Ultimate Wilderness Survival Guide

If you're taking a wilderness survival class then you'll learn all this information shortly. On the other hand, if you can't afford to pay for a professional wilderness survival class, or just want to know the basics, there are some simple rules for surviving the wild that apply to everyone:

1) Maintain core temperature. The core temperature of any person is approximately 98 degrees, and 98 degrees means life. If you're in hot conditions, keep cool. If you're in the arctic, keep warm. Often times this is the absolute #1 Priority.

2) Water. In the wild the 3 weeks before starving to death may not be as accurate because of all the calories you might be burning, but there is no question that water is by far the most important. Try to find running water if possible, and if not, then the only water to avoid is salt water and water with dead animals around.

You should try to find clean water, but if you can't, then wait as long as you can and drink murky water. The longer you stay alive, the better your chance.

3) Fire. Wait, fire before food? Depending on the situation, this is quite possible. Deserts are freezing at night, so are northern environments. Even a night without shelter in a temperate summer climate can be a forty degree drop to what you're used to: enough to be a problem.

A fire is warmth, psychological comfort, and it keeps predators at bay.

4) Food. Energy can mean everything, especially if you have to rely on yourself to get to safety. If you haven't eaten in three days, it is amazing what even 100 calories can do for your body.

5) Shelter. Even a cruddy shelter is better than none. If it limits rain, keeps you out of the wind, and helps to keep your body heat in a small area, than it is helping you survive. The better the shelter, the better off you are.

These are five of the most basic parts of wilderness survival that you need to focus on in order to survive a life threatening situation. Knowing this, and preparing accordingly, can make a huge difference on whether you live or die when stranded in the wild.


A wilderness survival guide put together by the top experts in the world,

To find the perfect wilderness survival kit you first need to prepare the kit based on what environment you are going to be in. The specifics of the environment will be the key to knowing what types of items should be in your survival kit.

How much equipment you should have in your kit also depends on how the survival kit will be carried. A kit carried on your body will have to be smaller than one that is kept in a vehicle.

In preparing your survival kit, select items that you can use for multiple uses - the more the better. If you have two items that will serve the same function, pick the one that can be used for the most other functions, as well. You want your wilderness survival kit to be as efficient and easy to carry as possible.

What Should your Survival Kit Have?

First aid items
Water purification tablets or drops (this is one of the most important items you can have)
Fire starting equipment
Signaling item
Shelter items (for larger kits)

A good knife is something you don't want to leave home without, although if you're flying you may not have a choice. Remember this advice and you should be able to find the perfect survival wilderness kit to suit your needs.

In a way, maintaining core temperature is the single most important concern in a wilderness survival situation. Why is this? Because if your core body temperature drops more than ten degrees below normal you are on the verge of death, if not already a corpse. The normal body temperature is around 98 degrees.

In the same way that a 105 degree fever will most likely kill someone, when the core temperature drops heavily, you shiver uncontrollably, go unconcious, and then die. That's it, no exceptions.

This is what hypothermia does to kill you - lowers your body temperature until you can't provide enough heat to keep your organs working. In winter this is expected, but what many people aren't prepared for is that you might have to deal with this in a wilderness survival situation in the summer.

Night temperatures can fall anywhere from 30-50 degrees, and if you're very sweaty during the day then don't have a fire at night, that can cause shivering and shock. People have died of hypothermia when the temperature was in the sixties. Add dew and moisture on the ground, a breezy wind, lack of food, and shock and it's not hard to see how hypothermia can sign in if you don't watch your core temperature.

Even in the desert this will be a major concern, as deserts tend to be very cold at night. Knowing about your core temperature and how it affects you will allow you to be more prepared in any wilderness survival situation, and increase your chances of survival in the wild when something goes wrong.


A thermal blanket like this one is easily added to any backpack and can even easily be carried on a person. These are fantastic for keeping warm and dry in critical wilderness survival situations, and can also be used for shelter - also surprisingly cheap for how critical a piece of wilderness survival gear these are.

One of the major concerns for people who aren't used to camping in areas with bears should be defending themselves in case of bear attack, and bear spray is the best way to do that. While many people prefer handguns, unless you're an expert shot, a handgun is an inefficient way to stop a charging bear, and has a failure rate of 25%, meaning one in four times the bear just gets angry.

The first rule to avoiding confrontations with wild bears is prevention. Know what kind of bears are in the area and have a way of keeping your food away from them. Bears tend to be smart and curious, so even though they usually want to avoid humans and human contact, that curiosity can lead to confrontations.

Good black bear pepper spray is just as effective as grizzly bear spray - they're the same thing. A good canister of bear spray can discourage a charge that a hand gun can't. There are tons of stories of bear attacks where the bear should have been shot fatally, but adrenaline kept it going. It's one thing to run through a bullet, but a cloud of bear pepper spray would be like taking two completely full lungs of tear gas.

Properly used bear spray is the best defense against bears, and allows a non lethal way of defending oneself that you can trust teenagers and young adults with in areas where bears might be a problem.

This is one of the better wilderness survival guides that I have run across. The number one rule for 99% of wilderness survival situations is to stay where you are and wait for rescue. The only time this is not the case is if no one knows where you are: and therefore that you're even lost.

For this to be the case, you would have had to commit one of the cardinal sins of outdoor adventures. Someone should always be aware of your itinerary, where you are headed, and when they can expect you back.

If that is the case, then you may eventually have to move, but in most situations people will realize you're missing within a day or two. In this case the most important thing for you to do is to stay put, build a shelter, build a fire, and find a nearby supply of water.

The longer you stay alive, the greater your chance of rescue.

Whenever you're going into any situation that could end up becoming a survival situation, you should bring as many things with you as possible that could become useful if things go wrong. Obviously binoculars are something that many hunters are going to bring along, but you might not think of them as being useful otherwise. This isn't true, as in a wilderness survival situation having a good pair of binoculars can be the difference between life and death.

Being able to see a far distance in every direction from any high point can help someone who is lost find the safest route through some dangerous territory, find a good place for shelter before the approach of bad weather, or maybe even see signs of a trail or road not quite visible to the naked eye, and help the stranded person (or persons) escape with their lives.

That's why if you want to be prepared, you should take a good look at this best hunting binoculars reviews guide. to get an idea of what your best options are available.

Different environments have different rules as far as survival skills go. That being said, there are certain things that every survival situation has in common.

Common Traits of All Survival Situations:

1) Attitude. You have to be mentally tough. The old adage "mind over matter" doesn't even begin to explain this. You have to hone your mind so you are determined to survive to the point of obsession, just short of insanity.

There are many stories where this was enough to survive an "impossible" situation. One popular story was of a man stranded in the Sahara. He did everything wrong: stayed out during the day in the worst of heat, didn't conserve his supplies, couldn't find water: but five days later he was found and saved because, in his words, "I'm too stubborn to die like that." Attitude.

2) Conserve energy. There are certain things you must do in a survival situation: find water, make shelter, prepare a fire (usually necessary), apply first aid. Beyond the absolute necessities, conserve as much energy as possible, burn as few calories, and keep your mind clear to analyze your situation and take the right next step.

3) Calm. Panicking or getting worked up never helped anyone. While you need to have the attitude to push on and survive, you need to use that attitude to help you make rational decisions and stay calm. Doing otherwise will never help.

Remember these three tenants, and even if you don't have formal wilderness survival training, you will be far more likely to survive.

Wilderness Survival Kits are useful kits that are pre-designed to have everything you need to help you survive in a hard survival situation.

Many kits are designed for specific types of environments, so you can get survival kits for the arctic, woods, jungle, desert, or almost any type of environment where getting lost or stranded could put you in serious risk of harm.

Aside from these very specific, environmentally oriented survival kits, there are also general survivor ktis that include all of the basics under the "be prepared" motto. Many of these kits are fantastic, but be aware of what is included in these survival kits.

Many of these kits will have items that are obvious for survival situations like matches and a pocket knife. Obviously, these should not be taken flying, so it limits where you can take them.

That being said, having a quality survival kit in every vehicle, especially those you plan to take on vacations or road trips, is a great idea and can make the difference between life and death when the unexpected strikes in full force.

It's hard to answer the question of what constitutes the best survival gear. For many outdoor enthusiasts, there is nothing like a knife. If you are less experienced, maybe it's a book of strike anywhere water proof matches or another type of fire starter that will work even when wet.

Fishing line is great to make shelter if you know your knots, and in truth there are so many different things that can be extremely important and/or useful in a survival situation, and each person is going to be different. A selection of compound bows might sound good, but they're worthless if you've never hunted with them before.