What skills do you really need to survive in the bitter cold? Is there a certain kind of tent or fire starter that makes it easier? Well, the truth is there are about 5 skills that you need to hone to survive the icy cold of winter.
At the core of winter survival is the battle to maintain body temperature. The longer you spend in the cold the closer you get to hypothermia. If your core body temperature reaches 95 you are officially hypothermic, and your symptoms can go from shivering and dizziness to passing out and even your internal organs shutting down.
Each of these skills is going to be geared towards maintaining your body heat and getting yourself and others out of this winter survival situation.
1. Firecraft
The more you understand about fire the better off you will be. Your ability to strike a ferro rod and make a fire is much different than understanding firecraft in such a way that you can build and sustain a fire in cold/wet conditions. Fire extenders make this much easier, and they can be as simple as mixing melted wax and dryer lint at home and carrying it in a Ziploc bag with you.
You will also have to fuel and build that fire to a size that will actually warm you in the cold. Large fires will warm you and your party. Small fires will only warm your hands, and your body temperature will continue to drop.
Firecraft is about building that big fire, but it also employs things like a reflecting wall. You can make one of these by stacking stones opposite from where you will sit, so the fire is between you and the wall. The rock wall will reflect more of the heat, and you will be able to stay warmer.
TIP: Use a dry surface or plank on the ground to keep your first starting operation off the wet ground.
2. Insulation
This is as much a skill as it is a concept. Whether you apply this to your clothing, your shelter building, or even your firecraft, insulation is a key factor in winter survival.
You might think the only thing you can insulate with is clothing and fabric, but you can use things like leaves and pine straw to insulate your clothing. It’s not the most comfortable but you can gather up leaves and stuff them inside your coat, pants, and even shoes, these will help hold more of your body heat.
Insulating your shelter is important, too. You can use these same tactics or just create layers upon layers of building materials to hold your heat.
Two of the most important areas to insulate are your hands and feet. If you don’t have a hat or gloves Sacrifice fabric from a tee shirt, shemagh, or something else to create a head and hand coverings.
3. Shelter
If you are suffering from the biting wind or precipitation, you have to seek shelter. The better you become at building shelter the better you will be at surviving a winter survival emergency.
A misnomer in winter shelter building is that you want a large spacious shelter. Most think you want a nice A Frame built from tarps or wood that looks almost like a tiny cabin. While these shelters make good social media posts, they also have a lot of open air that needs to be heated.
My choice would be a tight debris shelter that is covered with a tarp. A crawl-in shelter with an opening small enough that I can cover it with my backpack if needed. I can keep the fire just outside and my tarp will keep the rain or snow off me.
A fallen tree is a great place to start a debris shelter. A newly fallen tree can provide a little space between the stump and the ground or the roots, being ripped out of the ground, provide space between the trunk and the ground.
In a hurry you can either throw a tarp over the tree, in that open space, or you can lean sticks on both sides of the fallen tree to create the walls of your shelter. Then cover the whole things in mounds and mounds of leaves. These are your insulation.
Build the insulating leaves up around the front of the shelter to create an opening and you have a great little shelter that is easy to heat up and will hold your body heat. This is not the only shelter but an easy and quick one.
4. Navigation
Navigation might strike you as a strange skill on this list but when you think about it the fastest way out of a winter survival situation is to get in a warm building. Well, if you have a map and you know where one is having the ability to navigate there is going to be a game changer.
Most people have no idea how to use a compass and a paper map. If your phone is dead, cold weather eats up the phone battery, then you will need to know how to navigate.
The time to learn is in spring and fall when the weather is great and it’s a joy to be outside. Just practice using a compass and a map to travel in a set direction.
5. Treating Cold Weather Ailments
There are two types of ailments that come to mind when it comes to winter survival. The first we have already talked about is Hypothermia. Now, often the two can be working together. You can have a person suffering from frostbite and hypothermia.
Hypothermia is not something to take lightly. If you can get emergency medical help, then that is your first option. If you have to wait, then you start by making sure the patient is in dry clothing. Wrap them in a space blanket or other warming cloth.
Get them out of the precipitation and near a heat source. If there are three or more in your party then you can all climb into a shelter, sleeping bag, tent, together to share body heat. This can be a great way to raise someone’s body temperature.
If they are also suffering frostbite heat water over your fire and use warm, not hot, cloth to cover the affected area. Do not rub the skin and work to get their overall body temperature up.
Conclusion
Survival skills are nothing without practice. To really develop something like firecraft you need to put in the reps. You need to build shelters on cool mornings when everything is going your way. In a winter survival situation, you are already going to be cold, your hands might be numb, and you will be stressed.
However, if you practice the skill then it will be like just another day in the office. With the right tools, gear, and skills, the winter environment can actually be a pretty incredible place to spend a few days.
It’s hard to beat a winter sunrise with those glittering frosted catching its first rays. Take it all in from your campsite with a steaming cup of black coffee, that’s a winter memory you won’t forget.
