Get Ready For Lost: Essential Survival Skills – Part 2

We admit it: We don't have any tested survival advice for what to do if you find yourself on a tropical island that spontaneously travels through time, which is the challenge Kate, Jack, Sawyer, and most of the characters on Lost must confront tonight. But since our lives are rooted in the present (we hope), here's our second installment of skills to make you ready for anything (except time travel). Read last week's survival skills (#1 – 3) >>

#4 Start a Fire in the Rain

Vaseline-soaked cotton balls, dry twigs in your fuel canister, a wax candle, EZ-Lite fire-starter packets: These handy shortcuts are all lifesavers—if you’ve prepared them in advance. “But one day,” says Outward Bound course director J.D. Signom, “it’ll be just you, the match, and the rain, and you’ll want the know-how to spark a flame au naturel.” For tinder in the Northeast, peel birch bark into thin strips, less than a quarter-inch wide; they’ll light even when wet. For fuel, layer on some dry but not quite rotting wood from inside stumps. In the West, look for crystallized amber on pine and spruce trees. “Those resin nodules are like gold,” says Signom, who picked up the trick in a Nepalese Sherpa village. Place the nodules among dry leaves and in pinecones and ignite them beneath a small pile of pine needles. As a last resort, snap off the small dry twigs growing at the bottom of a tree and think warm thoughts.

#5 Swim a Raging Rapid“Swimming a rapid can be a gnarly experience,” says Rebecca Giddens, the 2004 Olympic whitewater slalom silver medalist. But if you can remember four key things—no small task when Mother Nature is trying to drown you—the experience will be a lot less unpleasant, and perhaps even fun. Keep your feet up. Trying to stand, a common tendency, is a bad idea as rocks, twigs, and other debris can create a foot-entrapment underwater. Go with the flow. No matter how buff you are, the current will be stronger, so resisting it is futile. That’s not to say you should ride the rapid to the ocean. Pick a safe exit downstream and swim toward it, working with the current, not against it. Don’t breathe under water. “I know it sounds obvious,” says Giddens, “but it happens when all of a sudden you find yourself swimming.” If the current starts to take you under, let it. But first, get as big a breath as possible and hold it. The goal is to relax so your air will last longer. Don’t waste energy pawing frantically to the surface. Usually you’ll pop up quickly (though it will seem like forever while you’re under). If you don’t see sky after five to ten seconds, then swim your way, with the current, to the surface. 

#6 Pack Your Pack
Everyone has a personal method for loading their pack. But with all due respect, we—along with Jim Sano, president of Geographic Expeditions—are happy to share the very best way: ours. First off, it’s not overly anal to weatherproof in the height of summer. “I got snowed on in Yosemite last August,” says Sano. Line your pack with a plastic garbage bag. Line your sleeping bag stuff sack with a trash compactor bag, and fill it with your bag and clothes for camp. Second, concentrate the weight in your pack at your waist so you’re less likely to get thrown off balance. This way, your strongest muscles, those in your legs, do the most work. For ideal distribution, stow the lined stuff sack at the bottom of your pack, followed by food and fuel, and then the rest of your clothing. Keep storm gear and a snack at the top for easy access. Lastly, attach your sleeping pad up high and your tent low, so you don’t look like a big dork.

Excerpted from "Ready For Almost Anything," by Melissa Wagenberg; Illustration by Mark Bodnar