Outdoor Survival Skills, by Larry Dean Olsen. Would you burn this book? Photograph by the Author.
Would
you burn this book...yes, or no?
What
if you are “misplaced”, it’s close to dark and you are stuck on a rock
ledge, and you need to start a fire, but it is foggy, and all your tinder and
kindling is wet, and you have been trying to get the fire lit for two hours
with no luck? Would you burn it
then?
“2 stranded teens burn pages from survival book, and blaze leads to rescue”, The Deseret News, March 11, 1985.
This
is the dilemma that Ryan Angus and Jim Dearing faced
in canyon near Salt Lake City, at 6:00 pm on March 10, 19851, and
they burned the book!
The
two boys, who were 14 years old at the time, had been hiking and rock climbing in
Bell Canyon, Utah, southeast of Salt Lake City.
They were dressed for the chilly weather, but it had was becoming foggy
and according to Ryan, “We decided to climb down as far as we could go”. But by 6:00 p.m., Ryan reported that, “the
fog was so bad that we just decided to stop and make a shelter and start a fire”. They were fogged in and stranded on a ledge, they
needed to start a fire to signal for help and for warmth. But all the tinder and kindling was damp from
the fog, and after two hours they decided to “Improvise,
Adapt and Overcome”2 and burn pages from a copy of Outdoor
Survival Skills, by Larry Dean Olsen, to get their fire lit.
“Improvise,
Adapt and Overcome”
In
an emergency wilderness situation, things don’t go according to plan, because
if they had gone according to plan, then it wouldn’t be an emergency. Many times, you will find yourself without
the proper survival tools, or in poor weather, and you will have to “Improvise,
Adapt and Overcome” to survive. In a
survival situation, you must be able to “think outside the box” and use
your imagination to overcome the challenges that you are going to be faced
with. You must ask yourself the question,
“What do I have in my pockets, in my pack or around me in the environment,
that I can repurpose and use to solve the problem or problems that I am faced
with”?
This
is exactly what Ryan Angus and Jim Dearing did when they burnt pages from their
copy of Outdoor Survival Skills, by Larry Dean Olsen. They improvised, adapted, and overcame the
problem of wet tinder that they faced, by repurposing their book, turning it
from a source of information on survival, into a source of tinder.
“And now
you know ... the rest of the story”
Paul Harvey
So,
what happened to Ryan and Jim, after they improvised, adapted, and overcame
their problem by burning their book?
In
Ryan’s words, “Yeah, we read it – and then we burned it”. He continued with “It was so hard to start
the fire, it took us about two hours to start the fire. So, we started ripping out the pages and it
started right up”. Ryan finished by
saying, “I said to myself, ‘Why didn’t we think of this before’”?
The
boy’s fire was spotted by rescuers shortly before midnight and they were
airlifted from the ledge, by a Life Flight helicopter at 12:55 a.m.
Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Fire Burn and Cauldron
Bubble ©”, where we will talk about disinfecting water and the five stages of
boiling.
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!
Notes
1
This story was widely reprinted across the United States, below are some excerpts
from different newspapers.
“Book on survival makes a good fire”, Altus Times, March 13, 1985.
“Book was a help”, Ellensburg Daily Record, March 12, 1985.
“Survival book makes a good fire-starter”, The Bryan Times, March 14, 1985.
“Sometimes, going by the book just doesn’t get results”, St Petersburg Times, March 12, 1985.
2
“Improvise, adapt and overcome” is the unofficial slogan of the Marine Corps. It became popular after it was spoken by
Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Highway, played by Clint Eastwood, in the movie “Heartbreak
Ridge”.
Sources
“2
stranded teens burn pages from survival book, and blaze leads to rescue”, The
Deseret News, March 11, 1985,
[Salt Lake City, Utah], Page 8 A, https://books.google.com/books?id=1S5TAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA5&dq=wilderness+survival+pamphlet&article_id=7007,4758777&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiL5vmkwsX0AhWpj3IEHR9eDwoQ6AF6BAgJEAI#v=onepage&q=wilderness%20survival%20pamphlet&f=false, accessed
December 5, 2021
“Book
on survival makes a good fire”, Altus Times, March 13, 1985,
[Altus, Oklahoma], page 3, https://books.google.com/books?id=DhFDAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA3&dq=wilderness+survival+pamphlet&article_id=4530,1151561&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiL5vmkwsX0AhWpj3IEHR9eDwoQ6AF6BAgCEAI#v=onepage&q=wilderness%20survival%20pamphlet&f=false, accessed December 5, 2021
“Book
was a help”, Ellensburg Daily Record, March 12, 1985,
[Ellensburg, Washington], page 11, https://books.google.com/books?id=rplUAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA11&dq=%22Book+was+a+help%22+Ellensburg&article_id=5622,7812830&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwixleLit_H0AhUZjIkEHXs0DHsQ6AF6BAgCEAI#v=onepage&q=%22Book%20was%20a%20help%22%20Ellensburg&f=false,
accessed December 5, 2021
Olsen,
Larry Dean; Outdoor Survival Skills, [Pocket Books, New York, 1976]
“Sometimes,
going by the book just doesn’t get results”, St Petersburg Times, March 12,
1985,
Vol. 101, No. 231 [St. Petersburg, Florida], page 1, https://books.google.com/books?id=wnhIAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=wilderness+survival+pamphlet&article_id=2709,4071242&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6gIim0cX0AhUxj4kEHUmMA9MQ6AF6BAgCEAI#v=onepage&q=wilderness%20survival%20pamphlet&f=false,
accessed December 5, 2021
“Survival book makes a
good fire-starter”, The Bryan Times, March 14, 1985, [Bryan, Ohio], Page 2, https://books.google.com/books?id=VrlPAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA14&dq=wilderness+survival+pamphlet&article_id=5772,6439460&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6gIim0cX0AhUxj4kEHUmMA9MQ6AF6BAgLEAI#v=onepage&q=wilderness%20survival%20pamphlet&f=false,
accessed December 5, 2021
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