Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Survival When the River Takes Your Backpack

Story.

To summarize for those who don't wish to click the link, he tried to cross a river, lost his backpack doing so, and had no backup survival plan and was forced to improvise, and would have died had he not come across some road maintenance workers in the nick of time.

He found out - - and, to his credit, acknowledged - - that he should have been carrying survival items on his body, outside of the items in his lost backpack. If he'd had a Mylar Space Blanket in his pocket most of his cold/hypothermia issues would have been minimized.

Here's my own current belt survival kit. It includes a Wenger Swiss Army Knife, a whistle, a button compass, a butane lighter, tweezers, and several firestarters made from Vaseline-impregnated cotton inserted into drinking straws and sealed at the ends with heat. They fit into a traveler's plastic soap box, which itself goes into a leather belt pouch. Stick a Space Blanket into a pocket and you'll be ready for much of what Nature can throw at you.

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