Emergency Shelter, Part Three©

 

Author’s note -- I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

Could you survive?  You’re on an open hillside, a storm is rolling in from the west, heading your way, it’s already started to rain, and your miles from camp.   You decide to stay where you are, immediately seeking shelter and making do with the available terrain. 

It is assumed in the question that you do not have a tent or a sleeping bag with you and according to the Airforce survival specialists at Fairchild AFB, choice ‘D’ is the worst possible decision you could make.  However, if that’s your answer, then how do you make it work and what do you do to survive the next couple of hours?

 

First off, you need protection from the wind, as wind will enhance heat loss from convection and combines with conduction and evaporation to further chill you.  Convection alone is responsible for about 15 percent of the body’s heat loss, and evaporation from a body at rest can add another 20 percent. 

Look for a large boulder, a natural parapet, a tree trunk, the root ball of a downed tree, anything to block the wind.  You can make a windbreak of rocks or logs, or if you are in a snow field, you can make a wall of snow blocks or kick out a snow-hole.

 

Next you need shelter from the rain.  It is important to stay dry, because wet clothing conducts heat away from your body 25 times faster than dry clothing, and moisture evaporating from wet layers of clothing also causes substantial heat loss.  Also wet clothes lose their ability to trap air, significantly lowering their insulating ability.  

 

 

If you have a plastic trash bag you can quickly make a trash-bag shelter.  If you have a space blanket, which when unfolded measure around 52” x 84, or a similarly sized piece of plastic or tarpaulin, you can either make a match-coat or any type of tarp shelter to protect yourself from the rain.

 

Trash-bag shelters are highly effective in cold, wet, or windy conditions.  They prevent hypothermia by trapping your body heat, acting as a vapor barrier and a windbreak, and can significantly increase the temperature inside the bag.  An experiment on YouTube by Alex Coker showing a trash-bag shelter raising the interior temperature from 29°F (-1.6°C) up to 90°F (32°C) in just a few minutes,

 

Use a large (55-gallon), 3-mil thick contractor bag rather than a thin household garbage bag for better durability. 

Cut a small, roughly 5-inch hole in one corner or at the top of the bag as a face hole.  The hole allows you to breathe, preventing suffocation and condensation from your breath building up inside the bag, wetting and chilling you.  Avoid making the hole too large, as this allows heat to escape and reduces the shelter's effectiveness.

 

Some authors suggest cutting two arm holes to create a “poncho”, however the more holes you put in the bag the more your body heat will escape.  

 

Place the bag over your head, pulling the bag down over your body.  Remember your shelter should only be large enough for you to sit or lie down in.  A smaller space is easier to heat.  Also tuck the bottom of the bag under your legs to prevent a “chimney-effect”, as the body-warmed air escapes up through the face hole and draws in cold air from below.

 

Don’t sit on the ground. 

Pile up dry insulation, like leaves, spruce boughs, your pack, because the ground will drain your body heat much faster than the air.  If nothing else, crouch so that only your feet touch the ground.

 

Stuff the bag for added insulation, with dry leaves, grass, or pine needles to increase its effectiveness by providing loft and actual insulation, rather than it just being a vapor barrier.

 

Black bags absorb solar energy during the day to help warm the inside but are harder for rescuers to see.  Orange bags are easier to see, but don’t absorb as much warmth from the Sun.

 

If possible, remove any wet clothes before using a trash-bag shelter, as wet clothing significantly accelerates hypothermia.  Removing wet clothing or using a vapor barrier to decrease convection and evaporation can reduce total heat loss by 19–42% 

       

Why Take Them Off?  Wet clothes against your skin will draw body heat away, even if you are out of the wind.  If you have dry spares, change into dry clothes before getting into the shelter.  If you don’t have dry spare clothing, remove your wet clothes and wring them out before putting them back and entering your shelter.  This reduces evaporative heat loss, allowing your body to warm up faster. 

 

When should you keep them on?  If stripping down to remove your wet clothing puts you in an immediate, severe danger of freezing due to extreme, gusty cold, leave them on to provide a small amount of insulation and use the shelter bag as a wind and vapor barrier.  However, your priority is to get dry as soon as possible.

 

For more information on trash-bag shelters read “Using your poncho or a trash bag as an Emergency Shelter ©”, HERE.

 

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Tea Candles can Save Your Life!©”, where we will talk how tea candles can save your life.

 

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Sources

 

Associated Press; “Lejeune Marines learning to cope with cold weather”, Wilmington Morning Star, March 3, 1981 page 2B, https://books.google.com/books?id=u0dOAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=candle+survival&article_id=2981,686314&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwicp9nzlPGTAxWohysGHYpzGXUQ6AF6BAgMEAM#v=onepage&q=candle%20survival&f=false, accessed April 18, 2026

 

Auerbach, Paul S. Ed.; Auerbach's Wilderness Medicine E-Book, 7^th Edition, Elsevier, page 1333, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Auerbach_s_Wilderness_Medicine_E_Book/O2EgDQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=survival+wind+barrier+%22plastic+bag%22+wilderness&pg=PA1333&printsec=frontcover, April 18, 2026

 

Hagen LT, Brattebø G, Dipl-Math JA, Wiggen Ø, Østerås Ø, Mydske S, Thomassen Ø.; “Effect of wet clothing removal on skin temperature in subjects exposed to cold and wrapped in a vapor barrier: a human, randomized, crossover field study”, BMC Emergency Medicine, January 25, 2024, Vol. 24, No. 1, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10809790/pdf/12873_2024_Article_937.pdf, accessed April 18, 2026

 

Henriksson, Otto; Lundgren, Peter; Kuklane, Kalev; Holmér, Ingvar; Naredi, Peter and Björnstig, Ulf; “Protection against Cold in Prehospital Care: Evaporative Heat Loss Reduction by Wet Clothing Removal or the Addition of a Vapor Barrier—A Thermal Manikin Study”, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, March 2012, Vol. 57, paged 53 to 58, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221973839_Protection_against_Cold_in_Prehospital_Care_Evaporative_Heat_Loss_Reduction_by_Wet_Clothing_Removal_or_the_Addition_of_a_Vapor_Barrier-A_Thermal_Manikin_Study, access April 18, 2026

 

OpenStax CNX; “Anatomy and Physiology II: Module 8: Metabolism and Nutrition”, https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-ap2/chapter/energy-and-heat-balance/#:~:text=When%20the%20environment%20is%20not,be%20replaced%20by%20cooler%20water, accessed April 18, 2026