What are the top 5 survival items you need to survive in the wilderness?
When you lost in the woods it’s important that you have these 5 survival items to stay alive.
Now, before I get into the exact items you need, I must start with a word of warning. It isn’t enough to simply have these items, you also must practice using them beforehand. If you decide to not practice and instead just prep, then you would require a totally different set of items. These items would only keep you alive for a very short period of time, but they would be very easy to use.
The first item you need to stay alive in the woods is clothing.
For the sake of this article, we will group clothing together including jackets, shirts, pants, socks, and shoes. Gloves are a great bonus item, and so is a warm hat of some sort. Think of your clothing as your primary shelter. In a survival situation your going to need to move about collecting food, wood, water, and other resources, therefore you can’t always be under your tarp. If the rain picks up and you don’t have proper clothing you will have to wait it out in a shelter.
The next item you need is a tarp or cover of some sort.
There’s a lot of different items that will work or this, but the best is just a large heavy duty tarp. If you can get one with foil reflector on one side that will help keep you warn and reflect the heat back onto you. Avoid the 5 x 5 tarps you see at sporting good stores and instead opt for a large 10 x 10 or even 20 x 20 heavy duty tarp. Earth tones are best if your trying to stay concealed, bright orange is best if you need to signal for help. As a general rule, I try to buy tarps that have heavy duty holes around the exterior to string my paracord through.
The 3rd item you will need to survive in the woods during an emergency is some type of cordage.
It is possible to make cordage in the filed but this is a very slow and time consuming process. Cordage can serve a variety of purposes including stringing together your shelter, starting fires, trapping, and tool building. There are many different types of cordage or rope that will work, but I prefer 550 paracord because of it’s strength and versatility. The individual strands can be taken apart and used for smaller projects. These small strands have a 50b test each making them ideal for small projects around camp. If you need to bleed or process an animal having a good amount of cordage can be helpful. Many survival experts recommend bank line which has a layer of wax around the exterior making it great for trapping. A good survival kit will have paracord, bank line, and a spool of wire.
The 4th item you need in your kid is a full tang fixed blade.
There’s literally thousands of different options out there, and it really comes down to personal preference. I’m a big fan of Benchmade knives because they are made locally in Oregon. The most important factor is it be solid enough to take abuse in the field and still preform. Wood processing can potentially break a cheap fixed blade therefore it’s worth spending a little more money on this item. Your fixed blade knife will be the most important tool because if you have enough skills you can create everything else.
The 5th item you need to survive in the woods is a fire starter.
A good ole’ Bic lighter will work great for this in the short term. For the long term it’s best to have a magnesium rod or flint and steel. These types of fire starters last longer and can operate in adverse conditions including rain and extreme cold.
Next time your out in the woods, make sure you have these 5 items with you.
