5 Essential Wilderness Survival Skills – Emergency Management Degree Program Guide

September 3, 2019

5 Skills You Need to Survive in the Wilderness

Basic First Aid
Finding Water
Finding or Building a Shelter
Making Fire
Signaling for Help

When an emergency situation arises in the great outdoors, wilderness survival skills are essential. In extreme settings, they can be the difference between life and death. With a few basic abilities, it’s possible to stay healthy and get help faster.

1. Basic First Aid

First aid is one of the most important skills to develop before setting off on a wilderness adventure. To start, it’s crucial to learn how to prioritize injuries; some require immediate attention, while others can be put on the back burner in favor of more pressing issues. There’s no need to become a first aid expert, but it is helpful to learn how to take care of injuries with or without supplies. At a minimum, learn how to splint a broken bone, control heavy bleeding, and clean out deep cuts to prevent infections. Other helpful health-related wilderness survival skills include fixing a dislocated bone and taking care of burns.

2. Finding Water

The human body requires water; learning how to find it is one of the key skills for wilderness survival. This is where a bit of preparation comes in handy. Before setting out into the wilderness, it’s helpful to look at a map of the terrain to spot large and small bodies of water. At a more advanced level, you can learn to find bodies of water by spotting clumps of plants or following animal tracks. When neither of these options is possible, knowledge of collection methods is a must. Using any container, it’s possible to collect condensation, precipitation, and morning dew.

3. Finding or Building a Shelter

In the great outdoors, exposure to the elements can be life-threatening. That’s why finding or making shelter is one of the skills you need to survive in the wilderness. The easiest option is to find a cave, an overhanging ledge, or a cluster of thick branches. If none of these naturally occurring shelters exist, building a shelter increases the chance of survival. Lean logs together to create an A-frame hut or a tipi-style enclosure. If there’s a tarp handy, stay warm by rolling up in it like a burrito. According to Outdoor Life, another way to get out of the rain is to turn the tarp into a low-slung.

4. Making Fire

With health, water, and shelter taken care of, fire becomes the next wilderness survival skill to tackle. A great fire goes a long way — it provides warmth, keeps away dangerous animals, and makes it easy to cook food or purify water. The thing is, there’s not always a lighter on hand in a survival setting, so it’s important to learn a variety of ways to get a spark. Start with primitive methods, such as bow-drills, fire plows, and hand drills. Then, move on to flints and batteries. With the spark in hand, Mountain House recommends learning to keep it alive and use kindling and logs to create flames.

5. Signaling for Help

In some emergency settings, it’s not possible to move due to inclement weather, an injury, or impassable terrain. When that happens, signaling is a key survival skill for the wilderness. Technology is a great place to start; look to a cell phone, smartwatch, or a distress beacon to make contact with the outside world. If there’s no connection, it’s important to mark the location using a smoky fire, a flare gun, or even a glow stick. Mirrors and reflective items such as space blankets can be used to attract the attention of planes. Don’t forget about sound — whistles make it easier for rescuers to pinpoint a location.

For most outdoor adventurers, an actual survival situation is rare. When an emergency does occur, basic wilderness survival skills can help you stay healthy and safe in the wild.