What If.... Cold Weather

I'm not much for what ifs. However as I been going in and out this winter and wondered what would a person do if they found themselves basically in street clothes, in the woods, in the winter. away from anything.
No equipment, no nothing.

 

that's what I was thinking but you have to try. I'm thinking a debris shelter, it works for mice, rabbits and whatnot. Maybe enough debris could be gathered up. Up there on the suckage factor.

 

Actually there are a lot of things that you can do. In the past, people would often get caught out by a sudden unexpected change in the weather. They knew what to do and while it was not always pleasant if they were not in a lot of danger.

Just a few tips...
1. gather dry leaves and various mosses and stuff them in your shirt and pants.
2. If you are going to have to spend the night make a huge pile of leaves if you can and then cover that with limbs that you break off of bushes then a layer of slightly larger on top to keep the winds from blowing your cover away. Crawl into your nest and go to sleep.
3. Stay dry! Don't rush an start to sweat.
4. the sun is your friend stay in it as much as possible
5. People are actually way more able to survive the cold than most people realize. As long as you can keep your body from frostbite, just being cold isn't immediately dangerous. If you are healthy and in decent shape, if you can stay dry and get out of the wind and weather you can survive a lot of just being cold.
6. DO NOT try to keep moving! If you are not going to be able to get out before dark then hunker down. You won't die until your body loses its ability to keep itself warm. Walking will exhaust you and then you will die. Curl up in a nest and just go to sleep.

 

Playing the "What if????" game if how you prepare for future possible situations so that you can then ACT instead of having to decide what to do at the tie and be limited to REACTING. In critical situations, the difference between acting and reacting is too often the difference between the quick and the DEAD.

 

All good well thought out posts . Assuming you are in a moderate to cold climate , Letting looters drive you out in the winter would likely mean a slow death of freezing and exposure . I hope you guys have manual firewood cutting tools in the stash .

 

The amount of wood that you will need in a post-apocalyptic situation is going to be a lot less than what you need to heat your place now. That is because you will figure out really fast that you will need to move into a much smaller area during the winter. I remember in both of my Grandparent's houses that they had different arrangements for their houses in different seasons. In the warm months, they lived large all over the house and often had a sleeping porch with a bed on it but in winter they moved into a much smaller area. They would have a bed in the living room for the winter and you only heated the kitchen and that one room.

A winter place would be best built with a tiny footprint that would have wood heat and cooking and then a loft above for sleeping. A 12 X 24-foot building would be plenty for a couple with a couple of kids. At first, finding wood will be easy but over time you will have to go farther and farther afield. If there are many people in your area the wood supplies will become a valuable resource that will be protected. I remember my Dad talking about having to hook up the horses and go three or 4 miles from their home to cut down a tree and then drag it back to their place where they would cut and split it. They would limb it where they cut it down and toss the branches in the wagon for kindling and small stuff for the stove.

 

I'd say they failed to prepare if they left home with nothing at all.

 

A couple months ago I went off the road in a remote spot in Canada and spent 10 or 11 hours in a snow drift till help arrived. I was in street clothes. In winter those are warm clothes. I also had my emergency gear available from the front seat. Had I left my vehicle I would have died. Without my emergency gear hypothermia and possible frostbite.

In your scenario someone walks off into the woods, probably gets lost or can't get back in time. This happens regularly, many do not survive due to lack of knowledge. The key to survival is being prepared. The person most likely to survive your scenario would have more assets. Knowledge would be their greatest asset and they would know better than to wander in the woods so unprepared.

My EDC includes my gun and a spare magazine, knife, leatherman, 2 lights, coat, gloves, hat. I have the skills to build a shelter and start a fire with what is on my person. In my vehicle I carry much more. I would never enter far into the woods without more on me than what you offer. Were I chased into the woods it would only be to the first defensible position and then it would be very costly for my pursuers.

To answer your question, to survive in the wilderness learn how to build a shelter and a fire and keep the minimum assets on your person 24/7.

 

If I lived in a place that truly got cold I would have a cold care kit in every one of my vehicles. Space blankets and candles at the very least with a little water and food. At least that way if you have to ride out a long wait in your car you have some extra materials to help you stay warm. I would actually include a couple of wool blankets and a few other things. Where I live that is just not a threat that I have to deal with BUT for the sake of comfort, I do have things that would assist me along with my get home bag of survival supplies. lifeboat rations have a good shelf life and don't taste good enough to be a temptation normally would be welcome if I was without for some reason.

Back to the original thought. Unless I was attacked and robbed of them I am NEVER without a knife, a way or two to make fire, and a tiny flashlight. Those things are added to in a very small kit any time I go out in the woods or in my boat. For me, being prepared has been a lifestyle. My Dad taught that to me both as my Father and my Scoutmaster.

 

[QUOTE="Back to the original thought. Unless I was attacked and robbed .[/QUOTE]

Bit of a sound bite so to speak but this is my original thought was. what if a canoe rolled, a robbery, plane crash in the andes. To me how the gear is lost isn't as important and what now.

It all started due to feeding the chickens LOL. I walk out o the chicken coop in the morning and there are some domesticated rabbits living under it. I've noticed that some animals make up a debris shelter so to speak and wondered if people would have the same instinct. So all that prompted a what if.

for sure never ever ever no matter what be without gear

 

Good morning all,

This reminds me of why no one would leave the cave alone and only in a group with rods and staffs.

The dragon outside was usually well fed.

Along comes the new arrangement whereas someone else provides for one's security and - presto ! There are some problems.

 

First, I hope I would never put myself in such an unprepared situation. The key to survival is thinking ahead, being prepared, and keeping your wits when under duress.

Your scenario leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Are you near a road system, do you know where you are, what’s the temperature, how deep is the snow, are the rivers frozen or flowing, etc.

In such a situation you need to quickly decide if you need to seek shelter or make shelter. Seeking shelter would most likely depend on if you knew where you were, where shelter was, and that you had an acceptable chance to make it. If you had to cross flowing rivers, were in deep snow, etc, this would likely be a fatal decision.

If I decided to make stay and make shelter, the first thing I would do would be to start a fire. The fire will keep you warm, keep critters away, and be an alert to any rescue efforts. After making the fire, this will give you a chance to assess the situation and decide how best to make shelter. In this scenario, you are “in the woods” so access to material for fire and shelter is a reasonable opportunity.

After I made a fire, I would probably reevaluate flight or making shelter. Even with fire and shelter, being in street cloths when the temps drop at night or the hard winds start to blow, you are in for a tough go.

 

Not like this hasn't happened to a lot of people. My condolences to their families.

Me, I'd start breaking branches off evergreen bushes and trees. I'd try to build as good of a dead air space around me as I could. I'd try to find a divot in the ground, anything that would keep the wind off of me. I'd use non-rotten tree limbs, bent/curved tree limbs I found to construct a make-do superstructure. Before nightfall, the evergreen branches I'd start piling on for the dead air space thingy.

Then there's the water seeking aspect. First though, in cold weather, it's kind'a good not to freeze to death. If winter, then maybe snow, so construct some sort of container in which to melt the snow. Eating snow can drop your body temperature.

Even without tools, I hope I had my shoes on, thus shoe laces. None of my shoes are slip-on. All have laces. Have some barn galoshes that slip on over shoes/boots, they're big. Woods in my neck of the woods have vines, all manner of vines, vines you curse. I'd rip out sections of robust vines and use them as make-do rope. Use'm to bind the curved/crooked limbs into a frame onto which I'd pile my evergreen limbs.

Most Westerners are weak and would waste valuable time on non-productive activities. Me, I'd hear a clock ticking in my head and say to myself, "Quick, do something real, you idiot!" The more sun I had left in the day, the greater my chances of survival.

This scenario is why I have too many tools in my little SUV. It's a primary reason why I always have a big tarp with me. Why I have aluminum space-blankets in my vehicle, two or three.

Where I live, one can definitely get trapped in Nowheresville. People die in these mountains.