Preparing for the Unexpected

Coping in Remote Areas

Planning and preparation should keep you from having an outdoor misadventure. If something does go wrong—your snowmobile breaks down, you run out of gas in a remote area, or you’re injured and can’t travel—switch into survival mode.

You now have three priorities: shelter, fire, and signal. After addressing these priorities, you can focus on water and food.

Preparing a Shelter

• Start preparing your camp well before dark. Look for a natural shelter, such as a rock overhang or a thick stand of evergreens. The site should be dry and well-drained and should offer protection from the wind. Ideally, it also should be near water and plenty of firewood.
• Consider laying out your shelter site so that your snowmobile will be visible by a rescue aircraft.
• If no natural shelter is available, you can build a lean-to. A lean-to is constructed by leaning branches against a horizontal support to form a roof.
  • Orient the opening of the lean-to away from the wind.
  • Cover the frame with evergreen branches to block out wind or precipitation (or use a tarp if you brought one). Leaves and twigs are another option.
  • For additional protection, add side walls to the lean-to and insulate the floor with evergreen branches or leaves.
• Place your snowmobile in the shelter’s opening to act as a wind break.

Remember … If you’re lost in a blizzard or thick fog, don’t waste valuable time and energy traveling around aimlessly. Instead, stay calm and go into survival mode, especially after dark. Build a shelter and a fire.

Building and Extinguishing a Fire

Deciding Whether You Need a Fire

Ask yourself the following questions.

• What’s the fire danger for this time of year and this area?
• Are there restrictions that make a fire illegal?
• Is there enough wood so that its removal will not damage the immediate area?
• Does your group know the appropriate way to build a fire that will leave no impact on the area? (The good rule of thumb is to build fires in existing fire rings.)

Selecting a Good Fire Site

• Build your fire where its heat will radiate into the shelter but not so close that flames could block your exit. Your sleeping area should be located between the shelter wall and the fire.
• Where there is snow on the ground, build the fire on a platform of green logs or rocks.
• If the terrain is dry, clear a patch of bare dirt to avoid starting a grass or forest fire.
• Gather everything you need before starting the fire. Place fuel ranging from small twigs to fuel logs so that it’s convenient to the fire site.
• Collect more fuel than you think you can use.
• Have material for extinguishing the fire, such as water, snow, or dirt, nearby.

Practicing Responsible Fire Safety

A teepee of larger sticks enclosing the kindling is a good way to start a fire.

A “cold-out” test ensures that a fire is completely out.

• Make sure everyone in your group practices responsible fire safety.
  • Build campfires only in safe proximity to your shelter and away from heavy fuels such as logs or brush. Consider wind direction in choosing a location for the fire.
  • Never leave a fire unattended.
  • Teach everyone how to do the “cold-out” test described in “Extinguishing the Fire.”
• Always fully extinguish any fire with water or snow before leaving your camp.

Building the Fire

• Pile fine twigs, grass, or bark shavings loosely as a base. If you can’t find dry kindling, remove bark from trees. Then use your knife to shave dry wood from the inside of the bark.
• Place slightly larger sticks on the starter material until you have a pile about 10 inches high.
• If there’s no breeze, light the kindling in the middle of the base. If there is a breeze, light one end of the kindling so that the flame will be blown toward the rest of the fuel.
• As the kindling lights and the flames spread to the larger twigs, slowly add more wood to the blaze. Add larger pieces as the fire grows. A large fire will throw more heat and be easier to maintain.

Extinguishing the Fire

• Near the end of the fire, stop adding fuel. Add small, singed bits of wood to the fire to use them up.
• Allow the fire to burn fully to white ash. Extinguish it with water or snow.
• Perform a “cold-out” test. When you are certain that the fire is out, use your fingers to feel through the cold ash.
• Disperse the ash remains over the area. If necessary to avoid polluting sources of water such as a river, take the ash with you in your trash pack to dispose of when you return home.

Signaling for Help

• If you can’t continue on your outing and have to wait for rescue, prepare help signals as soon as possible.
• The international emergency sign for distress is three of any signal:
  • Three fires evenly spaced
  • Three blasts on a whistle
  • Three flashes with a mirror
• If you’re near an open space, walk a large “X” in the grass, sand, or snow. If possible, outline it with rocks or branches. Do whatever you can to make it easier to see from a distance.

Drinking Enough Water

• Even in cool weather, you need two to four quarts of water a day. Under most conditions, humans can only last about three days without water.
• Pure drinking water is rare, even in the most remote regions. Clear mountain streams often are contaminated by Giardia lamblia, a parasite that causes serious intestinal sickness in humans.
• The best way to purify water is by boiling it for at least five minutes. Chemical purifiers such as iodide or chlorine and filter systems can be used, but some may not be satisfactory. Never make survival problems worse by drinking unsafe water.

Finding Safe Nourishment

• Humans can go for two weeks or more without food. Although the need for food is not that urgent, you’ll be more comfortable and clear-headed if you eat.
• Often, food that birds and other mammals eat is safe and nutritious for humans. But to be safe, it’s a good idea to read up on what’s edible in any remote region before you head in­to the area.