odds for survival are better when you're healthy. You have more options. A perfect example is my friend who was able to walk down dozens of flights of stairs in order to escape out of the North Tower on 9/11. Those who were unable to walk down the stairs perished.

Where do you start?   With your doctor's help, design a healthy lifestyle specifically for you. Then start. Start small if needed, but for heaven's sake, start.

You, your family, your friends, and coworkers will all benefit.

Start now.

Chris

Winter Driving by Peter Kummerfeldt

Winter is here.  Cold, wind, snow, and ice make winter travel challenging at best and dangerous at worst.  Oftentimes, vehicles get stuck in these conditions forcing the occupants to spend an unexpected night or two out in dangerous weather.  Fortunately, this need not be a life-threatening experience.

Give yourself the Best Odds for Survival before traveling

1.          Assemble an emergency kit (see below) based on your personal needs, the season, and the geographic location.  If you become stranded, this kit becomes your lifeline until you are rescued.

2.          Tell someone your destination and approximate arrival time.  This way, if you are overdue, someone starts looking for you, thus shortening the time of the ordeal.

3.          Dress to survive, not just to arrive!  When the engine turns off, the temperature inside the car nears outside temperatures.  In other words, if it is -5°F outside, it will be close to -5°F inside. 

4.          Never set out in stormy conditions without a full tank of gas, a good battery, proper tires, a heater and exhaust system in good working condition, good anti-freeze, and a good dose of common sense. 

After getting stuck, 

1.          Stay calm and don't panic!  Many panic and wander onto an icy road only to be struck by an out-of-control vehicle.

2.          Stay with the vehicle and emergency kit.  First, being windproof and waterproof, your vehicle makes a good shelter.  Secondly, because of its size, the vehicle likely will be found before you.  Digging yourself out or walking for help oftentimes proves fatal.  Let the rescuers find you!

3.          Move emergency equipment and other useful gear into the passenger compartment.

  

Next, make the vehicle into a shelter.  While the car protects from wind and wetness, you must warm the interior.

1.          Put on your warmest clothes (socks, hat, gloves, long underwear, and additional insulation layers) and wrap yourself in blankets - or get inside a sleeping bag - before becoming cold.

2.          Sit sideways on the seat or place cushions on the foot wells.  Otherwise, your feet get cold.

3.          Place insulation (foam, cardboard, extra clothing) over windows, so your head stays off the cold window when you lean back.

4.     Using plastic, a space blanket, or a tarp and duct tape, partition off the back of the vehicle from the front, so you only warm the part of the vehicle you occupy.

5.     Before starting your vehicle, ensure snow- and damage-free exhaust.  Then, run the engine for ten minutes each hour or five minutes each half hour.  With the car running, turn the radio on for news and weather.  Do not go to sleep with the engine running. (See carbon monoxide warning below.)

6.     To create heat without running the car, you can use long-burning candles, small stoves, and Isopropyl alcohol/toilet paper improvised heaters.  (See carbon monoxide warning below.)

7.     (Carbon monoxide warning)  If running the car or using fire for heat, ventilate the vehicle by opening a downwind window approximately one inch.  Carbon monoxide presents a very real threat to your safety.  Its deadly effects sneak up without warning.  Carbon monoxide poisoning from vehicle exhausts causes almost 60% of unintentional deaths in the United States annually.

8.        Produce internal heat via metabolism by eating carbohydrate- and fat-rich foods.  Your emergency kits need to include quantities of high-calorie, non-perishable food items (for example, trail mix and carbohydrate food bars).

9.     Stay hydrated.  Your blood circulates heat from the core to extremities such as fingers, toes, ears, and nose.  Dehydration reduces the amount of warm blood circulating throughout the body, thus increasing the chance of cold injuries such as frostbite.  (Don’t eat snow!  It takes body heat to convert snow to liquid.  Instead, use a heat source to melt snow for drinking water.)

10.   Don’t smoke.  The nicotine in cigarettes reduces blood flow to the skin and extremities, increasing the possibility of frostbite.

11.   Don’t drink alcohol.  It affects judgment.  Bad judgment decreases your chances of survival.

12.   Lastly, if getting out of the vehicle in a blizzard, put on snow goggles (if you have them) and tie a lifeline to yourself and the door handle before moving away from the vehicle's proximity.  In white-out conditions, visibility reduces to as low as 12 inches. 

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Vehicle Emergency Kit

□      Blankets or sleeping bags

□      Book to read

□      Booster cables

□      Cat litter

□      Cell phone with charger

□      Chemical hand warmers

□      Cordage (50')

□      Duct tape

□      Emergency candles

□      Fire Kit:  cotton balls and Vaseline, metal match, matches, and fatwood

□      First-aid kit

□      Flagging tape

□      Flashlight and spare batteries

□      Food (three dehydrated meals plus additional calorie-dense foods)

□      Gloves

□      Knife and saw

□      Lightsticks

□      Metal cup

□      Multi-purpose tool

□      Personal medications

□      Portable radio with spare batteries

□      Road flares

□      Shovel (folding or breakdown)

□      Ski goggles

□      Small stove

□      98.6 Shelters for all family members

□      Toilet paper and wipes

□      Tools to include jack & spare tire

□      Tow strap

□      Two empty cans (one for melting snow & the other for sanitary purposes)

□      Water (4 quarts minimum)

□      Windshield scraper and brush

□      Winter clothing

□      Winter footwear

     Peter Kummerfeldt has walked the talk in the wilderness survival field for decades. Peter grew up in Kenya, East Africa and came to America in 1965 and joined the U.S. Air Force. He is a graduate of the Air Force Survival Instructor Training School and has served as an instructor at the Basic Survival School, Spokane, Washington; the Arctic Survival School, Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Jungle Survival School, Republic of the Philippines.

For twelve years, Peter was the Survival Training Director at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He retired from the Air Force in 1995 after 30 years of service.
 

In 1992, concerned with the number of accidents that were occurring in the outdoors annually and the number of tourists traveling overseas who were involved in unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening incidents Peter created OutdoorSafe, Inc.

He is the author of Surviving a Wilderness Emergency and has addressed over 20,000 people as the featured speaker at numerous seminars, conferences and national conventions.