Shelter
Protect yourself from danger, weather and temperature.
Keep body core temperature. Hypothermia and heat stroke can kill you within minutes
Critical elements/gear in cold temperatures
Thermal Blankets
Fire
Critical elements/gear in hot temperatures
Shade - cover, tarp etc
Hydration. Which brings us to our next subject
After keeping you body temperature, keeping yourself hydrated is your next priority. Dehydration can kill you in a matter of a coupe of days.
Once you find water, you will need to make sure it is drinkable. There could be unseen pollutants or pathogens, so you do need to be careful. Even if it’s from a mountain stream, there are usually bacteria or other microorganisms present in any natural water supply; filtering the water through charcoal will remove any dirt or debris, but you need to make sure you kill those microscopic pests by boiling any water you intend on drinking.
Uses: Heat, water purification & cooking
Next to water, or perhaps equal to in importance, finding the way to make a fire is at the top of your survival “to do” list. You need a fire to help you boil water to make it safe to drink; to cook any food, especially any wild fish, animals or eggs you manage to snare; to help you stay warm, especially when the temperature drops at night; to keep dangerous animals away; to provide you with a sense of security and last but not least, to visibly signal any possible search and rescue teams as to your location.
Building a fire is a gradual process that you cannot skip steps on. If you don’t have enough of a flame or ember base before you add the larger pieces of wood, the only thing you will succeed in doing is killing your fire before it even gets started. Make sure that you have enough wood stockpiled each day so you can keep your fire going all night long, and keep checking the fire to make sure it does not go out on you: you worked too hard to start it to begin with! Check out our post 101 Ways to Start a Fire
Once your water sources have been secure its time to work on finding food.
· Weakness
· Irritability and low morale
· Confusion, disorientation and poor judgment
· Weakened immune system
· Inability or difficulty in maintaining normal body temperature
As long as you know where to look, and what to look for, it’s fairly easy to find food no matter where you are. If you make sure you have a basic knowledge of hunting, fishing and trapping animals, you should do fine. Check out our section food procurement here
You should also know what plants (lichens or fungi) you can and cannot eat. A good basic edibility test before you try to eat something that may be unfamiliar, is to make a minor fingernail scratch on your skin and then rub the plant over that area.
Once you've ascertained what you can eat, do your best to eat as balanced a diet as possible, especially if you are going to need to survive for a long period of time.
If you establish continuous shelter, water, fire and food sources, you should technically be able to survive for a while, but getting rescued can greatly improve your chances of survival,
Common useful communication equipment includes:
Ham Radio
Whistle
Signalling mirrors
Flashlights
See the following post 10 tips for getting rescued, Signaling and Communication in the wilderness
In a survival situation it may be very necessary to operate below the radar, and keep a very low profile to avoid detection. If your communication efforts are focused on communicating with team or family members you may want to choose a communication system that is silent or at least stealthy. Communications can be as sophisticated as a radio systems, or something as simple as a flashlight or signaling mirrors.
There has to be a level of coordination and communication setup before and disaster or survival situation arises, this is something you want learn before you need to actually use it.