Most people these days have very little tolerance for being uncomfortable; therefore today many so called outdoor survival situations are often nothing more than uncomfortable situations, usually for a short period of time before being found.
When lost in the outdoors the first thing to you need to do is control your emotions. Do not try to physically or mentally run away from the situation. Recognize fear for what it is and accept it. There are three common reactions you want to avoid.
One is panic, which usually triggers the flight response in humans. Moving wildly around, even for a few minutes will use up valuable energy, plus could get you irretrievably lost or possibly injured.
The second reaction is overcompensation, deciding that it’s time to build a fancy shelter, forage for food, and get a cord of wood before nightfall. You need to conserve energy.
The third reaction is denial, don’t deny that you’re lost and the situation is uncomfortable. Remember the first rule for coping with problems is that if you’re in a hole stop digging. Be calm, sit down and think things through, try to improve an uncomfortable situation and plan your own self-recovery if possible.
The standard rule is to stay where you are if lost, but if everybody did that the SAR (search and rescue) would be much busier. As anybody who has spent any amount of time in the outdoors has been temporally lost at some time, so you have to evaluate your prospects for a safe return and consider how much harder it would be for the SAR to find you if you’re unsuccessful. If you decide to move, leaving your direction of travel is very important.
Being lost doesn’t kill people; it’s not being prepared for being lost that does. The fact is that people forced to spend an unscheduled night in the outdoors can save themselves if they’re not injured or have medical problems, even without Grizzly Adams or Daniel Boone no matter how bad the weather is if they have even the minimal essentials for survival, mainly something to keep them dry and something to start a fire with.
Most people can save themselves by remembering and following a few simple things. Nature and the elements are neither your friend nor your enemy, but rather just a reality, and it’s your ability to accept and make nature work for you and your determination to live that are the deciding factors in a true survival situation. Your brain is by far the most important survival tool.
Remember the “Rule of Three”, three minutes without air, three hours without heat, three days without water and three weeks without food. Exposure and hypothermia are the number one killers of lost people in the B.C. wilderness.
Average Environmental Deaths by Group in British Columbia
Forest fire 0.3%
Lightning 0.9%
Storms 1.3%
Excessive heat 3.1%
Wild animals 7.5%
Exposure/Starvation 17.2%
Excessive cold 34.8%
Avalanches/Mudslides 34.8%
The best strategy against the elements is to wear the gear that will protect you in the severest of conditions and allow for a few hours of rest or sleep if necessary; the goal of clothing should be total self-sufficiency against the elements.
There are many myths pertaining to survival that are particularly dangerous because people assume they are reliable techniques for emergency situations without trying them out first hand. Remember your survival instincts are formed from correct choices based on knowledge. There’s no such thing as an uneducated instinct.
Exposure, starvation and the cold being by far the biggest killer at 52%. Hypothermia can occur at temperatures as high as 50 degrees F especially if you’re damp or wet. Wind-chill is also a major cause of hypothermia, even at moderate temperatures.