Do you know what to do
first, second and third, and what questions to ask, if you find yourself
“misplaced” in the wilderness? Do you
know the “Survival Drill”?
The “Survival Drill”, created
in 1972 by North Frontier Communications, is an excellent tool to help you
organize and prioritize survival tasks and ask the important questions that you
must ask if you are to survive. It is a
checklist of actions and questions, which includes two smaller checklists.
There are three problems,
with the “Survival Drill” as it was originally presented by North Frontier
Communications. First, North Frontier
Communications didn’t offer much explanation of the steps of the drill. Second, they left out an important question,
which they assumed you would ask, even though it was not explicitly stated in
the drill. Third, the order of the steps
of the “Unable To Walk Out” checklist doesn’t agree with the “Rule of
Threes”. Therefore, I have fine-tuned
and built upon the original ideas of the writers of the North Frontier
Communications by adding an additional question, reorganizing one of the
checklists and explained the ideas behind the steps of the “Survival Drill”.
First things first, though,
just what is a drill? A drill, as in,
“you know the drill…” is a checklist of steps or actions performed in a
particular order, which you take in a high stress situation: a drill is similar
to a “Standard Operating Procedure” or SOP.
The first step on the
drill is “Lost”. The word lost is used
in a couple of different ways in the “Survival Drill”; at best, it means that
it is too close to nightfall for you to safely walk out, even if you know where
you are. It could also mean that you do
not know where you are or you are injured and in either case, you cannot rescue
yourself safely. At worst, it means that
you have let your sub-conscious and its closet full of fears take control, and
you have panicked. Once you give into
“woods shock” and panic, you will most likely die. A way to control your fears is to never you
the term “lost”, and instead use the word “misplaced”. Lost is a very scary word, as lost things are
not found, since, they are lost.
Misplaced things are found and if you are misplaced, you just have to
wait for the searchers to find you. For
more on “lost” versus “misplaced” and on woods shock, read my article “Getting
Lost And What To Do About It”, Circa 1915” found HERE.
North Frontier
Communications addressed the issue of fear, when they wrote the following,
below the drill: “REMEMBER – Fear is the
only real enemy. Searchers will be out
looking for you as soon as you are missed – make things easy for them.”
Step one, “Face The Fact”;
you are now having and “unexpected adventure” or an “unplanned
overnighter”! You are “misplaced” so,
now what are you going to do about it?
 |
“Stay
Cool, Sit Down, Think”: a quote from “Trainee’s Notebook MATS Survival School”,
by Belmore Browne. Photo by the Author. |
After realizing and
accepting that you are “misplaced”, step two is to “Stay Cool, Sit Down, Think”. Your brain is your number one survival tool
-- use it! The next few decisions that
you make might be the most important one you will ever make, remember. Do not give into your fears and panic, the
best thing you can do is to sit down and think.
Many time lost people who are scared, keep moving, walking or running,
and that just their wastes time and energy and makes it harder for searchers to
find them. More recent survival experts
use the acronym S.T.O.P. to describe the “Stay Cool, Sit Down, Think” stage of
a wilderness emergency.
 |
The
Boy Scouts of America S.T.O.P. Card, picture by the Author. For more on S.T.O.P. go HERE. |
At step three, you ask
yourself two very important questions and your answers to these questions will
determine what you will do next.
Question one is “Are You Injured”: I added this question to the “Survival
Drill”, because while it was implied it was not actually stated. If you are injured, then your very first
task, provided the situation is safe and you are not hanging from your fingers
on the edge of a cliff or are almost surrounded by a wildfire, will be to
perform first aid on yourself. If you
are injured, depending on the nature, location and severity of your injuries,
you may be “Unable To Walk Out”.
 |
| How to determine how much daylight you have remaining, picture by the Author. For more information on how to determine how much daylight you have remaining, go HERE. |
The second question deals
with how much daylight is remaining, so “Check The Time”. Often, this very important question is
ignored or forgotten by wilderness travelers.
You only have so much time before dark, more in the summer and less in
the winter, and often, when by the time you accept that you are “misplaced”, it
will probably be late afternoon. It is
important to remember, that you should never attempt to walkout of the wilderness
when it is dark, even if you know where you are, because the risk of injury or
death is very high if you do. The
authors of “Survival Drill” assume that if it is close to dark, and that means
that the Sun will be down below the horizon in two hours or less, you will be
“Unable To Walk Out”. If you have enough
time to walk out, without crossing the two hours until Sundown deadline, then
you might be “Able To Walk Out”.
If you are uninjured or
have only minor injuries which will not prevent you from walking and there is
enough daylight remaining that you can walk out before dark, then you should
proceed to the “Able To Walk Out” step.
If, on the other hand, your injuries are severe and affect your ability
to move easily or there is not enough time before nightfall for you to walk out,
then you should begin the “Unable To Walk Out” step of the checklist.
“CHECK MAP – Carry a large scale map of the area if possible. Otherwise fix the position of local rivers
and roads, etc., in your mind before starting out from camp so that you have a
good mental map”, “Survival Drill” by North Frontier Communications, 1972
Your first step in the
“Able To Walk Out” checklist is to “Check the Map”. You should always carry a map of the area
that you are going to be exploring, and you should study it before you head
into the wilderness. Once you have
pulled out your map, you must orient it, by turning it so that the North on the
map is pointing to compass north. This
is the first half of the “Orientation” step of the checklist.
“ORIENTATION – Carry a compass, but you can also check direction by
using a watch (point hour hand at sun; bisect angle between hour hand and “12”
to find South), stars (mark direction of pole star with line on ground to
provide basis for next day’s navigation), woodpeckers (they drill for grubs on
South side of tree), snow (melts soonest on South-facing slopes), prevailing
winds (sometimes distort growth of exposed trees)”. “Survival Drill” by
North Frontier Communications, 1972
You should always carry a
compass with you in the wilderness, and I hope that you did, as it will make
orienting the map much easier. If you
did not bring a compass or yours has been lost, then you will have to determine
the general directions from the movements of the Sun, which in the northern
hemisphere rises in the East to Southeast and sets in the West to Northwest,
depending on the season. You could also
use a traditional or digital watch or a shadow stick to find the cardinal
points, North, South, East and West; for more on how to do this check back for future
article on “How To Find Your Way Without A Compass”.
After you have oriented
you map and know which way is North, South, East and West, it is time to orient
yourself. This is the second half of the
“Orientation” step. If you have a map, you
can attempt to locate where you are by observing the terrain around you and
finding it on the map. If you don’t have
a paper map but have a good “mental map” of the area instead, you can try to
find landmarks and terrain features that you recognize. Hopefully, you remembered to turn around and
look behind you at your back trail, as you traveled into the wilderness, as
this will make it easier to recognize landmarks as you try to orient yourself
and as you travel back out.
If you are certain that,
you know where you are then you can try to walk out. With any luck you will find your way out of
the woods, however you should mark your trail by blazing trees or breaking
branches or pushing sticks into your trail, pointing in your direction of
travel, or by arranging rocks or sticks as trail markers; in case you must
return to your starting point because you are “misplaced” again. For more on how to do this check back for
future article on “Trail Marking: How To Find Your Way Back”.
 |
The Rule of Threes, graphic by the Author.
But what do you do if it
is less than two hours to nightfall or if you are injured and cannot walk out
on your own, safely? This is the time
when knowing the “Rule of Threes” will become important to your continuing
survival. The “Rule of Threes” is a
planning tool, which helps you prioritize which actions are the most critical
to your survival. The “Rule of Threes”
states that you cannot survive for more than 3 Minutes without air or with
severe bleeding. You cannot survive for
more than 3 Hours without shelter from a harsh environment, whether it is hot
or cold, or if you are in cold or icy water.
You cannot survive for more than 3 Days without water or sleep, but you
can survive for 3 Weeks without food.
The “Rule of Threes” assume that the rules above them have already been
met, for example, if you have a large quantity of water, yet are bleeding
severely, according to the three-minute rule, the most important action to take
at that moment, is to stop the bleeding.
For more on the “Rule of Threes” go HERE.
I rearranged the steps in the “Unable To Walk Out” checklist on the
“Survival Drill”, so that the steps would agree with the “Rule of Threes”. The original “Survival Drill” had the “Unable
To Walk Out” steps in this order: pick a bivouac site, light fire, prepare
signals, build shelter, and prepare food, drink. I have always taught that it is important to
build a shelter before you light a fire, because you AND the fire, will need
shelter from the wind, the weather, and the Sun. The only exception to the building your
shelter before you light a fire rule, is if you have been in cold or icy water,
in which case you will need to get a fire lit before you become too cold to
light one.
Since you are going to
spend the night in the wilderness, it is time to “Pick Bivouac Site”. This when the “5 W’s” of wilderness survival
are important: wind, water, widow-makers, wood, and wildlife. Wind in a survival situation can dramatically
reduce your core body temperature and the primary function of a shelter is to
block the wind. Ideally, your site will
have trees, rocks, or other natural features that you can use to shelter from
nighttime breezes and the weather. Water,
you need water for drinking and therefore your site should be near water, but
not so near that you have to worry about bugs, flooding, in the case of creeks
or rivers, or wind and weather, in the case of lakes and other large bodies of
water. Widow-makers are the most
dangerous of the “5 W’s” and one of the most frequently overlooked, simply
because people forget to look up. Widow-makers
are dead trees or trees with large dead branches or snags stuck in their crowns
that could come crashing down on you in case of a storm. Wood, your site should offer plenty of downed
wood for building a shelter or for a fire.
Fallen branches or downed dead trees are important, because in a survival
situation you might not have an axe or a saw or be too badly injured to use
one. Lastly, wildlife, mostly animals
will leave you alone, but selecting a bivouac site near their den, near an
insect nest, on a path they frequent or near a food or water source might bring
you into conflict with them. Once in
Algonquin, I was caught by nightfall and I had to camp on a portage path, that night
a moose wandered down the path and kicked into tent guy-lines. Looking back, a better plan would have been
to pitch my tent in the brush besides the path.
Other things to look for in a bivouac site, would be a nearby, large
open area, visible from above, where you can put out rescue signals and where
the trees won’t disperse a column of smoke.
Lastly, a good shelter site should not be the near the largest tree in
the area, as they are the most likely to attract lightning.
Your first task is to get
out of the wind, the sun and the rain or the snow, so “Build Shelter”. If it is rainy, snowy, or windy, and you have
remembered to bring a poncho or a trash bag, find a natural shelter, get out of
the wind and the wet and use your rain gear.
Do not be out in the wind and the wet building a shelter, when you can
huddle in your rain gear and conserve scarce body heat. For more on “Using your poncho or a trash bag
as an Emergency Shelter”, go HERE and HERE.
If it is daytime in the desert, get out of the sun and the wind as soon
as possible to conserve precious body fluids.
Also, in areas where it gets cold at night, remember to build an
emergency bough bed, because you will lose much of your precious body heat to the
ground by conduction. For information on
“Making an Emergency Bough Bed”, go HERE and HERE.
Also, for more on emergency shelters check back, as I will be publishing
an article soon on how to build emergency shelters.
Your next step is to
“Light Fire” and for that, you are going to need kindling, tinder, fuel, and a
source of ignition. One mistake people
make, beyond not bringing matches, a lighter, kindling, a candle, etc., with
them is not gathering enough fuel. You
want to have all your wood gathered before it is dark, as it is difficult to
gather wood in the dark and it is very easy to get hurt. It takes a lot of wood to get through the
night and a good rule of thumb is to gather what you think you need and then
double or even triple that amount. You
can also measure your fire’s consumption of wood for an hour and then multiply
this amount by the number of hours it will be dark.
Now that you have the
shelter built, the wood gathered and fire going, it is time to “Prepare Food,
Drink”. Sit down, conserve energy, if
you have some food you can either eat it or save it, depending on how hungry
you are. Never eat if you do not have
enough water, as digestion uses up body fluids.
If you have water drink it, do not save it: if you can warm it up over
your fire, warm it up. For more on
water, survival and dehydration, read my article “What is Dehydration and How
Do You Avoid It?” found HERE.
After you have rested and
had something to eat and drink and if it is still light out, “Prepare
Signals”. Remember three of anything is
a signal of distress and signals must be large and stand out from the
background: dark on light or light on dark or brightly colored. The U.S. Coast Guard recommends that each
letter of an SOS be 18 feet by 3 feet.
Signal fires should be in groups of three, in either a straight line or
in a triangle, since one fire looks like a campout and two in a line looks like
a party.
“Tell people at camp where you are going and when you’ll be back”
“Survival Drill” by North Frontier Communications, 1972
I hope that you told
someone where you were going and when you would be back and you didn’t change
your plans without telling someone, because now comes the hardest part, where
you sit and “Wait For The Searchers”.
The searchers should find you in the next 72 hours, as long as you stay
put, if you wander you simply make it harder for the searchers to catch up with
you. Devon O’Neill, writing in Outside
online, noted that statistically most “misplaced” persons are found within 72
hours of being reported missing. He also
wrote that, according to Paul Anderson a 42-year veteran of the National Park
Service who spent 11 years as superintendent of Denali National Park, 85% “misplaced”
persons are found within the first 12 hours and 97% within the first 24 hours
of being reported missing. So, gather
more firewood, improve your shelter, improve your signals, boil some water, and
talk to the trees, but do not leave your bivouac site, help is on the way.
Sources
Anderson, Gareth, Safety
Officer and Marsh, Col. John F.; YOU ALONE in the MAINE WOODS,
[Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Maine, 10th Edition
2003] p. 26 https://www.maine.gov/ifw/docs/aloneinmainewoods.pdf
Accessed 5/17/2019
Browne, Belmore; The
Airman’s Arctic Survival Guide, [Salty Press, 2014]
Garza, Dolly; Outdoor
Survival Training For Alaska’s Youth: Instructors Manual, [Alaska Sea Grant
College Program, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, Third
Printing 2005] p. 30-31
O’Neill, Devon “How Backcountry Search and Rescue Works”, [Outside, March
4, 2016], https://www.outsideonline.com/2059616/how-backcountry-search-and-rescue-works, Accessed 10/09/2018
Risk, Paul H.; Outdoor
Safety and Survival, [John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY 1983] p.
284-285
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