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:
“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 Overcome”1 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 skill”2. 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
1 “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”, 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
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“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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