Survive!

by Les Stroud

  Research and Planning

  RESEARCHING AND PLANNING WHAT CLOTHING (including extra clothing) you’re going to take with you on a wilderness adventure is as vital as any other preparation for your journey, including planning your route and the food required. What could be more important than the clothes on your back?

  To figure out the most appropriate clothing to take, spend time talking with the people who know. Whether it’s the staff at the closest outdoors store, your experienced outdoorsy friends, or local guides at your destination, try to get as much information as you can from people who have first-hand experience with the area you’ll be visiting or the activities you’ll be doing.

  In the case of boots or shoes, you can help prevent blisters by wearing them around town to break them in before you go on your trip. You want to know before you go whether they’ll actually work for you. The same goes for your clothing. Find out now whether your new raincoat will keep you protected in a downpour.

  * * *

  STROUD’S TIP

  Dressing for survival is easy when you’re taking a survival course, because you know what’s coming. The trick is to dress appropriately for your adventure activities (hiking, fishing, hunting, kayaking, et cetera) and still be prepared if you end up in a survival ordeal. It’s a matter of fashion versus function. A lot of high-tech clothing is not adequate when you’re fighting to survive.

  * * *

  In the Arctic, I arrived with all the high-tech gear I could get my hands on. In the end, though, I traded it to a local Inuit hunter for his caribou parka and pants. It was then that I truly realized how clothing can act as your first shelter, your primary line of defense against the elements. In those clothes, I could literally stand still in the wind and cold and not feel a thing. The clothing was my shelter. So don’t close your mind to the effectiveness of traditional clothing, which though it looks rustic, may work better than anything you could buy in a store.

  What you wear really depends on where you are going, the activity, and the season. But with few exceptions, layering (as opposed to using just one layer, like a snowmobile suit) is the best bet. With layering, which means three to five layers of clothing from your skin to your outer shell, you can strip down or dress back up again depending on the weather and how you are feeling. Layering is a hassle, because it takes time to put on or take off several pieces of clothing to get warmer or cooler, but it could save your life. Perhaps the best thing layering does for you is help to prevent sweating, a factor critical to survival. Peeling off layers allows you to cool yourself down gradually as you work or travel, while still keeping you as warm as you need to be.

  Perhaps the greatest cold-weather clothing ever conceived: full caribou parka and pants.

  In the gung-ho early years of my survival training, I would merrily work for hours to make a robust shelter, no matter what the weather. Soon I’d be soaked in sweat. As night fell and temperatures dropped, I often found myself without enough time to dry my clothes, even if I had a fire. The chills I felt were devastating. If I had had the foresight to layer my clothes, I would have staved off hypothermia-inducing chills.

  When doing strenuous labor in the cold, don’t sweat! Staying dry will keep you warm later, but if you sweat, you’ll feel the chill for hours after.

  * * *

  STROUD’S TIP

  You sweat…you die. It’s as simple as that. Never allow yourself to sweat in a survival situation.

  * * *

  Layering is vital in every type of climate. Even deserts are notorious for cooling at night; you don’t have to be in a cold climate or season to become hypothermic. In fact, many cases of hypothermia occur every year in the fall and spring, when people are fooled by a nice day followed by a cold night. Wearing enough layers can make the difference in a survival circumstance.

  Traditional or High-Tech Gear?

  IN MY ADVENTURING, THE QUESTION OFTEN is whether I should wear high-tech or more traditional gear. High-tech clothing is usually light and warm, brightly colored, and easily packed and transported. However, should the worst happen and you find yourself in a survival situation (like a canoe dumped in rapids in the middle of northern Canada), such clothing rarely stands up to a few days spent in a bush shelter or sleeping beside a fire.

  Take Gore-Tex as a perfect example of the conflict between rugged and high-tech. Gore-Tex is a fantastic material. It will keep you fairly dry in damp conditions because it sheds the rain and still breathes. But try sleeping beside a fire in it: one spark, one touch of an ember, and Gore-Tex melts. So high-tech clothing may be great for outdoor adventuring, but it’s less than ideal in survival situations.

  Not so with wool, cotton, or canvas-like materials, which are tough and can handle the rigors when you’re pushing through dense forest to get firewood or food. With these materials, an ember will burn a hole only in the spot where it lands, and often not before you can flick it off. On the other hand, cotton is horrible if it gets wet because it takes so long to dry. Wool is very heavy, especially when it gets wet, yet it retains 80 percent of its insulating value.

  In the end, the best option in a survival situation is to have a combination of lightweight, high-tech clothing for your under-layers and some rugged traditional clothing for your outer layers. But this usually applies only for survival courses or hunting and fishing trips, not sea kayaking, mountain climbing, hiking, or other similar adventures. For anything that requires a high level of physical activity, the lighter, high-tech gear wins out.

  * * *

  STROUD’S TIP

  If you plan on taking survival courses and don’t want to drop a fortune on new gear, go the other route: buy secondhand clothing such as wool sweaters.

  * * *

  When Clothing Kills

  CLOTHING DOES N’T ALWAYS FIT OR WORK the way it’s intended to, which can be deadly in a survival situation. If you begin to feel any kind of chafing or rubbing from your clothes or shoes—especially on your feet—stop and deal with it immediately. When you’re fighting to survive, you’re not going to finish the day in the comfort and cleanliness of your home, where you can take a bath, throw your clothes in the laundry basket, and tend to your wounds. In the wild, you can’t afford to wait.

  Perhaps nobody better understands the urgency of such situations than adventure racers. They know that they have 1 to 10 days of nonstop tromping through the bush ahead of them, so if they begin to feel any type of hot spot developing, they stop and do whatever they can to prevent it from getting worse. If they don’t, it could cripple them. Remember, you can’t walk on a foot full of blisters, and if you can’t walk, you can’t perform any of the tasks necessary to survive.

  Keep It Dry and Clean

  IN A SURVIVAL SITUATION, YOU SHOULD STRIKE a symbiotic relationship with your clothing: It protects you, and you should also protect it.

  To the best of your ability, keep your clothing dry. Now, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t crawl into that old rotting log to sleep for the night, especially if that will keep you alive. But if the opportunity arises the next day to dry some of your clothing, take advantage of it. Clean and dry clothing will last much longer than wet clothing, which will rot and disintegrate. Dirt and dampness also reduce the effectiveness of clothes as insulation.

  Keeping your clothing clean also reduces the possibility of skin infection. If you don’t have a way to wash your clothes, at least shake them out and leave them in direct sunlight for a couple of hours. If possible, never go to bed wearing damp clothing, as this increases your risk of hypothermia.

  Extra Is Always Better

  CLOTHING TENDS TO GET PRETTY BEAT UP in survival ordeals, so the more you have with you, the better. You can never have too much clothing, unless its bulk or weight prevents you from traveling to safety. If you end up carrying so much clothing and gear that it takes your energy away from looking for food and water, then it’s time to make the difficult decision about what you’re going to leave behind.


  Making Clothing

  THOUGH THIS IS A FAVORITE TOPIC OF SURVIVALISTS, the fact is that you’re not going to make clothing in a survival situation. Making clothing from the bush is camp craft and it takes many months. Sure, you can make a coat out of cedar bark; you can kill an animal and tan its hide. But that is about wilderness living, not survival. If your survival situation lasts long enough for you to make clothing from natural materials, you’re probably past the survival stage and have decided to call the wilderness your home.

  There are a couple of materials, however, that you may be able to use to make emergency clothing if necessary and that don’t require too much time or expertise. The first is birch bark. If you are able to peel off a large enough strip of birch bark, you can fashion it into a crude hat or rain poncho. But it’s not easy. Native North Americans were able to peel new birch bark cleanly only in the spring; try to peel bark from dead trees, when they are rotting but hopefully not too far gone.

  If you are a skilled hunter or trapper, or are fortunate enough to catch an animal, you can use the animal skin as a primitive form of clothing. The skin of a snowshoe hare peels easily off the carcass. Cut only along the bottom end, from foot to foot, and then roll it back like you are pulling off a wet sock. With the fur on the inside, you can use the skin as a mitt or a sock. If you have the skin of a larger animal such as a deer, you can cut a head hole and slip the skin on like a poncho, with the fur facing in toward your body.

  Before doing that, though, remember that most animals also carry pests such as ticks, lice, and fleas. If you have enough water available, wash the skin or even smoke it over a fire; if not, just give it a good shake. Try to remove as much of the fat and meat as possible, and dry it out before you wear it.

  When using leaves or other plant matter for insulation, look for the driest materials you can find. These natural materials will increase the insulating abilities of whatever you are wearing.

  Another thing you can quite easily do using natural materials is boost the insulation abilities of your existing clothing. If you have loose-fitting clothing and have remembered to layer, you can stuff the various layers with light, airy materials such as leaves or cattail fluff. In essence, you are creating a down-like layer in your clothes, which will greatly increase their ability to keep you warm.

  * * *

  Real-World Survivors

  You Sweat, You Die

  It was–10 degrees celsius in the dead of winter when his snowmobile ran out of gas. He had no food, water, or matches, and was completely lost in the northern Manitoba wilderness, a vast expanse of isolated bush hundreds of miles from any urban centre. But Christopher Traverse, a 24-year-old construction worker, had a survivor’s instinct, and he remembered some tips he had learned from watching my survival films.

  With the temperature dropping steadily on that first bone-chilling night, Chris modeled a shelter after one he’d seen me construct, fashioning a makeshift bed and enclosure out of the scant resources he had at hand—spruce branches and his snowmobile. And that’s how he survived the massive blizzard that descended later that night.

  The next morning, he began a three-day trek through waist-deep snow, which he often ate. He would later tell me that he remembered how I point out that as long as you eat snow during the day while you’re working (and not later as you cool down), you can keep yourself hydrated without increasing your risk of hypothermia.

  Far off on the horizon, Chris spotted the glowing beacon of the Devil’s Lake communication tower. He was determined to make it there. Walking 12 hours a day, he also recalled another of my favorite survival tips: “If you sweat, you die.” So Chris was careful to air out his socks every night to keep the sweat from freezing his feet, and he wisely reserved one layer of dry clothes for sleeping.

  An eagle followed Chris overhead everyday, and he began to think of it as his elder guide, coaxing him to carry on. Search crews also soared above him, but despite his best efforts, he couldn’t get their attention. They couldn’t see him through the heavy snowfall. He kept walking.

  After five grueling days, Chris found a highway, flagged a Greyhound bus and made it to the aptly named Last Resort Convenience Store. There, he was picked up by the RCMP, who were astonished to find him in such good condition. When asked how he’d managed to survive, Chris responded, “I just held my composure. I didn’t let fright pull me down.”

  When Chris and I spoke after his ordeal, we knew immediately there was something in his story, similar to so many of mine, something that he could only ever share with people who have had similar experiences. Spending the majority of a cold, dark night jumping up and down trying not to freeze to death in the middle of the bush is not something most people can relate to. But using his wits and a few survival skills he’d seen on my shows, Chris had made it out of the wilderness…alive.

  * * *

  Footwear

  THE IMPORTANCE OF PACKING AND wearing the right footwear cannot be overstated. All it takes is the wrong footwear to make walking nearly impossible. Simply put, if you can’t walk, you may not survive. Blisters, foot fungus, and swollen feet can often be prevented with the right pair of shoes, sandals, hikers, or boots. Solid ankle support is important for rough bushwhacking or hiking. In the jungles, you have to strike a balance: wearing boots to protect yourself from poisonous bites and yet avoiding foot fungus caused by wearing hiking shoes that are too hot or constricting. The best thing for cold weather is footwear that is just slightly too big—big enough to be able to wriggle your toes to help keep the circulation flowing for warmth.

  Region-Specific Clothing Considerations

  RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH. Nothing will better prepare you for the different types of clothing you’ll need in various parts of the world like checking with people who know that area.

  Boreal Forests and Arctic Regions

  Because of the sometimes-dramatic temperature swings in these areas, the most important consideration is layering. Make sure you have enough items of various weight to deal with both cold and heat.

  Arid Regions, Deserts, and Canyons

  You lose much less water from your body if you wear a light-colored, loose-fitting shirt, which will protect you from the moisture-sucking properties of the wind. It’s not always easy to keep clothing on when the air is so hot, but remember that it will keep you alive in the long run.

  Whenever I’ve underestimated clothing requirements, it’s been in the world’s hot and dry places. My initial thought would be, “I’m going to be in a desert, I don’t need much clothing.” But in the Kalahari—where the temperature on the surface of the sand in the sun hits 150°F (67°C) during the day—I still found myself cold at night. There can be a 50°F difference between daytime highs and nighttime lows, and a person’s body doesn’t handle the great difference in temperatures very well.

  Add to this the fact that you might be sleeping on the ground—which will draw the heat right out of you—and the potential for a cold wind, and there’s a possibility that you could become chilled and hypothermic. And at the very least, the cold will prevent you from sleeping at night, which will make the rest of your survival experience more miserable than it needs to be.

  Jungles

  Clothing in the jungle needs to be protected from the never-ending dampness. Cotton rots alarmingly quickly in this sort of area. Try to dry clothing whenever the rain subsides and the sun comes out.

  Because there are so many poisonous things to bump into in the jungle, your clothes should also afford you a layer of protection from them. This means covering your body to keep it safe from the biting, pricking, blood-sucking, and stinging things that lurk there.

  Long pants work better than shorts, and long pants that are tucked into socks work better than ones that hang loose. Jungles by their very nature are hot and humid, however, and the last thing you want to do is tuck in your long pants. So when packing, choose pants you can see yourself wearing tucked in for the duration of your journey. Bew
are of the “zip-off” pants that change from long to short; the zipper around the thigh can severely chafe in the heat of the jungle.

  At the opposite end of the spectrum are native peoples, such as the Waorani, who live in the Amazon jungle. They spend a lot of their time naked, because clothes rot so quickly. And clothes take a long time to dry after hours of jungle rain; naked skin does not. The biggest difference between the Waorani and us is that they have generations of knowledge about the jungle in which they live. They know every plant and creature that can hurt them as they run naked through the thick growth. (They still end up with numerous bites and stings!) I wouldn’t take the chance on the naked approach, not without years of jungle living under my belt, so to speak.

  The Waorani men also wear a string around their waist. It is tied to their foreskin to keep their penis out of the way while they travel through the jungle. Their cultural belief is that when you wear the string around your waist you are “clothed.” When you don’t wear the string, you are naked, and this is considered shameful. I wore my pants.

  On the Sea or Open Water

  Similar to snowblindness in the Arctic, sunblindness can affect you out on the open water. Always carry a brimmed hat and sunglasses for water travel.