Backpack Camping and Woodland Survival/Introduction

Backpack camping and woodland survival help everyone survive dangerous situations (such as storms or earthquakes), or in dangerous places (such as the desert, the mountains, and the jungle). Useful skills include lighting a fire, finding shelter, making water safe to drink, finding and identifying food, treating injuries, and climbing, swimming, and using specific or makeshift tools. Camping is an outdoor recreational activity. The participants, known as campers, get away from civilization and enjoy nature while spending one or more nights, usually at a campsite. Camping may involve the use of a tent, a primitive structure, or no shelter at all. Camping as a recreational activity became popular in the early 20th century. Campers frequent national parks, other publicly owned natural areas, and privately owned campgrounds.

Backpacking is a very mobile variety of tent camping. Backpackers use lightweight equipment that can be carried long distances on foot. They hike across the land, camping at remote spots, often selecting campsites at will if resource protection rules allow. Backpacking equipment typically costs more than that for car camping, but still far less than a trailer or motorhome, and backpacking campsites are generally cheap. Canoe camping is similar to backpacking, but uses canoes for transportation; much more weight and bulk can be carried in a canoe or kayak than in a backpack. Canoe camping is common in North America. One form of bicycle touring combines camping with cycling. The bicycle is used to carry the gear and as the primary means of transportation, allowing greater distances to be covered than backpacking although less capacity for storage. Motorcycle camping is more comparable to bicycle camping than car camping, due to the limited storage capacity of the motorbike. Motorcycle camping riders, as well as bicycle touring riders, often use some of the same equipment as backpackers, due to the lighter weights and compact dimensions associated with backpacking equipment.

Survivalist campers learn the skills needed to survive out-of-doors in any situation. This activity may require skills in obtaining food from the wild, emergency medical treatments, orienteering, and pioneering. Wild Camping too, is a growing choice by people seeking the challenge of camping in the wilderness, without campsite amenities. It is a great way of enjoying the solitude and beauty of the wilderness in its most pure form. "Winter Camping" refers to the experience of camping outside when there is sufficient snow on the ground. Some campers enjoy the challenge this form of recreation brings. Campers and outdoorspeople have adapted their forms of camping and survival to suit extremely cold nights and limited mobility or evacuation. Methods of survival when winter camping include building snow shelters (quinzhees), dressing in "layers," staying dry, using low-temperature sleeping bags, and fueling the body with appropriate food.

Each type of wilderness challenges a person with a different range of dangers (see hazards of outdoor activities). An environment may be dry, wet, hot, cold, high altitude, low altitude, desert, rural, urban, wilderness, subterranean, or an island. There are four basic necessities of life which apply in all of these cases: shelter, water, fire, and food. A fifth is oxygen for high altitudes and subterranean environments, and also specific survival situations such as drowning and landslide/avalanche.

Skills used on a more permanent basis, or as a component of daily life are referred to as bushcraft. Bushcraft is a long-term extension of survival skills. A popular term for wilderness skills in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the term was popularised in the northern hemisphere by Mors Kochanski and recently gained considerable currency in the United Kingdom due to the popularity of Ray Mears and his bushcraft and survival television programmes.

Bushcraft is about surviving and thriving in the natural environment, and the acquisition of skills and knowledge to do so. Bushcraft skills include; firecraft, tracking, hunting, shelter building, the use of tools such as knives and axes, foraging, hand-carving wood, container construction from natural materials, rope and twine-making, and many others.

Developments in outdoor equipment and survival techniques have skewed the scale towards man- if one is prepared, but there is nothing to replace experience in a survival situation. Those who are most prepared physically and mentally stand the greatest chance of survival.

Human survival priorities are found in the "Rule of Three":

• Humans cannot survive more than three minutes without air (O₂)
• Humans cannot survive more than three hours exposed to extreme low temperature
• Humans cannot survive more than three days without water (H₂O)
• Humans cannot survive more than three weeks without food

The Rule of Three should be viewed as generalities. The record is 10 minutes, 17 seconds without air; the crew of a boat lasted 8 days without water; people have survived without food for over 40 days.

In most survival situations, three priorities must be addressed before any other needs are met. Finding or making shelter is the most important because it allows a person to stay protected from the elements. The next priority after finding shelter is water. The length of survival mostly depends upon climate conditions and physical exertion. Food is the third essential for survival. This is especially important during winter, as one has higher calorie-burning needs. These priorities may change depending upon environmental factors. It should not be overlooked what the will to live means in a life and death situation. Stories of heroic feats of survival by regular people with little or no training are not uncommon. Even with a strong understanding of the way we may be mentally affected, even a trained survival expert may feel the crushing effects of psychological strain during duress. In order to overcome these effects it is important to study stress and how it may affect us both good and bad.

Studying stress will reveal to us that while it may not always seem like it, stress is a necessary evil and belongs not only for malice but for good as well. It serves as a measuring stick for our success, it presents one with challenges, and it is a good way to show us how far we can bend and not break. Stress sometimes has a nice way of pointing out that things could indeed be much worse. On the flip side of the coin too much stress can be a awful thing. The carnage that stress can breed within a human being is almost without limits. Too much stress can lead to forgetfulness, increased propensity to making mistakes, lessened energy, outbursts of rage, and carelessness.

Emotions are hard wired into our brains. Survival situations are bound to invoke strong emotional reactions from anyone involved. There are a few emotions that most often accompany this type of event. They drastically lessen our ability to combat the situation. It is not something that initially comes to mind when thinking of surviving but they are as important as any other survival skill.

There are 6 emotions that must be overcome to allow a chance at survival and have a good time, in general.

Fear 

Once placed into a survival situation one of the initial reactions for anyone is fear. It is a perfectly normal reaction, however fear is the enemy. It drastically lessens our ability to make clear decisions, which ultimately will lessen the chance for survival. In an effort to minimize our fears, we can train in realistic situations to condition ourselves to have the mentality needed to increase our confidence and more effectively manage fear.

Anxiety 

Typically anxiety and fear run hand in hand with one another. It may start as a uneasy feeling in the pit of our stomach but by the time the mind is added into the situation it may quickly spiral out of control. Anxiety will oftentimes take over the mind and quickly make it difficult to make decisions with any clarity. Anxiety must be fought through in order to focus on the tasks at hand. Typically once some of the critical survival needs have been met, anxiety will be easier to keep at bay.

Anger 

It is inevitable that in a survival situation there are going to be problems. With the endless possibilities of things that can go wrong and probably will, to imagine that tempers may flair should not come as a surprise. Anger can sap one’s drive necessary to want to survive. Finding other ways to channel this emotion will prove more useful than losing ones temper.

Depression 

An overall sense of malaise is not uncommon in wilderness. Being alone in the wilderness trying to survive is almost certainly bound to bring about a depressed state. Overwhelming depression can lead to the body shutting down and not unlike anxiety can also cause a human being to give up hope. Staying positive can allow one to combat this.

Guilt 

Often accompanying a survival situation is loss of life. The guilt may not even come from someone taking responsibility for the person’s death, rather a sense of guilt as they are alive and the other person is dead.

Boredom (and Loneliness) 

An often unanticipated side effect of being in a survival situation. Boredom and loneliness can both contribute to lowering morale. It is important to be able to keep your mind busy and your spirits up. It may be one of the most critical skills to survive.