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OutdoorSafe Newsletter By Peter Kummerfeldt
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Mary and I have had a good year having traveled extensively back and forth across the country several times. We got a little tired of hotel rooms, restaurant food and miles of blacktop. On the plus side we made many new friends, visited with others that we hadn’t seen in a long time, saw parts of the country we hadn’t seen before and best of all, met two more people who had attended one of my seminars previously and then found themselves in a survival situation. The Accident Prone Outdoorsman It is quite clear to me that men, in particular, but some women too, have a tendency to hold optimistic opinions of their ability to handle an outdoor emergency. This tendency seems to be a part of human nature; however men and women who recreate or work in the outdoors are not immune from this optimistic bias. We would like to believe that we are less likely to find ourselves in a survival situation and more able to cope than the average person should one occur. The tendency to hold optimistic opinions of our ability seems to be a part of human nature. No one wants to be “average,” we want to be “better than average.” Clearly, not everyone can be better than average and it would seem that an overly optimistic opinion of our skills might lead us to take risks that are unwise. Where does this optimism come from? I believe one source of the myth of our invincibility is our unwillingness to admit that we might not be as good as we think we are. The belief that “We will never find ourselves in a survival situation” compounds the problem. The myth claims that most outdoorsmen and women who find themselves in emergencies are the kind of people who make frequent mistakes, or display bad judgment on a regular basis. Survival stories often seem to support this myth, since the reports detail exactly what the person did or failed to do, that led to the situation. In hindsight, it is easy to spot the errors that others have made and from that gain a great deal of confidence that we would never be so foolish or incompetent. So we read the reports, see the mistakes, and increasingly believe that accidents only happen to the foolhardy, the incompetent, and the accident prone – the other guy! Is it possible that all of those that get in trouble in the outdoors are fool hardy, incompetent and accident prone? I think not! The fundamental error we make when we read the stories of those that have found themselves in survival situations, especially those that die, is that we attribute the mistakes they made to the personality of the person committing them. We don’t try to understand the situation from the perspective of the victim who is experiencing the events as they unfolded. When we read the reports we already know the outcome and we judge the individual’s actions from that perspective. The question we should be asking is “Why did this make sense from the victim’s perspective at that time?” Every one of us has made mistakes. At the very moment we were doing these things, they made sense to us, perhaps because we didn’t understand the situation, perhaps because we were distracted or perhaps because we failed to see the warning signs. To the outside observer, the mistakes would have been obvious. There are two points that must be recognized. The first is that we need to recognize our optimistic bias for what it is; a false sense of confidence created by the way we tend to view other people’s mistakes. The cold hard reality is that we all make mistakes and anyone of us could find ourselves in a survival situation, especially if we approach our outdoor activities with arrogant over-confidence. When we start to recognize this, we will take seriously the second point.– accidents are a result of situations. When we read accident reports we should focus less on the specific mistakes that the individual made, and focus more on the situations that produced the error. This would help us to identify the kinds of scenarios that produced the errors in judgment, and then we could try to avoid those situations. What are the kinds of situations that produce more mistakes? There are many, but they generally involve some combination of the following ingredients: a tired cold, dehydrated person, a desire to continue when continuing is ill advised, poor weather, inadequate clothing, inexperience, lack of training and the overwhelming desire to be reunited with family members and other loved ones. Look for these ingredients as they creep into your activities and be aware that they can dramatically impact your ability to function safely in the outdoors. (Based in part on a similar article written by Gerry Binnema, Regional Aviation Safety Officer, Pacific Region, Canada) WILDERNESS SURVIVAL TIPS One of the most important lessons I learned during my survival career is “Those who are prepared to survive an emergency usually will and those who are not prepared probably won’t!” We don’t want to admit we might be the one faced with a life or death situation or some other equally disagreeable circumstance. Denial leads the list of the coping methods that people use -- we deny anything bad is ever going to happen. It’s often easier to deny than to prepare for a difficult situation and, as a result, we find ourselves totally unprepared when disaster strikes. It’s easy to say “I’ll assemble a survival kit tomorrow.” It’s easy to rationalize – “I don’t have the money to buy a better rain jacket” or “I’ll never be in a survival situation. What do I need a survival kit for?” It’s easy to think that it will always be someone else that ends up in a survival situation. Consequently the vast majority of people find themselves facing a cold night out without adequate clothing, without basic survival equipment and without having practiced building a fire, erecting a shelter or signaling for help. To prepare, potential survivors need to consider three areas: Physical, mental and spiritual preparation. Physical preparation includes carefully selecting your clothing, equipping yourself for an unplanned night out and getting in physical shape. Clothing What you wear may be adequate to get you to work and back but will it keep you warm if you have to spend the night in the ditch when your car skids off the road? How much protection will your T-shirt and shorts provide you if you are caught out in a late summer thunderstorm? Becoming lost, probably the most common way that people end up “surviving,” places a premium on the clothing you are wearing. During the colder, wetter times of the year dressing properly begins by getting rid of your cotton underwear and switching to synthetics (polypropylene, polyester, or Capilene.) Cotton absorbs the moisture your body produces and holds it against your skin and, as a result, heat will be constantly conducted away. You will never be warm. Cotton kills! The synthetics are hydrophobic (water hating) and facilitate the movement of water vapor away from your body. Other underwear fabrics include wool and silk. Some very good “non-itchy” wool thermal underwear is now available. Silk, because it is a natural fiber, tends to absorb and hold water. It is also not as durable as the synthetic fabrics. The next layer, the mid layer, serves to trap “dead air” around you to keep you warm. Once again the synthetic fabrics work best – the piles and fleeces, with wool coming in a close second. Under very cold conditions an additional insulation layer may be needed. The more “dead air” you trap the warmer you will be. Many insulating materials are available to choose from, both synthetic and natural. I choose synthetics primarily because, unlike down, the synthetic insulators do not collapse when wet. The outer layer may be the most important. It must keep the inner layers dry and keep the wind out. If either moisture or wind penetrates the insulation layers, heat will be lost quickly. Studies have shown that in windy situations a good outer shell can increase warmth by as much as 50°. Put another way, a good windproof outer layer decreases the amount of insulation needed to keep you warm. The objective is to use the fewest layers of clothing that will keep you warm when you are inactive. Activity generates substantial amounts of body heat and reduces the need for multiple layers of clothing. On the other hand inactivity drives the need to insulate yourself from the environment and to conserve whatever heat your body is producing – very important in a survival situation! Special attention should be paid to protecting your head and your hands. If your head is not protected as much as 75% of your total body heat production can be lost 5° F. As much as 50% at 40° F.! Hands suffer quickly when exposed to cool-to-cold conditions. Fine motor skills, the ability to touch finger to thumb, are lost quickly. Could you zip up your jacket if your fingers are frozen? Could you tie your bootlaces? Gloves and mittens are an important part of your outdoor clothing. Dress to survive – not just to arrive!” Equipping yourselfto spend a night out is the next step. There are those that advocate the construction of survival shelters built from natural materials. I disagree. For the average inexperienced person, building a windproof, waterproof shelter from sticks, boughs, bark and other natural materials may be impossible! Shelters built from natural materials take hours to build, require cutting tools and adequate supplies of suitable materials, and, most importantly, call for an “able” survivor -- one who is uninjured! Seldom can all of these criteria be met and, for lack of shelter, the survivor ends up spending a very uncomfortable night or two out. Additionally, inexperienced people will often wait until the sun is about to set or the storm is about to break before they recognize the need for an emergency shelter! I believe that a vital part of your survival equipment is a waterproof, windproof, heavy-duty, plastic bag that you can crawl into!Alternatively, carry a sturdy tarp or piece of plastic that can be quickly erected to create a lean-to or pup tent style of shelter. The ability to ignite a fire may also be critical to your survival. Once again relying on improvised means i.e., rubbing sticks together, is an invitation to disaster! Because of injury or loss of finger dexterity the usual methods of starting a fire may become very difficult. How do you strike a match if you only have the use of one hand? Could you still “flick your BIC” if your fingers are cold and stiff? It can be done but it may not be easy. Equip yourself with good matches and a metal match. Fill a screw-top match case with cotton balls that have been saturated in Vaseline (Petroleum Jelly) - it makes great tinder, can be ignited with either the match or a spark from the metal match and burns for a long time. The duration of your survival situation hinges on your answer to two questions. Did you file a flight plan? Do you have any signaling equipment with you with which to attract attention? Always tell someone reliable where you’re going and when you’re going to be back. Include in your survival kit a good plastic whistle and a signal mirror (glass or a good plastic one) Improving your physical fitness should be part of the physical preparations you make. Those that are in good physical shape are less likely to injure themselves and those survivors that are injured as a result of an accident will fare better than those who are not physically fit. Preparing yourself mentallyis as important, if not more so, than preparing yourself physically. If you can’t visualize the situations you might find yourself in it is difficult to know how to prepare for them. What scares you about having to spend an unplanned night out? Is it the fear of predatory animals? Starving to death? Dying from hypothermia? Isolation? We all have fears and unfortunately these fears are usually not based on good information. Rather, they are based on stories we were told, on TV programs we have watched or on the books we read. Good entertainment perhaps but often poor sources of reliable information upon which to base our decisions and actions. Make a list of your fears and apprehensions then contact the “experts” and find out the truth. In most instances you will find that the reality is very different from the myth and, as a good friend of mine says, “When you remove the mystery you’ll remove the fear!” Spiritual preparationis the final step where some attention may be appropriate. After interviewing many survivors and prisoners-of-war and after reading the accounts of many other survivors it is clear to me that “There are no non-believers in survival situations!” They may have begun the experience without any strong beliefs one way or the other but inevitably, at some point, these survivors turned to a greater power for additional help. As Doug Ritter of Equipped to Survive (www.equipped.org) says “If you are adequately clothed, if you have equipped yourself and if you have practiced your survival skills, a night or two out should not a be a life threatening experience. On the other hand if you are not clothed adequately, do not have any emergency gear and have never practiced your survival skills whether you survive or not will depend on your will to survive, your ability to improvise, and LUCK.” I don’t know about you but I want to be clothed, equipped and practiced! GOOD BOOKS: Essentials of Sea Survival by Golden and Tipton NEW GEAR I HAVE TESTED THIS YEAR I make these recommendations based on my use of the equipment not because the manufactures of the equipment are making it worth my while (paying me) to do so. Pak-Lite LED Flashlight. I was in Portland earlier this year speaking
a the Pacific Northwest Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) transmitting on 121.5 MHZ, have
been around for a long time. Rite-in-the-rain products. "Rite in the Rain" is a truly amazing paper that is created specifically for writing field notes in all weather conditions; from the torrential downpours of the Pacific Northwest to the blistering heat and humidity of a Florida summer's day.” This is a quote from their web site. Like you I’m sure, I’ve had notebooks wilt on me in the field; I’ve had the ink run to the point that I could not read my fishing notes when I got home, and all kinds of other tribulations. Those days are over. Rite-in-the-rain have a wide variety of products to meet your professional and recreational note keeping needs. www.riteintherain.com Rescue Lasers This is a new signaling device that
is getting a lot of attention across the outdoor LOST If it hasn’t happened yet it will sooner or later. Becoming lost is, in itself, not a critical situation, after all, as a friend of mine says, “If you like it where you are you ain’t lost!” No one has a “built-in homing device” that enables them to find their way out when the countryside is obscured by dense timber, bad weather or darkness. Whether we do it consciously or unconsciously, when we travel, we keep ourselves oriented by what we can see and when we can’t see we must use a compass, a map or Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. Finding yourself lost can be a terrifying experience. How you react when you discover that you are lost will often determine the eventual outcome of the scenario. You are lost! Admit it! When you are no longer able to determine which path will lead you back to your truck the urge to keep moving faster and faster can overcome you. This urge to keep moving must be controlled. Continuing to move makes a bad situation even worse – it increases the risk of injury; you dehydrate yourself; you waste the limited amount of energy you have within you and you often move further and further away from the last place where you were still “found!” Sit down! Get off of your feet! Have a drink – of water! Drinking water has a very calming effect and helps you overcome the panic you feel. Find a log to sit down on and stay there for at least thirty minutes to give yourself time to work through the feelings of panic and overcome the urge to keep moving. Sit for at least thirty minutes—time to objectively evaluate your situation, determine what needs to be done and then put your plan into action.Don’t let the promises you have made to others override your need to protect yourself. Often these promises, as in “Honey, I’ll be home for dinner at seven” cause survivors to continue trying to find their way out when they should be thinking about a fire and shelter and staying put for the night. Break that promise and protect yourself! As with most things “It is a lot easier to prevent horrific things from happening than it is to correct the problem after it has occurred!” This is certainly true in the case of “Staying Found.”
Cold is a predator of the unprepared”
NEW PROGRAMS FOR 2003 The United States Forest Service and OutdoorSafe will be hosting a three and a half day survival training program at the Nine Mile Remount Station, near Missoula Montana, 3rd—6th June 2003. This will be a comprehensive program with lots of time to practice survival skills. The training includes both classroom and field work. The tentative schedule is as follows:
Day 1
Introduction and course overview Day 2
Preparing for an Emergency Day 3
Hands-on training
Day 4
Hands-on training
This program emphasizes practical survival skills, not primitive
ones and is suitable for ages 12 through ? Both experienced and
those less experienced outdoor men and women will benefit from the
course. The cost of the program has yet to be decided but it will
be reasonable. I expect this program to fill quickly so if you are
interested please call the US Forest Service at (406) 626-5201 to
register or call me if you have questions (719) 593-5852 email:
peterk@outdoorsafe.com NEW SEMINARS FOR 2003 Survival at Sea— What is the biggest threat after you capsize.? Is it sharks, drowning or hypothermia? How long can you survive in cold water? What is it going to be like surviving in an open boat or life raft with other people? This seminar answers these questions and many more. Time: One to two hours.
The venues listed below are open to the public. In some cases a workshop fee or entry fee is required. Please call me for more details on any of the programs listed below.
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Sportsmen’s Show when I was introduced to Pak-Lite flashlights.
What a jewel! I gave one to each of the four instructor that work
for me and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. We now
each carry one in our personal survival kits. Pak-lite LED flashlights
are small lights that snap onto a nine volt battery, preferably
a lithium battery. The flashlight has a low beam and a high beam
mode. The burn time for the low beam mode is 1,200 hours and 700
for the high beam. Pak-Lites are available from the Pak-Lite Company
(541) 660-0349.
Unfortunately
the false alarm rate with these devices has been very high (over
90%) and consequently rescues were delayed until the legitimacy
of the signal could be determined. Beacons, transmitting on 406MHz,
have been available to the marine community and in a few other locations
(Alaska) and have resulted in many mariners and in the case of Alaska,
snowmobilers, being rescued quickly. The advantage of the 406 MHz
beacons is that the owners name is registered upon purchase. When
activated, the 406 MHZ beacon transmits a digital signal with a
unique identification code which instantly identifies the owner
and the rescuers are dispatched. As of July 1, 2003, it will be
legal to purchase a 406 MHz PLB in the U.S. The cost of a 406 MHz
beacon will be $500 and up. This price may appear to be high but
ask yourself what you would be willing to pay if you found yourself
in some remote area, hurt and needing help? I recommend Personal
Locator Beacons for those of you that travel alone and for those
of you that travel to places where help is a long way off. There
are a number of sources for PLBs; ACR Electronics, 
community. I have not had one long enough to have used it in the
field yet but based on the experience of others whose opinion I
respect, (
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