I currently have plans to create an app to make field notes easier with tools and references. If anyone has interest in this even if beta testing please let me know.

Where’s RedBeard? Can you spot him?

Music Credits:
Theme Song
Burt by JM Ballard
Special thanks to JM Ballard for letting us use his original music.
Find his music on Sound Cloud http://soundcloud.com/jm-ballard
Follow JM Ballard on twitter http://twitter.com/JmbWompRat

Music Credits:
Theme Song
Burt by JM Ballard
Special thanks to JM Ballard for letting us use his original music.
Find his music on Sound Cloud http://soundcloud.com/jm-ballard
Follow JM Ballard on twitter http://twitter.com/JmbWompRat

In the primitive shelter with the fire going during a first run at filming Dared to Survive. This is after several failed attempts…. Remember we’re not experts. This dare challenge was building a primitive shelter and spending the night with no sleeping bag or blanket during a cold night.

Building the primitive shelter during a first run at filming Dared to Survive. This dare challenge was building a primitive shelter and spending the night with no sleeping bag or blanket during a cold night.

Building a fire by the primitive shelter during a first run at filming Dared to Survive. This is after several failed attempts…. Remember we’re not experts. This dare challenge was building a primitive shelter and spending the night with no sleeping bag or blanket during a cold night.

Hanging out next to the fire in front of the primitive shelter during a first run at filming Dared to Survive. This dare challenge was building a primitive shelter and spending the night with no sleeping bag or blanket during a cold night.

• Time –  Make sure you give yourself as much time as possible to build your shelter but not so much that you neglect other survival needs. We only had about an hour before we lost daylight. Remember if you are doing this for multiple days you can improve your shelter as time passes.
• Make sure you have a relatively flat surface to lay down (being on a hill side makes it tough to get comfortable and remain safe)
• Make sure that you cover as much surface area with branches and sticks
• Height – During warming temperatures you will want the roof of your shelter higher and leave open the sides to allow for air flow. In the colder periods you will want the roof lower and as much of the sides closed so that the dead air space will aide in trapping warmth. Note you will not want it so low that you can’t sit up (very uncomfortable) and if you have a fire this will increase your chances to pose a danger of drying out your shelter and it possibly catching fire. I wish I would have made the shelter a bit higher and more closed in on the sides.
• Bedding – You will want to pad the ground with as much as possible but prepare for some aches in the following days regardless.
• Fire – One of the most essential tools to survival. You will want this a reasonable distance from your shelter but not so much that it does not provide heat for you. I may have had the fire a little close to the shelter because some of the shelter materials started to dry out and blacken through out the night. I’m not going to complain too much because it kept me warm and I was never asleep very deep or for more than 45 minutes at a time. We did one thing right! When gathering fire wood make sure you get enough to last the night. You will not want to burn more than absolutely needed so that your supply lasts the night plus it makes tending the fire a lot easier and safer to maintain. If you’re relying on the fire for warmth you will not want to sleep for long periods, I mean you will but won’t have a hard time when you get cold or uncomfortable,  because you will need the hot coals to build the fire back up when it dies down which also reminds me that you will need various types and sizes of fuel to include small sticks and twigs to thumb size pieces, dry leaves & grass.
• You will not want to skip the step of smoking out your shelter to remove insects and other creatures. Almost all living creatures have a natural disposition to fire. When we did this to the shelter a quarter size scorpion came out from the shelter and from under Mick.

Getting gear together for the survival challenge. What am I missing?

• Pack
• 2 Wool Blankets
• Sawyer Water Filter
• Morakniv Outdoor 2000 Knife
• A Winchester curved blade skinning knife
• Estwing Hatchet
• Head Lamp
• Ferro Rod
• Compass
• Wilderness identification guides
• State park ranger map with trails marked
• Rat trap
• Gloves
• First Aid kit
• Aluminum water bottle
• MSR Pot not pictured

Imagine yourself  having wrecked while driving down the road with friends or loved ones in the vehicle. What is your initial reaction? You see two people injured, who do you help first? If that’s not enough of a stressful situation, if you haven’t had first aid training in a while or not at all you are probably not going to do anyone any good and you may hinder the situation.

If you haven’t trained or practiced in a while, well you know that statement like riding a bicycle? It is never that easy not even with a bicycle. There can’t be enough emphasis on training and practice. With training and practice in place it will be much easier to make those critical quick mental notes and assessments while remaining calm which is the key to dealing with any situation.

In conclusion, you can’t just buy preparedness. Be prepared, be trained and be practiced.

Consider this to be a living document and will be updated and revised when necessary.

So when most people think about disasters they most likely associate Fema and the Red Cross. Others may stumble across wiki articles on survival, survival websites, survival blogs, simple search results, etc. Don’t misunderstand, these may be good resources or starting places and you should consider reviewing them. Just remember that you can know anything but if you don’t practice that knowledge could be useless.

Boiled down to the basics for Urban Survival

• Be aware
• Know your surroundings
  • Threats and/or Dangers (Environmental, Structural, People)
• Know what resources you have and note the unlikely resources (Environmental, Structural, People)
  • One man’s trash is another man’s treasure
• Do what’s neccessary
• Inventory
• Make a plan
• Shelter options
• Water
• Food
• Energy
  • Normally fire and still could be but can also include power, lights, etc
• Don’t take unnecessary risks

Good resources for those starting out

In The Rabbit Hole Urban Survival Podcast What’s easier than listening while carrying out other tasks like driving?

Ready.gov Disaster types and response plans

Consider this to be a living document and will be updated and revised when necessary.

A Wiki entry for Survival Skills states that “Survival skills are techniques a person may use in a dangerous situation”. Dared to Survive says that Wilderness Survival is the ability to survive in the wilderness throughout various seasons and weather conditions.

People are most likely to use these skills when they have found themselves to be lost or injured in the wilderness.

Rules of Three

If you know a little about the outdoors then you have probably heard of the rules of three. These are very basic rules to follow when establishing priorities of survival.

• 3 minutes without air
• 3 hours without shelter
• 3 days without water
• 3 weeks without food

In addition to these people often look at psychology and the human need for companionship as a key component of any type of survival.

Situational Awareness

• Make Lists
• Threats
  • Injury
  • Weather
  • Terrain
  • Wildlife (to include plants, insects)
• Resources
  • Know what resources you may have based upon geographic
  • Establishing a safe place to for your shelter.
  • Explore (wagon wheel method) area for resources.
• Not taking unnecessary risks.

Resources

FM 21-76 Army Survival Manual

Survival Actions at survivaliq.com

Consider this to be a living document and will be updated and revised when necessary.

What is Dared to Survive?

This is an almost comical web show on Urban and Wilderness Survival, where we take your survival dares and put them to the test. We’re going to go out and probably do it wrong and both learn from it and improve on our techniques. We’re going to show you that you can’t always trust what you see on TV and that it isn’t as easy as it looks. Along the way we will take dares and/or suggestions from viewers and perform them on camera for you.

We currently have:

• Sony dcr sr45
• Kodak 12mp Point and Shoot
• Targus Flexible Tripod
• Android Phones
• Garmin GPS

Wish List:

• Go Pro Hero 3 Black Edition
  • Battery BacPac
  • Chest Mount Harness
  • Head Strap Mount
  • Tripod Mount
• Memory Card SanDisk Ultra Micro SDXC
  • For the Sony dcr sr45
  • Sony memory stick pro duo
  • High Capacity Batteries
• Adobe Premier License