Making A Shelter

[Scotty]

So if you were out and had NOTHING on you to make a shelter, what would you do? I think I would look for existing shelter to begin with. If you can't find an unoccupied cave or shelter, then start tearing off pine limbs and try to make lean to. I would also try to find vines to try to lash everything together. So that would be shelter, what would you do?

[Grandpa]

First, I wouldn't be caught out without anything but for the sake of your question.....If I had a pine tree, I would hunker under it and stay as dry as possible until the storm subsided a bit rather than hustle around in it and get soaked. (It takes quite a bit of time for rain to penetrate to the bottom of a good spruce or fir). If a night out was inevitable, natural shelter first such as a ledge, a downed pine, a cave, and then augment that with natural things like your downed sticks, bark and finally pine boughs. It takes a real emergency for me to take live branches of a pine though. Much easier to use sticks overlaid with bark or big leaves and held down with more long sticks.

[bsmit212]

I like Grandpa's answer. And how he limited it to the way you put your question. If I ever got caught in this emergancy situation I would think it would depend on where I am, weather, temp, and what is avaialiable around you.

[oldsarge]

I know it could be a million to one chance that I would loose all my gear, but we all know about Murphy's law. That's why I carry a good fixed blade knife on me at all times. Strapped to the sheath is a basic survival kit, inside is a space blanket and basic fire starting materials, not to mention a few other items. I agree with bsmit212 and Grandpa, it pretty much sums up the right way to think.

[Pathfinder1]

Hi...


It's pretty much standard and agreed that you NEVER want to get caught without proper emergency supplies when afield.

However, just in case you had NOTHING around you. I would start piling up all the NOTHING that was nearby, and tunnel a nice, warm area inside it...!!

[ppine]

Pathfinder1,
I would like to emphasize again the quote at the bottom of your page, which is more important than all of the threads on today's forum put together. Thank you.

[Pathfinder1]

ppine;
Pathfinder1,
I would like to emphasize again the quote at the bottom of your page, which is more important than all of the threads on today's forum put together. Thank you.




Hi...


You are very welcome. What a very kind thing to say.

[Hikenhunter]

I agree with others here. First of all you should never get caught with out anything. However for the sake of your question it would first depend on where you are when this happens.Since I frequent forested areas I would look some kind of natural shelter then build off of that. Piling up lots of leaves and pine boughs and burying yourself inside of the pile will keep you warm and help to ward off the elements.

[ghostdog]

Its a good question and there are things you can do in any terrain like pile up rocks for a wall barrier or make debris shelters where wood is plentiful.

Like others I am never without certain things and my pack is always on my back unless I stop for food. A poncho and a tarp are part of my kit no matter how far I'm going. It is good to be able to get a shelter up in a few minutes with materials you have on you rather than using a lot of energy scavenging materials and then attempting to construct something that will be weatherproof.

[Scotty]

I certainly do NOT intend to be caught out without anything. However, I don't discount I would totally lose my mind and run off in a direction that would lead to me not knowing where I was. As a matter of fact, I frequently lose my mind and do some pretty stupid things.