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| BSA Risk Ready hanger, picture by the author |
Most
people who follow the outdoors and survival have heard of the acronym S. T. O.
P., which stands for Stop, or stay put, sit down, stay calm; Think
and evaluate; Observe; Plan and put the plan into action. But when it comes to observing, what are you
supposed to observe?
Recently
I read about the “Survivorman Zones of Assessment”, in an article by Les
Stroud, which was published in the January/February 2018 edition of Scouting
magazine, as “Zone of Assessment”. I have
always enjoyed Les Stroud’s writing, and this was no exception. His article, “Zones of Assessment” was about
how and what to observe and how to inventory what resources you have and what
resources are available to you in the event of an emergency, wilderness or otherwise.
For
a number of years, as a trainer for the Boy Scouts, I have taught S. T. O. P.
as part of an outdoor education program.
It wasn’t until I read Survivorman’s Zones of Assessment, that it
occurred to me that I hadn’t been telling people what to look for, I had just
been telling them to observe. In my
defense, I knew what to look for and I knew what I meant, but as a trainer if
you aren’t clear, then you are a failure.
So, in some ways, this article is an attempt to correct the sins of the
past: if I ever taught you about S. T. O. P in the past, keep reading and that
old lesson will get clearer.
Mr.
Stroud breaks down the O in S. T. O. P. into three zones, Zone 1: Your Body and
Clothes; Zone 2: Your Immediate Vicinity and Zone 3: Your Extended Area. Additionally, he developed a set of questions
to help you assess yourself and the nature of the emergency that you are
experiencing. The three zones make a
very useful framework and with the questions, they will help you concentrate
and focus on the situation and what resources you have to deal with it.
An excerpt from “Zones of Assessment”
by Les Stroud, Scouting magazine, pages 44-45, photograph by the author.
The
Survivorman started with the most important survival tip first, “Calm
down”. If you panic you are no good for
yourself of, for that matter, anyone else: remember PANIC KILLS! Panic is also catchy, and one panicky person
can infect an entire group with this potentially fatal malady. If you are scared or your thoughts are
racing, sit down and take three to five tactical breathes, this will help you
calm down and focus. Repeat the tactical
breathing until you are in control of your thoughts. If you are in a group; and let’s face it you
should always have a buddy, or even better two buddies, when ever you are in
the wilderness (for more on “The Buddy System” go HERE), other members of your
group might be scared. Encourage them to
sit down and calm down, have them take tactical breathes and repeat as
necessary. This would be a good group
exercise to do once you have realize you are “misplaced”, have everyone sit
down and do a round of tactical breathing before starting the assessments: unless
there is an obvious and severe emergency, such as a medical or a weather
situation, that demands immediate action, in which case skip the breathes, deal
with the situation, breathe later.
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| From U.S. Navy, Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, Combat
Tactical Breathing |
Now
that everyone is calm and able to think clearly, and before you check your pockets
to see what you might have in them, that could be useful in your present
situation, the Survivorman suggests that you stop and ask yourself these
questions…
Are you hurt?
Are you tired or hungry?
What are you wearing?
I
would add one other question to the list…
Are you cold or wet?
Be
honest, because the answers to these questions are important. These questions need to be asked of everyone
in the group before any decisions are made, because your answers will shape the
decisions that you make and here is why.
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| Graphic by the author. |
Are
you hurt? Remember the Rule of Threes,
if you or anyone in your group has a severe injury; you have only three minutes
to assess the situation, make a plan and begin treatment, before the injured
person goes into shock, loses consciousness or dies! Even if the wound isn’t immediately life
threatening, you should assess and deal with all injuries before doing anything
else. A minor injury today, might be a
raging infection within three days.
Also, injured people are normally scared and are not able to think
clearly. Help them to think clearly and
stay calm, by attending to their injuries.
Additionally, severely injured people are not going to be able to walk
out, they will have to remain in place until you are found by rescuers, in
which case, it is time to set up an emergency campsite.
Are
you tired or hungry? Are you
thirsty? Tired, thirsty and hungry
people don’t make good decisions. This
is why many survival manuals tell you, that when you first realize you are
“misplaced”, you should sit down, drink some water, have a snack, relax and
calm down. If you are tired and hungry,
it might be better to conserve your energy and setup an emergency campsite,
particularly if it is within two hours of dusk.
Also, when you are exhausted you are accident prone and can stumble. Since falls are the number one form of
accidental death in the wilderness, it might be better to stay put and not try
to walk out, even if you know exactly where you are, if there is a chance that
you could fall.
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| How to determine how much daylight you have remaining. Picture by the
Author. You should always start back to
camp, or if you are misplaced, start building a shelter and a fire, when there
are eight fingers or about two hours of daylight remaining. For more information on how to determine how
much daylight, you have remaining, read my article “Estimating The Time Till
Sunset”, HERE. |
What
are you wearing? Your clothes are your
primary shelter and your first line of defense from bugs and the elements, like
rain or snow, heat, cold or the Sun. Are
you dressed for the worst possible conditions?
Did you bring spare warm clothes, in case it turns cold? Did you bring a hat? Heat loss from your bare head can be up to 33%
at 60oF (15oC), up to 50% at 40oF (4oC)
and up to 75% at 5oF (-15oC)1. Hopefully, you remembered the Boy Scout motto
and are prepared and the answer to these questions is yes! If the answer to these questions is no, then
it might be time to build a shelter and then a fire.
Are
you wet? Are you cold? Do you have dry clothes? I added this one because, statistically,
other than cardiac issues, the three leading killers outdoors are falls,
drowning and hypothermia; and hypothermia is hastened by wet clothes. If you are wet or cold, it is time to pick an
emergency camp site, build a shelter and a fire. It is critical that you keep your body
temperature within its normal ranges.
Also, cold or mildly hypothermic people do not make good decisions and
often have the “stumbles” and are likely to fall, making everything just that
much worse.
What
do you have in your pockets? Now that
the self and group assessments are done, it is time to move on to making an
inventory of useful supplies and resources.
Just like Gollum in The Hobbit, you have to ask yourself and
everyone in the group, “But what has it got in its pocketses, eh…”2? What you have in your pockets might be the
difference between a fairly comfortable night or one that is entirely
miserable: it also might be the difference between life and death! You should always have “The 10 Essentials”
with you whenever you travel in the wilderness, the best place for them is in
your pockets, not in a pack which can get lost.
 |
An excerpt from “Zones of Assessment”
by Les Stroud, Scouting magazine, pages 44-45, photograph by the author.
|
After
you have answered the questions from Zone 1 and inventoried your pockets, it is
time to move onto Zone 2: Your Immediate Vicinity. What can you see around you and what do you
have in your pack? The things around
you, firewood, a large rock, a big tree, a creek and the things in your pack
are all resources that you can use to overcome the challenges of your current
situation. Do you have a tent? Do you have a large trash bag, to make a
shelter with (for more on trash bag shelters go HERE and HERE)? Do you have food and water, first-aid
supplies, warm and dry clothes, a sleeping bag?
Is there plenty of firewood around you, that is easy to gather? Is there a sheltered area or shelter building
supplies within eyesight? Is there a
source of drinking water? Did you bring
a pot to boil water in? Can you take
apart any of your equipment to make the things you need?
 |
An excerpt from “Zones of Assessment”
by Les Stroud, Scouting magazine, pages 44-45, photograph by the author.
|
Now
it is time to inventory Zone 3: Your Extended Area. This is the area around you for a couple of
miles. This assessment is like Zone 1,
in that it is questions and the answer you give will help you create a
plan. Some of this assessment must be done in your
memory…so hopefully you were paying attention!
Do you know of anything not too far
away that can help you, like a cabin?
How soon can you move…if you
can move?
I
added the next two questions, because if the answer is yes, it will make it
easier to answer the last three questions.
Do you have a compass?
Do you have a map of the area, can
you orient it so that you know exactly where you are?
Without
a compass and a map and the training to use them, you will not be able to
answer the next three questions “Yes”, unless you have been walking on a marked
trail and have not left it.
How far are you from safety?
Which direction is safety, and how
difficult will it be for each individual to get there?
What are the challenges to getting to
safety and can you overcome them easily?
If
the answer to any of the questions above is “No”, then it might be time to find
an emergency campsite, build a shelter and start a fire.
And
the last and most important question is…
Does anyone know you are there and,
if so, how long will it be before they attempt a rescue?
Does
anyone know where you are and when you will be back? Will they miss you when
you don’t arrive on time? It is vital
that you tell at least one person where you are going and when you will be
back, telling two people is better. If
you have told someone your plans, searchers will be out looking for you, you
will be okay, over 90% of “misplaced” people are found within 72 hours If you didn’t tell anyone about your plans
then even if someone has missed you, no one knows where to begin the search:
now you are on your own!
Now
that you have an inventory and you have assessed the situation; you can make a
plan. However, you must be absolutely
certain of your observations and assessments.
One over-confident assumption on your part can make your whole plan fail
and potentially land you in an even worse survival situation within a couple of
hours.
Perhaps
your plan will be to wait in place for the search team, in that case pick an emergency
campsite, build a shelter and a fire, gather plenty of firewood, and remember
one arm load of wrist sized sticks is needed each hour3. Perhaps your plan will be to try to walkout. Remember though, if you don’t know exactly
where you are and you try to walk out, chances are good that you are going to
get even more lost and end up in a worse situation.
So,
in any case, make a plan and stick with it, nothing is worse than
indecision! Sure, you can, and should,
re-evaluate your answers and the situation whenever conditions change or at the
beginning of a new day, but don’t change your plans willy-nilly, because then
you are just wasting energy and resources.
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 and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube,
and 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
Notes
1 Captain Earland E. Hedblom, MC, USN; Polar Manual,
Fourth Edition, [National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, MA, 1965], p. 37
2
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: Or There And Back Again, p. 74
3 Craig
White, Canadian survival trainer, personal conversation, November 9, 2019
Sources
Hedblom, Captain Earland E. MC, USN; Polar
Manual, Fourth Edition, [National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, MD,
1965], p. 37, https://ia800305.us.archive.org/33/items/PolarManual4thEd1965/Polar%20Manual%204th%20ed%20%281965%29.pdf, accessed 12/07/2019
Stroud,
Les; “Zones of Assessment”, Scouting, January-February 2018, Volume 106,
Number 1, page 44-45
Tolkien, J. R. R.; The Hobbit: Or There
And Back Again, [Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA, 1996], p. 74
