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Survival...
Posted by Michael Strahan on Mar 09 2006
Lots of great ideas here. I don't think I have a lot to add, so maybe I'll just reinforce the ones that seem most important to me.
1. TRIP PLAN
Take a sheet of paper and write down everything; names and contact info for everyone on the hunt, coordinates for drop off and pick up spot, name of air charter and contact info for them, list of emergency gear you have with you, description of your tents and boats (so your camp can be identified from the air), and scheduled drop-off and pickup dates. Include a "drop dead" date- the date by which if you're not back, someone will come looking for you. If you have a satphone with you, write down your phone number and those of your air charter, emergency contacts, and the Alaska State Troopers emergency contact number. If you have an aviation VHF radio, write down the emergency frequency (121.5MHz) plus the area frequencies for your hunt area, AND the company frequency for your air charter. Give copies of this trip plan to your emergency contacts, and to your air charter. Keep a copy for yourself in the field (so you know what you told everyone), and retrieve all copies upon return.
2. PACK
I never leave camp without mine. It contains everything I need to spend the night out (or several nights out) away from camp. As some said, it won't be fun... but you can survive. Hard to know where to draw the line here, but I bring a small 8x8 tarp, parachute cord, plastic trash compactor bag, water filter, fire starting materials, some food, extra ammunition, knives, etc. The reason I bring my pack with me is because I never know if I'll shoot something while I'm out there, and I'm too lazy to want to walk all the way back to camp for it. I've had to do that before and I hate spending the extra energy. I know carrying the pack requires extra energy too, but I bring mine with me every time I leave camp. I keep game bags in there too, which could be used for blankets if need be. Space blanket? Not for me! I've done that twice and both times they were useless. I could see perhaps using one to cover a shelter- but I'll use my tarp, thanks. To be completely honest, I never have figured out this fetish for ultra-light packing. I've had to carry several max loads and have rarely had to leave gear behind for the next trip. What's a couple pounds more, really? This perhaps goes against conventional wisdom, but, well... I guess I'm a little unconventional. If I'm cutting my toothbrush in half, I'll be wondering why I'm bringing it at all, really! Just use a chewed stick if you HAVE to have one! Your teeth won't rot out of your head in a few days.
Some of this stuff should go in your pockets or reside in a day pack that you keep in your lap on the flight out and back. In the unlikely event of a plane crash, you'll have the essentials with you- not buried somewhere in the fuselage of a burning aircraft. This practice has saved more than a few lives. Eagle Enterprises sells an emergency vest specifically designed for this purpose, if you want to go that route.
Be advised that some of the fire starting materials mentioned are ILLEGAL for transport by commercial air! TSA will confiscate that stuff right out of your baggage, and if you try to sneak it through anyway, you could spend part of your hunt "bunking with Bubba" at the Graybar Hotel. Don't go there.
3. COOL HEAD
Survival is a head game, and if yours has squirrels running around inside it telling you to take your clothes off and run across the tundra screaming, well brother, your goose is cooked. Things that will mess with your mind are things like not remembering if you made arrangements to get picked up (don't laugh- it's happened, and some of the folks have died out there as a result), whether you forgot some critical piece of gear, whether anybody but the pilot knows exactly where you are (and maybe he crashed on the way home), whether you have what it takes to make it out there, etc. You provide mental strength to yourself with a good trip plan (see step one) and by working off of a gear list when you pack. Eliminate the guesswork! The rest is about keeping your head in the game. Somebody WILL come and get you if you just wait, provided you filed a good trip plan. I know a guy who crash-landed his airplane in a remote spot. He didn't tell anyone where he was going (don't want to give up that secret spot, you know), and they were looking for him to the north of his home base. He was actually about two hundred miles south. His survival came down to a single aerial flare he happened to have in his pocket when he crashed. But he wandered around out there for nine days before he had a chance to use it. No food, no shelter, nothing. So you CAN do it. The difference between total misery or death and reasonable (but tolerable) discomfort is nothing more than adequate preparation. Keeping your head in the game is much easier if you did the preliminary work I already mentioned.
Hope this helps!
-Mike
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