Lost - Survival In The Boonies:

[PacWestGS]

This question came up over on another site I frequently visit regarding the tragic end of Mr. Kim's life. I thought about what one should do and posted there. I thought I should post my response here as it helps spread the message. So here it is:

If you can, early on, sit down and clearly think everything through. Develop a plan to survive. Prioritize - First Aid, Shelter, warmth, water (clean and boiled), and food. Then at some point 24-48 hours later start thinking about self-rescue. If you can recover yourself in less than 24 hours you're not lost yet. (And nobody is looking for you until you've been missing for 24 hours).

Assess what you have to make signalling devises - mirrors, fire/smoke, noise, lights (flashlights, headlights, parking lights). Other manmade or natural items that contrast with the surroundings/ground then find open areas and make shapes that are not natural to the area an "Arrow" an "H", "T" and "O" or line out "SOS" ... --- ... or "HELP" in contrasting colors.

Decide when and where to use those signals - at night look up in the sky and see if you can find a commercial air route or rescue aircraft. Focus your lights on this route and before a plane is directly overhead start a repeating pattern of "SOS" ... --- ... if seen a pilot may turn on his landing lights but he can report a Lat/Lon to rescue coordinators. Build fires in a pattern as above an "H" works good. If using a mirror during daylight hold your free hand out towards the item you are trying to signal with the mirror in the other hand, focus the reflected light on your free hand and then rotate the mirror back and forth following the aircraft with half the light on your free hand. If you can drill a hole in the mirror this can be done to make an aiming hole on your finger. Or just buy a signal mirror and learn how to use the aiming star.

Each day you are lost travel on roads or marked trails in one direction for a set amount of time that allows you to return before sundown. Say in the Kim's case he could have walked up the road 30-minutes to one-hour and returned to his wife. The next day the other direction always returning. If an intersection is crossed mark where you came from and mark an arrow in the direction you are trapped/stuck when you return. Always return before sunset, but go farther each day you can. If on your own leave an arrow indicating the direction you are travelling.

If no usable directions are available; the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, you can also build a compass out of a stick and two rocks. (Place the stick in the ground upright and mark the tips shadow, wait ten or fifteen minutes and mark the tip again. Draw a line between the two rocks and then a cross. Northen Hemisphere - first rock is west second rock is east shadow is north. North reverses in the Southern Hemisphere).

Never trust that creeks and rivers will take you to safety. Some just end up in a lake miles from nowhere. But do provide water.

Speaking of water - look for head waters or springs (where water flows/drips from earth/rock or under trees. Everything else is contaminated with feces somewhere upstream. Boil it for five minutes.

You are not trying to hide from the enemy, you are trying to be found. Build your shelter where you can signal assistance. If you need to run to your open field to signal an aircraft they are already overhead and gone after you heard them. Take turns if someone has to watch others.

Use of cell phones, use it only if there is a signal otherwise turn it off. If you find a location where it might work, turn it on and wait for a signal. Even if there is no signal try to call 911 - this works as a direct radio transmitter in some cases and may be picked up by other than cell "provider" towers. Afterwards turn it off - save the battery for later attempts.

Hunger pains subside - you can go three weeks without food - you can become very sick and die from eating something poisonous. It's easier to trap an animal (deep pits, snares) than to hunt an animal - get creative...cook well done.

Stay together or only the fitest strides out looking for assistance.

Don't be afraid to break into something. That something might be a relay tower or transmitter. Break it too - turn it off. Someone will be dispatched to fix it. Duh...

Well that's enough food for thought

Don't do anything stupid, don't waste limited resources, haste makes waste - think first, everything ...---....

Keep or make your vehicle useful for as long as possible. After that all of it becomes part of your survival kit.

Take a class, "Knowledge is a terrible thing to waste"!

Pack a survival kit that matches your destination they can small or large but they give you comfort and a place to start...

"Get Naked" and under the covers with others - body heat rocks!!!

Doc

(Retired Special Forces "Green Beret")

Added for further info: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=187329

A good site to find out:http://www.wilderness-survival.net/

And something to memorize:
http://SFDOC.smugmug.com/photos/116690898-M.gif

[riderR1150GSAdv]

Very usefull info :thumb. I have read the thread on the 'other' site as well and picked up a thing or two. Knowledge and common sense = survival .

[AllanCook]

The advice to stop and think through the situation cannot be emphasized strongly enough. The situation is almost never as hopeless as it first appears if you give yourself time to evaluate it, the resources available to you and to develop a rational survival plan.

[Burnszilla]

Thanks Russ. My wife and I were talking about the Kim's predicament the other day. I'm going to print it and put it in my Xterra's glove box.

[BubbaZanetti]

my favorite is the "break something" suggestion. i've been pretty into wilderness survival stuff for a while, but this is something i've never before considered. good write up russ!

[PacWestGS]

Communication is a wonderful thing when it works. All my life I have let loved ones expecting me know I was on my way, and which way that was until it changed, then I would call them and tell them I changed my plan because of whatever.

Always tell someone where you are at and where you are going, when you expect to be there, and when you will be overdue. If anything changes make a phone call [while you can] to change the last plan and develop a new one.

Communication is a wonderful thing when it works.

It's often a tragedy when it's ignored.

(Some of you thought I was crazy back when I over planned my POA Tour but my wife could pretty much pull up a day of travel and know what roads I might be on and where I was at for a given time frame. When I was with others along the way or on major roads I was less inclined to inform her but on solo days she could have found me or told someone where to start.)

[PacWestGS]

Oh, those letters I spoke of above are about 40' by 20' and 2' width. You want it to be seen from outer space if you are so lucky to be listed on FOX or CNN.

Think Tom Hanks in "Lost" writing HELP in the sand with those big logs.

COLOR, CONTRAST & MOVEMENT - that's what people see and take notice.

[Montana]

We had a similar situation two winters ago, a Mom and son from out of the area took a "cutoff" and got stuck 5 miles in. They then left the vehicle and didn't survive. If they'd stayed with the car just two days they would have been found. Worse, they walked the way they were heading instead of the way they came from. We thought it likely they'd rolled into the river, since they disappeared from a paved rural highway. Inquire locally about a road before you decide to take it instead of the main route. This is not just to judge conditions. If something happens, the locals will remember you and your question.

[Motor31]

Good write up SF.

I guess I'm one of the minority that thinks Kim screwed up. I don't want folks to think I'm trying to denigrate his memory, but I was taught that when lost with a vehicle, stay with the vehicle and the shelter it provides. He could have gathered wood and had a fire going 24/7 to help his family cope with the cold and as a signal device as well for the times when the sky cleared up. A large smokey fire should have done wonders for drawing attention. A road flare or 2 would do great as a fire starter even for green wood innitially.

I'm truly sorry he lost his life in his attempt to get help but I think he didn't do his wife and child any favors by leaving them alone.

[flymymbz]

Good post, but in our neck of the woods, you don't have to be missing for 24 hours before we send someone out looking for you. But we won't start off on a trail when its dark.

The problem we see a lot of is folks that have AWD vehicles thinking they can just head out on any snow covered road. Sorry folks, but the AWD on your little Subaru Legacy isn't going to get you through 2 feet of snow on that USFS road.

Do you have proper snow tires (And no, the "all weather tires" on your car are NOT snow tires)

Do you have chains and do you know how to put them on?

Mr Garmin isn't always right.

If you aren't carry proper gear for the conditions, stay on the highway.

If you plan on making a side trip, tell someone.

If you try to call 9-1-1, don't just make one call and then shut the phone off. We'll try and call the number back. If we get voice mail, we may assume that its just a mistake. If we get two or three calls in a row, that's different. Keep in mind, the GPS on your phone won't always tell us where you are. About 60% of the time, all it gives us is the coordinates and location of the cell tower you're bouncing off of. The technology is there, but its VERY $$$. But its a start. If you can, try and change the outgoing message on your phone. Give us a clue as to what/where/etc. A lot of times, we can get your voice mail, but not you.

The more info you can give me, the faster I can send help to you. Calling 911 and telling me you're somewhere in the forest ain't gonna help you. The forest is a big place. And around here, there's lots of 'em. Where did you start from? how long have you been driving? how fast were you going? Did you go off that road? which direction did you turn onto that road? Did you cross a bridge? What may seem like trivial little details to you, they can mean a lot to us.

[PacWestGS]

Mike, you and I are not in the minority. I think he followed a definative path to his death. It started right after he left Portland and ignored the advise of his relatives. (Did you read my first post over on ADVrider?) He screwed up the minute he drove past the signage that said "ROAD MAY BE CLOSED IN WINTER" everything after that was a cascade of doom.

He did a lot of good things along the way which clearly saved the life of his family. And, if he had stayed with them or was able to return to them he too would have been saved. But that would be based on 20/20 hindsight.

I think about Rob's thread on PLB (EPRIB) and wonder if I need one someday if you only needed once in your life it would have paid for itself a thousand times over.

His wife is miraculous, I feel for her loss. It was a tragedy but completely preventable.

[Montana]

The thing that surprised me was that his friends/family had to pay for the helicopter to search, otherwise that didn't seem to be part of the initial response. If I ever get lost, hire whatever you need to find me, and I'll pay you back when you find me.

[aerialfilm1]

Dee I love the suggestion about changing the outgoing message on the phone.

Also, if you think text messaging is just for kids, I've noticed I can sometimes send a text when I can't get a voice call through with very low signal strength. I learned that from a 9 year old. Now I'm trying to teach my 78 y/o parents how to text for this very reason. :banghead

[flymymbz]

I completely forgot about the text messaging. I did have to do that last fall. Couple of city folk got themselves lost while hiking. I got enough of one phone call to get an idea of where they were, and I gave her my cell number. We exchanged a couple of voice mails and texts. Found them a couple hours later.

One of my radio techs explained to me once how/why you'll get text v/m and not a call. I'll have to get him to 'splain it to me again.

[PacWestGS]

Thinking of something else:

As I said, after your vehicle stops working all of it becomes part of your survival kit. Well, motor oil burns and will help ignite wet wood or tires. Pull your gas tank, there is always some left in the tank after the engine stops.

Use bike parts as containers, weapons or tools for other purposes. Three wheel spokes tied to a stick can make a darn good spear for fishing or hunting small game. (Sorry mag guys) Cables and wire can be used to make nooses and traps.

Speaking of magnesium that is a very hot burning metal. Small shavings can be used to start fires and get bigger pieces burning.

Rip your bike apart and make things out of it. Take your battery out and scavage wire to hook your headlight up as a signal. Use your car/bikes battery to run/charge cell phones.

Protect food from animals and less this be said take care of your business down wind and away from your shelter. Unless you want hungry animals sleeping with you.