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If a crippling mass catastrophe strikes in 2012 (if not sooner), rescue personnel may not be en route to your location anytime soon. To survive the impact, an alternative to staying put in your home would be to evacuate to a wilderness area. There you can hunt and forage, build a wood fire for heat and cooking, and insure the personal safety of your family.

In this section of the Mega-Disaster Planner, you'll find detailed notes gleaned from Bradford Angier's classic How to Stay Alive in the Woods, Matt Stein's When Technolpogy Fails, Myke Hawke's Green Beret Survival Manual, Bear Grylls' Man vs. Wild and other survival shows airing on the Discovery Channel, plus more sources listed on the right. Feel free to copy and paste all four pages into a text file, then add it to your survival binder.

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The guiding principle for any survival situation is to first determine your priorities. Every scenario has its own unique challenges, so take the time to think things through, instead of leaping blindly into action. In his popular TV series, Bear Grylls constantly repeats the sentence "Please remember what's first." That's because the first letter of each of these words indicates what those priorities are:

P for Protection: Equip yourself to stave off animal or human predators, as well as the elements. Whether it's a hot sun, extreme cold, wind or dangerous geography, you can die quick if you're not careful.

R for Rescue: Devising a plan for alerting authorities of your location, whether by a signal fire, leaving signs on the ground or staying at a crash site with the visible wreckage is usually the second priority. ( In certain situations, you may not be expecting a rescue or even want local inhabitants to know where you are. Your actions would then be totally different.)

W for Water: As mentioned earlier, locating water quickly is key to any survival situation.

F for Fire and Food: Building a fire provides warmth, protection from predators, and a way to decontaminate or sterilize germs in food and water. Or course, meals are secondary when you first become lost, but eventually you'll need to eat.

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Here's a closer look at skills and techniques to learn in order to stay alive in the wilderness.

Building a Shelter

The easiest approach is to use what's already provided in nature, such as a cave, a deadfall of branches, a rock overhang, a clump of boulders or other available cover. Many of these arrangements fall under the category of a lean-to shelter. Once you've picked out something, look for materials to enhance it, like logs, dead leaves, branches, palm fronds, vines etc. You may also need to build walls, a roof or a matted floor for insulation and comfort.

Don't forget to factor in rain, high winds or cold temperatures. Weatherproof your shelter with extra material. For instance, you can interweaving branches together, add leaves or moss and tie it around your main structure. Whenever possible, provide for a second escape route from the shelter in case of attack.

When you have to build from scratch, here are a few options:

A-Frame structure: Two A-shaped braces with a log connecting provide a skeleton over which you'll lay branches and other covering. For this job, you'll need lashing, which can be rope, paracord, vines or clothing cut into ribbon-sized lengths.

Teepee: As shown in the illustration above, you lash three 7-foot logs tightly on one end. Then tie a dozen or more to this tripod and start weaving in the branches. If necessary, you can brace it on the ground by piling up stones or rocks in a circle around them.

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At left, a hybrid teepee-A-frame shelter. At right, a lean-to. Photo credits: Bushcraft Plus (left) and U.S. Army.

Platform: To get yourself off the ground (especially in the jungle), create four elevated corners over which you can lay logs, branches and matting for your bed. A platform is generally used in combination with another structure (natural or manmade) that provides the walls and roof. you can tie together three 1-foot long logs into tripods, build up piles of flat rocks or tie other materials together to give you the elevation.

Treehouse: This is simpler than it sounds. Survivalists prefer it because it's the safest option. Look for two side by side branches in one tree, or a single branch in 2-3 trees, then wedge or tie-in two logs to make a platform. Then place slats across the logs, and pile soft materials on top of these. Alternatively, you can weave several vines together into a sort of hammock. Make sure this arrangement is safe and secure before nightfall. You may even decide to tie yourself in to keep from slipping off.

To make it easier to access your treehouse, pound some sticks into the bark and use them as steps. You can fashion a climbing ladder out of vines and sticks. Once you're in the tree, pull the ladder up to guard against unwanted intruders.

Tarp Tent: If you have a rain poncho, large garbage bag, other sheet of plastic or cloth, you can create a tent by running a string between two trees and drop it across. Secure the ends on each side with more string (i.e. rope or vines) or with rocks.

In this variation of a tarp tent, a pole at the entrance is used in combination with paracord to frame the tarp. Photo: asthecrowflies.org.

Hammock: This quick shelter requires weaving together some vines or ropes, wide enought to hold your body safely. (You can also try cutting several long slits in a bamboo pole.) A rope on either end secures the bed to tree trunks. If you expect rain, you also have to construct some form of cover on the branches above you.

willowhavenoutdoor.com

Snow Shelters

Always erect these with your entrance at a right angle to the wind, in case of avalanche or snow drifts. Here are three options:

Snow roof over two rocks: Build the roof, then throw water over the snow to harden it. Wait a half hour before occupying it. Use evergreen boughs for flooring. Light a fire in front.

Dig a shelter in a snow bank: Create a sleeping ledge close to the roof, with a cold well alongside to catch the colder air. This dwelling should be about three times your size. Smooth the roof above the ledge to keep it from dripping later on. Sleep on a tarp, pine boughs or other material.

Snow house: Pile a huge mound of snow into the shape of an igloo, then cut out the interior. Use a pole to poke a chimney hole down through the top. Burn a small fire inside to solidify the walls before you move in.

Notice how the sleeping area is placed on a shelf, with a lower area below it. This takes advantage of the rule in nature that cold air sinks, warm air rises. The shaded area represents the snowpack. Diagram: Rick Curtis, Outdoor Action Program, Princeton University.

How to make a soft mattress

First scoop out curved holes in the ground to accommodate shoulder and hip bones, then lay out young, heavily-needled boughs of balsam, birch or pine - or use pine needles, moss, ferns, or marsh hay. Lay the branches beginning from the head of your new mattress downward. Turning the branch bottoms up, which is the opposite of how they hang on a tree.

Other Considerations

Check to see that your location isn't on a game trail, then ook for other signs of trouble: stream grooves (indicating water run-off or flash flooding), tide lines (if you're on a beach) rodent holes, droppings, ant mounds, etc.

If you're within 100 yards of an alligator habitat, or in a jungle where snakes, reptiles or poisonous insects are common, it's mandatory that you construct your shelter several feet off the ground.

Where animal or human predators are a problem, construct a thorn bush fence around your perimeter, if the material is available.

Place the entrance to your shelter away from the wind. In the case of heavy snowfall or changing winds, position it at a right angle to the prevailing wind direction. Be sure to scan the surrounding terrain for a potential avalanche, flooding, rockfall or falling tree limbs.

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Boy scout training typically includes A-frame construction. At right, a shelter waterproofed with interlocking pine branches. Photo: Stuttgart Military Community (left) and wilderness-discovery.co.uk.

Where rain is an issue, ditch the shelter (i.e. dig a trench) so that the water flows around it. Trenched pathways should also lie directly below your roof to catch the run-off. To avoid a twisted ankle, fill the trench with rocks wherever foot traffic is likely to cross it.

For waterproofing, use bark (especially birch), low spruce and fir branches. Try to interlock everything lattice-style. Remember to extend each thatched roof layers over the start of each lower layer.

When using brush and leaves for bed matting, roofs or walls, keep in mind that insects may be lurking within the material. Light a torch or use your campfire to heat and smoke them out -- preferably away from the shelter location.

Never burn gas in a tent or other shelter without adequate ventilation. For that matter, don't hunker down for the night inside a vehicle with the engine running and the windows shut. Carbon monoxide is odorless and its effects may be undetectable until after you've passed out.

Remember, elevating your bed is essential to avoiding poisonous insects and reptiles. It also insures insulation from the cold air and damp rising up from the ground.

In the tropics, or in wooded areas during the spring, mosquitos make rest difficult and can cause malaria or other illness. If you don't have access to mosquito netting, look for alternative ways to minimize bites, such as rubbing mud on your skin or wearing double layers. The insects are attracted to body heat, standing pools, and the color blue. They tend to avoid breezy areas.

In the desert or snow, you may need to dig down into ground or snow in order to keep cool (in the case of high heat) or warm (in the case of extreme cold). Look for the softest ground to dig in and use stones or other tools to prevent cuts and scrapes on your hands, which might get infected.

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Please note: A wilderness expedition can be dangerous or life-threatening. Always consult a professional outdoors expert before undertaking one. Whenever possible, avoid solo adventures. Discuss any first aid or medical issues beforehand with your health care provider. When researching survival techniques, be sure to consult multiple sources to insure accuracy.

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Finding and Disinfecting Water: Page 2

Food and Cooking: Page 3

Other Survival Topics: Page 4

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Clothing
Miscellaneous Tips