Burn This Book! ©

 

 

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