Have You Ever Survived "RAW?"

[Survivaldon]

How many members have ever gone out in the wild sans everything, except a water container and pocket knife?

1. Have you?....If so tell us about it.

2. Have not, why?......Would you or wouldn't you?.....If not why?

I ask this question because this is the type of "Survival" I teach. I call it "Raw Survival." Everything else is "Primitive Living," which I teach too!

So tell us your answer :confused:

[Ollie]

I haven't, although it sounds like fun. I know for a fact that David was planning something like this, although I don't know if it ever got off the ground.

Would I? Probably, although I doubt I'd be very good at it.. perhaps if I had some decent preperation behind me, and had tried it out somewhere 'local'.

Ollie

[David]

Yes, I was planning something like this, in fact I might be able to it soon as I have finally found some suitable land with permission to stay there (I have only done it on my own before not as a group because of land problems).

Why do you consider a knife and a water bottle essential survivaval tools, Survivaldon? I know how important a blade is, but you can (crudely) use various natural materials for that purpose, and a water receptacle seems an unusual choise - I would have imagined that the luxury of moving long distances from a water source you would have to make a water carrier yourself. (I'm not criticising, just curious).

I don't know where you are, but local to me (south England) I find it really hard to find food. There is not a lot of wild land any more, and all I can find are nettles and berries (and roots sometimes, like dandelion). There are rabbits, but I think it is illegal to hunt them mabey? (I'm not that good a shot with a bow anyway). This is allways the limiting factor for me - what sources do you use? When I have got a store of food it is always more interesting as then there is time to make tools / walk somewhere etc.

[Vildmark]

The 3 most important items in survival would be a knife, a cooking pot and finally a woolen blanket. After this you would probably choose a firesteel, a needle and string. :)

[Scott]

David, hunting rabbit in Britain is legal as they are classed as vermin, you must have the landowners permission though. Rabbits are the bane of farmers lives, I doubt any farmer would have a problem for you setting a couple of snares down for catching rabbits. Although it is illegal to hunt with a Bow in britain, about as much you can do with a bow now is go roving. I agree in a survival situation a knife is invaluable but useless if you don't have the skills to put it to use

[Marmot]

surely finding water would be part of the survival challenge, thus neccessitating the need for a water carrier

[jbgraham]

I did a unplanned bivouac 20 years ago with two other companions in the mountains in winter. We had only light jackets, matches and headlamps. Once I realized that we could not make it out, and that one of us would probably get hurt trying to scramble over scree slopes ,consisting of house size boulders, in the dark, I called a halt. I argued that we needed to make shelter while we still had energy and light left in our lamps. I found shelter under one of the giant boulders, and we made a spruce bough bed, with fires on either side, and did a sitting bivy, with our backs against each other for extra warmth. The temperature dropped to minus 20, and we got up to collect more firewood and restoke the fires as we stomped our feet to get the blood flowing (our boots were wet). This is not the kind of survival situation to which Don is referring, as we were able to find our way out the next day, but I do feel it could very well have turned nasty. At the time I was a great proponent of going light, and I spent much of the night thinking about what I would bring in my pack next time, if I only managed to not lose my feet to frostbite. It was my poor judgement and pigheadedness that got us into the mess, but I at least had the sense to admit I had gotten us stuck and we salvaged the situation while we still could. In my opinion, when one finds oneself in a life threatening circumstance in the wild, it is almost always because one has made a series of compounding misjudgements with some bad luck thrown in. Technical skills can increase the chances of surviving in such situations, but sound contingency planning and the willingness to adapt to changed realities are just as important.

[Survivaldon]

David wrote:
Why do you consider a knife and a water bottle essential survivaval tools, Survivaldon? I know how important a blade is, but you can (crudely) use various natural materials for that purpose, and a water receptacle seems an unusual choise - I would have imagined that the luxury of moving long distances from a water source you would have to make a water carrier yourself. (I'm not criticising, just curious).


The main reason for this post is to see how many people here have ever thought about what they would do if they were thrust into a "non-prepared" survival situation.

Let's say you were on a cross country or international flight and the plane went down over a remote wilderness area. You and a couple of other passengers survive. The only provisions you have are whatever is available at hand. If this were to happen you don't have the time to prepare or plan, you have to wing it and plan as you go.

Now as we all know you can no longer take knives, etc. on airplanes, so you have to "Improvise - Overcome - Adapt." That is what I call "RAW SURVIVAL."

The reason that I allowed a knife & water container in my original post, is that most people may not have the necessary skills available to improvise in making a knife or water container in the field.

Not everything in life can be "pre-planned" or "thought out" prior to happening.

So could you handle and take charge of a situation like this? Could you survive "Raw?"

[Digby]

One thing that differs from the UK view is that there are almost no situations in the UK that a normal person would ever need to use these skills. My guess is that the average person in the street wouldn't have a clue where to start. The skills required are beyond most peoples' comprehension.

In the USA and other countries, these skills are a much more practical proposition. It makes real sense to get good at this sort of thing if you live in a coutry where running out of fuel on a long journey could mean spending a night outdoors or where domestic plane or boat travel is the norm. In the UK, you just make a phone call and in most cases rescue arrives within the hour.

It's a shame really - by being 'safe' from harm, we have lost the connection with the outdoors on a daily basis and have unwittingly lost our self-reliance.

[Survivaldon]

Digby wrote
"One thing that differs from the UK view is that there are almost no situations in the UK that a normal person would ever need to use these skills. My guess is that the average person in the street wouldn't have a clue where to start. The skills required are beyond most peoples' comprehension.

In the USA and other countries, these skills are a much more practical proposition. It makes real sense to get good at this sort of thing if you live in a coutry where running out of fuel on a long journey could mean spending a night outdoors or where domestic plane or boat travel is the norm. In the UK, you just make a phone call and in most cases rescue arrives within the hour.

It's a shame really - by being 'safe' from harm, we have lost the connection with the outdoors on a daily basis and have unwittingly lost our self-reliance."
So to Digby and others in the UK, I ask....are there any forested areas in the UK? Is there anywhere you can go in the UK that would be considered the "backcountry?" Do people camp there? :confused:

[Ollie]

Not really.. there are very few places you can go and walk for more than half a day without meeting a town or village... shame really.

[Scott]

The Highlands of Scotland I would consider as wild backcountry and the sometimes extreme weather and remoteness could easily pose a threat to your life if you've gone out for an overnight hike or whatever and you would need these skills to survive

[David]

Yes, I would agree there are some places you can still go if you are trying to deliberately get away from civilisation in the UK where you can be fairly remote. However, in the south, you have very few places where you can be in a pre-civilisation environment, with enough resources (wood / wild plants for example) and also be priavate enough not to have someone wandring into the middle of your camp, and where you can get permission to stay. This is why it is such an issue to find suitable land for me. Even so, you have to deliberately exclude yourself and limit what you do if you want to completely avoid domestic areas. It really is very sad, but thats just what a high population density (with good heathcare and such) brings with it.

[Digby]

I used to run survival camps for venture scouts (15-20). Locally, on the Chiltrern Hills, we have a small piece of uncultivated land that we can use. It is about six acres, has no water (it's on fast draining chalk) or sanitation and virtually no food sources. We had some good camps by bringing in bottled water and food, but it all required a stretch of the imagination. I can't remember any of these camps where we were not entertainment for at least one person each day - usually out taking their dog for a walk!

So as David says, you have to travel a long way from London to get anywhere credible for credible survival practice.

[Survivaldon]

Scott wrote
The Highlands of Scotland I would consider as wild backcountry and the sometimes extreme weather and remoteness could easily pose a threat to your life if you've gone out for an overnight hike or whatever and you would need these skills to survive
I am planning on taking a trip to the Highlands in '06 and to Ireland in '07.

Those are two other places that I really want to get some video footage for my survival videos.

Has anybody here ever been to the Highlands? What are they like?