The truth is, everyone needs a Personal Survival Kit (PSK). Though the thought may conjure up an image from The Edge or 127 Hours, the idea extends even beyond just the outdoor enthusiast. Do you commute to work? Do you have a health condition that requires special precautions? Do you enjoy solo outdoor sports? Do you live in an area prone to hurricanes, blizzards, or tornados? Do you spend time travelling overseas? Though each of these scenarios may require a different set of tools to meet the needs of the specific crisis, a small amount of preparation and accessible equipment can make the difference between inconvenience and emergency. Chances are good that you can vividly remember the last time you experienced or witnessed an emergency situation. Those events have a way of staying bright in your mind. As a human, the vivid retention of those events serves as a survival reminder, whether you realize it or not. Your mind uses those experiences to formulate and re-educate your survival strategy. Whether you are building a Personal Survival Kit, a Vehicle Emergency Kit, a First Aid Kit, or any other type of survival resource kit, the goal is to offer your mind and body a set of physical tools to aid in your survival. Having a kit won't necessarily prevent an emergency, but the idea is to be able to meet as many needs in a crisis as possible, as they arise.
The focus of this is on building what is often referred to as a Pocket Survival Kit (PSK). A Personal Survival Kit is a bare-bones set of tools that can be packed into a small enough container that they can be easily carried on your person. A backpack full of gear may contain a whole array of useful survival equipment, but for our purposes here, we want to define, build, and then refine the concept of a compact kit small enough to fit in a pocket. If I knew I was headed into the wilderness, I would certainly take the backpack full of gear, but the point of the PSK is to have something accessible to use when you are confronted by a situation that was unexpected.
The “pocket size” it used as a convenient reference. If you were getting out of your vehicle for a short hike, you could easily slip the kit in your pocket even if you aren’t carrying a pack. A pocket size kit is small enough to fit in your glove box, your pack pouch, your desk drawer, or your purse. One thing in particular needs to be said about carrying it in a backpack, though – say you are hiking along the Conasauga River Trail, and you come upon a deep river crossing, of which there are many on that trail. River crossing wisdom says to unbuckle the buckles on your pack so that if you fall during the crossing, the pack can be released easily and won’t weight you down or entangle you. You may lose your pack, but you don’t drown, right? Now if your last-ditch pocket survival kit was stored in the pouch of your pack, guess where it is? Floating swiftly down the river with all of your gear! Chances are pretty good though, that you’ll manage to keep your pants on even if you fall into swift water, so in that case, a pants pocket would have been an excellent place to have kept your survival kit.
So what are you going to use to contain this small kit of emergency gear? Well, there are options. Probably the most famous container for a mini kit like this is the Altoids tin. The benefits to using this as a container are numerous: the tin is small, metal, rectangular, and thin. I have also built kits using shoe polish tins, mink oil tins, Ziploc bags, VHS video containers (idea courtesy of Jim Green at SE-SOS), Pelican cases, cassette tape cases, even just shrink wrap. Metal containers do a good job of protecting the contents inside. They are also useful for making charcloth and could even be used to purify water over a fire, albeit not very much water at a time. Plastic containers will often float, can be made watertight, but are susceptible to melting or being crushed, along with whatever is inside. Rigid plastic cases like Pelican cases are awesome for survival kits, but they do add to the expense of your kit build. The Pelican 1050 case runs about $15.00 and is 5” x 3” x 7.5”– a bit thick for a pocket, but still worth considering. The Altoids tin, on the other hand, runs about $3 and as a bonus is full of mints. For comparison, the dimensions on an Altoid tin run right around 3.5” x 2.25” x .75”.
Once you have decided on the container you are going to use, you then have a definite limit to what you can put inside it. Now it is a matter of addressing certain survival needs and evaluating the priority of one component over another. A full size survival kit should meet 3 specific, basic needs – fire, water, and shelter. Ideally, a pocket kit should meet the same needs, though on a very minimalistic level. Where a tent or tarp might be your shelter in a full-size kit, a poncho or even trash bag may have to do in a pocket kit. One of the instructors I had several years ago used to say that survival is a constant battle of needs and in building a kit, those needs must be met by compromise. You could carry a tin full of fire starting tinder and feel confident about your ability to build fires, but with no way to treat water, you are going to suffer. The need to compromise arises so that you can meet your most urgent needs and still take up a minimum of space.
Fire:
• Bic Lighter –Cheap and easy to find, they do have the drawback of holding only a small amount of fuel and being rather delicate. If it runs out of fuel, the striker breaks, or even if it is too wet, cold, or windy, you’re out of luck. I start a lot of my fires with Bics and a variety of tinders, so I always have 3 or 4 with me when I am out and 1 in my PSK.
• Matches – I wouldn’t suggest these for a mini kit. They are fragile, require the box to strike, and are so sensitive to wind.
• Firesteel – An excellent addition to the PSK. You can find tiny ones from CampingSurvival.com. Using a firesteel does require a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of throwing sparks with one, they last a long time, are impervious to water, and take up little space in your kit. Note: you will need something steel and somewhat sharp to strike against the firesteel to create the sparks. A knife is the common choice.
• Fresnel Lens – Though they require ideal conditions to work, they fit great in an mint survival tin.
• Friction fire – If you plan to rely on friction fire, be sure you are not overestimating your abilities. Though popular on TV, friction fire is hard! Don’t rely on this.
Water:
Potable Aqua Tablets – Hands down, this is the water purification method I would suggest for your PSK kit. They are tiny, can treat a good deal of water, and they’re cheap too. Read and follow the directions on the packet and you won’t go wrong. If the water is particularly nasty, you can always run it through a handkerchief or even a piece of clothing to strain out the large particulates. Keep the aqua tablets, at least 10-20 of them, in the smallest Ziploc or baggy you can find. If your kit falls in the water, you don’t want these to get wet. [Quick liquid Conversions: 4quarts = 1gallon]
Shelter:
It’s tough to fit a shelter in an Altoid Tin - that’s a fact. Even a tarp, which is considered a lightweight and compact shelter, is far too big to fit in your PSK. Here, you need to compromise. An emergency poncho or mylar blanket is not going to be a comfortable shelter necessarily, but it can be used to keep the rain off of you and your clothes dry. As could a trash bag or a section of plastic painting dropcloth. You may hear folks talk about building a shelter from natural materials. That is an option, but it is an option that, unless you find just a perfect overhang, is going to take a long time and expend a lot of calories to construct. If it’s very cold, it’s probably worth it. If it’s warm enough to sleep without, it probably isn't.
From here on, you have to start evaluating the importance of each individual item you add to your kit. Having addressed fire, water, and possibly shelter, you are now left with what remaining space you have to fill up with other items.
• Mini LED light – Keychain LED lights are tiny and last a long, long time. You won’t waste fuel or matches trying to illuminate a map, and this can aid you if you plan to travel in dark or at dusk. Photon makes excellent ones for a little more than $8.
• Fish kit – My PSK would never be without a fishing kit. In the desert, it would be less true, but here where I live there are creeks and streams everywhere. In a place like this, with line and hooks there is no reason to go hungry. Fishing line can also double as snare line, sewing thread, or for light lashing tasks. Carry a couple different hook sizes too.
• Paracord or Bankline – Though it takes up quite a bit of space, cord is always useful in the woods. Whether it is as replacement boot lace, bowstring, snares, shelter support, or used in first aid care, it can come in handy. You’ve most likely seen the paracord survival bracelets. That’s the way to go so you have a length of cord on you, but you’re not taking up precious room in your small kit.
• Button compass – If you have even a general idea of where you are, you can use the button compass to walk to the nearest road. No navigation skills needed if all you’re trying to do is hit a North/South or East/West road. Jeff Randall jokingly told me at a weekend course with RAT, “In the US, no one is really lost. They just haven’t walked far enough yet.’ Take that as encouragement! Unless you are lost in the Amazon – then you’re going to wish you had some actual navigation skills and tools.
• Medical supply – Minimum space calls for a minimum of supplies. In a PSK, there is probably only room for a couple Band-Aids, maybe a sanitation wipe, and a couple of painkillers.
• ESEE/RAT survival cards – You’ll have to look for this. Google “ESEE knives survcard” and the first result is an Amazon link to the product. These are small plastic cards loaded with survival tips. Signaling, navigation, snare diagrams - they are covered in terrific info. They fit in an Altoid tin and take up very little space.
• Knife – I am a proponent of fixed blade knives in almost every situation. They are stronger, safer, and usually more comfortable to use. In the case of a PSK though, there are few fixed blade knives that will fit inside an Altoid tin. In addition to that fact, a Swiss Army Knife includes other tools in a compact design that can be useful – scissors and tweezers particularly.
• Birthday candles - Useful for firestarting
• Snare wire – guitar string or picture hanging wire work great as snare wire
• Tinder – chemical tinder such as trioxane, Wetfire, Tinder-Quick, dryer lint, fatwood
• Whistle
• Razor Blades – Can work in place of a knife for many tasks. Thin and cheap
• Safety Pins – Can work as fishing hooks
• Toilet Paper – Good for the obvious or as tinder
• Bug wipes
• Aluminum Foil – Helpful for cooking and can also serve as a reflector for signaling
• Sewing kit
• Duct Tape – I keep duct tape wrapped around my kit to keep the lid closed. Duct tape can also be useful for makeshift bandaging, removing splinters, or fixing tears in a poncho.
• Wire saw
No comments:
Post a Comment