Has anyone been in a real survival situation?

[firecrest]

After responding to the thread about the survival programe on a father and son I was wondering how close people here have ever come to a survival situation.

I don't get out much but despite this fact I surprisingly once got stuck on a desert island. It may not be much of a story but its close to a survival situation as Ive come!

Here is my "survival" story:

I went on an Operation Wallecea expedition to an island in Honduras. There was only 12 of us on the island. A group of 5 of us arranged to trek over to the other side of the island through the dense forest and be met at the other beach by a boat to take us back. The island is maybe two miles across. When we reached the other beach, the boat never came for us. it turns out they went to a wrong beach and never saw us. As the hours ticked by, darkness fell and we found ourselves alone for the night on a beach with no food. We had brought enough water though, or else it actually might have become serious! To be honest, I found the whole thing great, I was so excited to really be stranded on a desert island and building a shelter! We laid out logs to lie on because the beach was all coral, and we made a wind breaker. We tried to open a coconut, but that was simply impossible.
During the night a search party found us who had trekked through the forest, it was the guys from the boat. I was a bit dissapointed to be rescued, I had really hoped we might be stranded a bit longer! Though it did mean we had to trek back through the jungle at night with only two torches- a dangerous thing to do and not recommended. but if there is one thing I have ever seen in my life that surpasses all other amazing things Ive seen , it is a jungle at night time.

 

[SimonM]

I once got stranded in the middle of nowhere (W Yorkshire!) as we used to work on Water Board pumping stations, snowbound in my works van. That was the coldest, most uncomfortable, boring, hungry night I have ever spent.

I kept getting out to clear the exhaust of snow, and ran the engine every so often to warm me up. Next morning I walked to the nearest village.

At the mearest hint of snow now, I pack a "snow box" and put it in the car. Things like ..

• food
• drinks
• book
• shovel
• sleeping bag
• warm clothes
• torch
• tea light candles

... all have a home in the box. SWMBO laughs at me and thinks I am mad, but you never know...

Simon

 

[firecrest]

well you dont even have to be far from civilization, Ive heard plenty of reports of people stuck in long tailbacks in snow and getting hypothermia. Its always a good idea to pack snow stuff in the car.
and personally i wouldnt go walking round a desert island again without a knife and some food supplies, even if people did know we were missing.

 

[malcolmc]

I’ve been in a few tricky situations; mainly when I haven’t been able to reach my planned destination before dark but I’ve always been confident I’d cope and be comfortable. The TV programme irritates me. The reason I’m confident is because I carry the right gear for my level of knowledge. (Most of the time that is, went out for a short walk in a local forest, I had a detailed map but had forgotten my compass, I thought I could get away with it but, of course, managed to turn myself around 90°. No harm done but the less said about that the better.)

Whilst walking the hills I have come across many who where inappropriately dressed, injured or lost carrying just a road map and no compass. You help, of course, but it’s very tempting to give a lecture.

In addition to my car snow/high rainfall kit, in high winds I add a large bow saw, pruning saw and a crow bar in the back to clear fallen trees, they get used round where I live too.

 

[canadianwildman]

Ive got lost in the woods about 10 miles in because my 4 weelier broke down. Was lost for almost a full day does that count.

 

[spamel]

Nothing that I can recall. I've been lost before and panicked before sorting myself out and believing my map and compass! Sometimes, it is easy to get a bit disorientated in woodland, especially larg pine woods. I did just that in Germany on exercise with an 8 man Section under my command. I marched on a bearing, paced the distance and was supposed to come out on a road junction. I had purposefully aimed off a few mils so that when I hit the road I knew to turn left and the junction would be in front of me.

After pacing it out, I stopped and consulted my 2nd In Command who really knew the area. He agreed that we should have hit the road by then, and we started to doubt our compasses. The chances of both of them being wrong were really slim, but still we doubted them.

Our Troop Commander, who was accompanying us in a supervisory role, asked us what was wrong and we explained our beliefs. He turned around and walked 50 metres in the direction we had already been heading and asked us to follow him. The road was right there and the junction was to the left some 20 metres away, we were bang on where we should have been but as it was dense pine woodland, our paces had been shorter and we thought we had covered the ground. We were 50 metres short and thought we had gone completely wrong! Always trust your kit and get a second or even a third opinion if necessary!

 

[spamel]

Ooops! First time back to this thread in a while, bit of a double post there! Sorry!

 

[Prophecy]

Ok Spamel - we get the picture mate...

You guys don't know what 'survival' is until you've heard about Stevie in Kazakhstan...

 

[Jared]

Ok Spamel - we get the picture mate...

You guys don't know what 'survival' is until you've heard about Stevie in Kazakhstan...

That's nothing, I'm one of the Oceanic Six

 

[Prophecy]

That's nothing, I'm one of the Oceanic Six

Survivors? Can't be! I saw the ocean wreck on the news! There were bodies and everything!

 

[fishy1]

I once got stranded in the middle of nowhere (W Yorkshire!) as we used to work on Water Board pumping stations, snowbound in my works van. That was the coldest, most uncomfortable, boring, hungry night I have ever spent.

I kept getting out to clear the exhaust of snow, and ran the engine every so often to warm me up. Next morning I walked to the nearest village.

At the mearest hint of snow now, I pack a "snow box" and put it in the car. Things like ..

• food
• drinks
• book
• shovel
• sleeping bag
• warm clothes
• torch
• tea light candles

... all have a home in the box. SWMBO laughs at me and thinks I am mad, but you never know...

Simon

I carry a shovel in the car all year round, and sleeping bags etc, just because of snow.

 

[firecrest]

Survivors? Can't be! I saw the ocean wreck on the news! There were bodies and everything!

Nooooooo! not Lost!! I stopped watching when I realized Jack and Kate were never going to die horrible justified deaths due to their constant bad acting and cardboard characters.

 

[Graham_S]

depends on your definition.
I was in training for 10 tors while I was in the RAF this was 16 years ago.
The weather was dreadful, and the equipment we had been issued with was inadequate for the conditions ( I was using my personal gear, so I was ok)
One of the lads started to show all the symptoms of hypothermia.
I took us off route to a bothy we had used as a checkpoint a few weeks before that I had noted on my map.
We got the casualty out of his wet clothes and into a sleeping bag, lit the potbellied stove that was in the hut with the hexi blocks we had with us (there was a coal bunker in the hut), and made a brew.
we filled him with sweet hot chocolate and made a pot of all in stew.
At about 0100 the moor rescue party came to get us. By this point, Nobby (the casualty) was pretty much recovered. It was still hammering down with rain and blowing a gale. we didn't want to be rescued the stove was glowing red at this point.
I had a route planned out to take us back to the base camp next morning.
the Officer in charge gave me a massive telling off back at the Rescue team HQ for "making him look bad"
The guy in charge of the rescue team then gave him a telling off for being a prat, and unsuitable for leading people on the moors, then praised our actions.

 

[He' s left the building]

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[He' s left the building]

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[shep]

I got lost alone on the Sierra De Gredos during a 4-day solo outing. It's a long story that I will save for the campfire when I've stopped talking about sewing and cooking and need to restore my macho credentials.

Essentially I only got lost through my own stupidity (underequipped, walking alone, getting too tired to think straight, panic). And I only avoided an embarrassing wait on the mountain by taking time for some shelter, rest and to make a proper plan. There wasn't a bow-drill in sight.

The funny thing was it was around the time of Ray Mears first 'Extreme Survival' series. My inner monologue during this ordeal was a constant commentary in his voice going,
"what shep did wrong here was to..." and,
"if only he'd have done....none of this would have happened".

Most annoying.

 

[fast but dim]

I knew that the mainland was to our West, but it would have been a 24-hour swim and as this was our second dive I don't think all would have had the strength to survive that swim. I knew from personal experience (having spent a few months working in this local area) that rescue would be within 24-hours if we simply waited for help. Sharks were only a minor concern, although this was an area where sharks were encountered (that's the attraction for divers!) Sunburn/dehydration, followed by hypothermia were all likely if we were still in the water come night-fall.

sounds genuinely scary!

 

[He' s left the building]

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[armysurplusguy]

this is my first thingy on ere lol
when myself and my family first moved to wales we were innitially homeless,we were offerd
dwellings by a local scruffy looking lad at a place called teepee valley so off we went with a van full of household goods from where we had previously lived such as electric kettle washing machine and so on .....
when we turned up we had no idea what to expect we for starters ninety percent of what we had was useless cos of course no leccy lol
we slept in the van the first night and over the coming weeks learnt very quickly that you dont need hardly anything we take for granted in our modern homes we learnt to grow food how to make fires and the hardest bit was how to errect a teepee oooh i can tell you thats hard work lol
oh and a tip to anyone ever wanting to live in a teepee for gods sake dont forget to open the smoke flaps before you light a fire!!!!! oh that and make sure you get hold of plenty of sheepskins they are very usefull in winter one for clothing and two lovely to sleep on!
will leave it there for now anyone wanting to know more about teepee life feel free to ask!

 

[dboles]

I have.Years ago when learning to trap the snow machine broke down.Could not get it running at all.I was doing a loop away from the trapping camp all alone. Was at the point furthest away from the camp.I stayed overnight in a stand of spruce near the snow machine.Had a not too bad 1st night as I was soaking wet from having fallen through the ice while checking beaver traps.Managed to get dried out resonalby well -20 degreesF.
Spent 2 more days and nights snowshoeing out of the bush the road was nearer to me than the trapping cabin .Pretty much knew what to do from being raised hunting fishing and reading books ,but never in practice.. Learned some things real fast Like if you figure you have enough firewood for the night double that ammount Wasnt very well prepared at all but managed to do OK. with that little bit of book learningThe same time I was out 2 skier lost on a ski hill perished because of the weather.