Sunday, March 13, 2022

The Top Ten Wilderness Survival Skills...Number Eleven©

 

 


This is the eleventh in a series of eleven articles on the top ten wilderness survival skills, things you should know before you go into the wilderness.  To read the previous article go HERE – Author’s Note

 

The Number Eleven, Top Ten Wilderness Survival Skill:

 

The number eleven, top ten wilderness survival skill on my list is...   

But wait”, you say, “how can there be a number eleven on a list of TEN things”!

 

Good question”, as my son likes to say.  Inevitably in any listing of ten things, there are things that just didn’t make the list.  Some of them are important, but not critically important enough, to be included amongst the top ten.

 

The number eleven, top ten wilderness survival skill on my list are three attitudes that you must have to survive a wilderness emergency.  These attitudes are important both after and while you are taking care of other survival priorities.  They are being creative and being willing to change and improvise, having a positive can-do attitude and never, never, never giving up!

 

“Improvise, Adapt and Overcome”

 

In an emergency wilderness situation, things often don’t go according to plan, because if they had gone according to plan, then it wouldn’t be an emergency.  And often, you will find yourself without the proper survival tools, or in poor weather, and you will have to “Improvise, Adapt and Overcome1 to survive.  In a survival situation, you must be able to be creative and to “think outside the box” and use your imagination to overcome the challenges that you are going to be faced with.  You must be willing to change your plans, if necessary, because sometimes the most important thing you can do in a survival situation is to change your plans, particularly if the current situation has become or is becoming unsafe.  For example, you change your plans and decide to camp where you are, instead of canoeing several more miles to get to your planned campsite, because it is less than two hours to dark, and a thunderstorm is on the horizon and headed your way! 

 

This exact situation happened to me in the Adirondacks, during the Summer of 2021, and we ended up camping alongside the portage path from Lilypad Pond to Single Shanty Brook.  And it is a good thing that we changed our plans and camped where we were, because the thunderstorm that was coming was very severe, with high winds and lots of rain.

 

Also, when you are in the middle of a wilderness emergency, 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 facing right now”?

 

This is exactly what Ryan Angus and Jim Dearing did when they decided to burn pages from their copy of Outdoor Survival Skills, by Larry Dean Olsen.  They improvised, adapted, and overcame the problem of having only wet tinder that was stopping them from building the fire that they needed, by repurposing their book and turning it from a source of information on survival, to a source of tinder for their fire.

 

“Book was a help”, From the Ellensburg Daily Record, March 12, 1985.

In a wilderness emergency, be creative, be willing to repurpose gear or things that you have found to meet your current survival needs and be willing to change your plans if circumstances change, the United States Marine Corps, Les Stroud and Bear Grylls all practice the attitude of “...improvise, adapt, overcome...”, you should too! 

 

Outdoor Survival Skills, by Larry Dean Olsen.  Would you burn this book?  Photograph by the Author.

For more on how improvising can save your life in a survival situation, read “Burn This Book! ©”, HERE.

 

Have a positive can-do attitude

 

A quote from Donald Jennings, survival expert, in “Winter Survival Kit Tiny But Effective”, The Evening News, Newburgh, NY, Dec 11, 1977, page 3B


Many people who spend time in the outdoors become fixated on having the best or latest, new-fangled survival gadget and reading all the latest survival books, and while all of that is helpful, it is not what is going to save you in wilderness survival emergency.  According to a Stanford Research Institute study on success, which in a wilderness emergency is survival, success is 88% attitude and 12% training or education.  This statistic is echoed by Gene Fear, who was quoted in “Kids Can Survive In the Wild”, which was written by Steve Scarano, as saying “Survival is 80 percent attitude, 10 percent equipment and 10 percent skill2.  So how do you improve your will to survive?

 

The first thing that you must do is to not give into fear and anxiety.  Conscious fears, which are fears of a real event or a possible event, can be a good thing, as it can sharpen your mind and help you avoid the very real possibilities for disaster that are before you.  However unconscious fear, or anxiety, is something that is to be avoided as it will sap your mental strength and dull your ability to deal with real world problems as they confront you.  Anxiety is often created in your mind as part of a negative-what-if feedback loop, this loop or spiral, is created when someone assumes that the worst will happen, or when you believe that you’re in a worse situation than you really are, or when your mind exaggerates the difficulties that are in front of you.  It is also called “catastrophizing”, by mental health care providers.

 

You must keep a good attitude, a good attitude is something that you must cultivate if ever you are “misplaced” in the wilderness, because if you have a bad attitude, then you are truly “lost”! 

 

Never, never, never give in!

 

An excerpt from Survival: Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, 1969, by the US Air Force, page 1-6.


When it comes to wilderness survival, training and having the proper tools isn’t enough, more important by far is the will to survive.  You must never give in.  In the immortal words of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, at Harrow School, on October 29, 19413, “Never give in.  Never give in.  Never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense.  Never yield to force.  Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy”.

 

Pamela Sullivan, who in 1971 was 18 years old, never gave in!  Even after her two companions died from hypothermia, aggravated by fear and depression, she didn’t give up.  She wanted to live and see her family again and she refused to let being lost in the Three Sisters wilderness of Central Oregon in harsh weather stop her.  Pamela survived when others didn’t, because of her will and desire to survive.

 

Pamela Sullivan, from a “Girl Tells Of Struggle For Survival”, September 20, 1971, Daily News, HERE.


And never, never, ever give up!  For more about Pamela Sullivan and the importance of never giving up, read “Never Give In. Never, Never, Never...©”, HERE.

 

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Weather for Woodsman...Red Sky at Night©”, where we will talk about the old saying “red sky at night, sailors delight...” and weather for woodsmen.

 


 

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

 

 

1Improvise, 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”, it has also been used by Bear Grylls.

 

2 “Kids Can Survive In the Wild” by Steve Scarano, was originally printed in the Family Safe magazine, before being reprinted in October 1989 edition of Scouting magazine and can be found HERE

 

3 From “Prime Minister Winston Churchill's address to Harrow School on October 29, 1941”

 

 

Sources

 

 

“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]

 

Department Of The Air Force, Survival: Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, [Headquarters, US Air Force, Washington, DC, August 15, 1969], page 1-6 https://books.google.com/books?id=UaapWEpqo4cC&pg=RA1-SA4-PA3&dq=Survival:+Training+Edition,+AF+Manual+64-3&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwinjcSEzPzvAhWNF1kFHX3ZAOUQ6AEwAHoECAIQAg#v=onepage&q=Survival%3A%20Training%20Edition%2C%20AF%20Manual%2064-3&f=false, accessed April 13, 2021

 

“Girl Tells Of Struggle For Survival”, September 20, 1971, Daily News, [Bowling Green, Kentucky], page 9, https://books.google.com/books?id=0rsdAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA36&dq=%22girl+tells+of+struggle+for+survival%22&article_id=7072,3837868&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj4jaSkoOrvAhWDMlkFHZX5A44Q6AEwAHoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=%22girl%20tells%20of%20struggle%20for%20survival%22&f=false, accessed April 6, 2021

 

“Prime Minister Winston Churchill's address to Harrow School on October 29, 1941”, http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~jcslee/poetry/churchill_nevergivein.html#:~:text=Never%20give%20in.-,Never%20give%20in.,overwhelming%20might%20of%20the%20enemy, accessed April 6, 2021

 

San Pascual, Jeanne; “Why Attitude Is The Most Important Thing In Success”, February 26, 2015; [© 2021 The Thought & Expression Company, LLC], https://thoughtcatalog.com/jeanne-san-pascual/2015/02/why-attitude-is-the-most-important-thing-in-success/#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20Stanford%20Research,attitude%20and%20only%2012%25%20education, accessed April 13, 2021

 

Scarano, Steve, “Kids Can Survive In the Wild”, Scouting, October 1989, Vol. 77, No. 5, [Boy Scouts of America, Irving, TX], https://books.google.com/books?id=oz06AQAAIAAJ&pg=RA11-PA36&dq=%22steve+scarano%22+%22richard+sparks%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj6s72aybnhAhUSrVkKHV7cBjcQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=%22steve%20scarano%22%20%22richard%20sparks%22&f=false, accessed April 14, 2021

 

“Winter Survival Kit Tiny But Effective”, The Evening News, Newburgh, NY, Dec 11, 1977, page 3B, https://books.google.com/books?id=g-ZfAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA11&dq=pocket+kit+lost+woods&article_id=1064,1800498&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjj1oz2q772AhVnj3IEHRK9CoIQ6AF6BAgHEAI#v=onepage&q=pocket%20kit%20lost%20woods&f=false, accessed March 11, 2022

 

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