Day 1: Understanding Survival PRIORITIES
Survival priorities: What exactly does this mean? Well, let me start out by introducing myself. You can call me Skip, as I won’t give my name publicly as I try to stay of grid. I am a survivalist. A real one. I get a ton of questions on what I should do if this or that happens from people that know me, few of which know my location as I move my footprint often. You see, everyone likes to play the what if game, “what if,” my plane goes down…”what if,” I forget my lighter, “what if,” I find myself naked stranded in Antarctica with nothing? Well there is a simple solution to all these questions and it is called the idea of survival priorities.
So let's talk about survival priorities. What is my primary priority? well don't die. Okay that is all well and good but how do I not die? The thing is the answer is simple, it depends. But that's not a good answer. That's not an answer you can use to apply anything of value in any of thosesituations at least not without the rule of threes.
So what is the rule of threes? The rule of Three’s is a guideline, not necessarily an actual rulethat helps you to think your way through a survival situation. It's a little bit of scientifically backed data that helps you to prioritize and figure out what really is going to kill you first and then youcan take steps to stop it. In my line of work being military and law enforcement for the past 20 years I have a Tyler's version of the rule of threes. It goes something like this.
We know that the average gunfight lasts about 3 seconds so you have about 3 seconds in an austere environment without security. Security can be a lot of things from a firearm to a blunt tool to a knife to a location in front of a law enforcement facility to an exit path maybe even aparachute. Whatever your security plan is just have one and remember, like they say stay strapped or get clapped.
The next rule is 3 minutes without air. this one confuses many people and it confused me aswell at one time. This is more of a preparation reminder rule. If you are in a float plane and your plane goes down you have about 3 minutes before you die from suffocation this means anypreps that you should have are of no value to you if they are in the fuselage while your plane isgoing down the drink. You have to have whatever you need on your person, and in your pockets. That lighter you want, that knife you need, that emergency rescue Beacon it all needsto be in your pocket or on your person.
The next rule is 3 hours without shelter in inclement weather. What does this mean? First off it means that you need to wear appropriate clothing for your environment. If you can't sit comfortably by a fire at 2:00 in the morning without dying from exposure with the clothes you have on your back, then you didn't bring enough clothes. Shelter starts with what you're wearing then goes to sleeping bags, bivy shelters and tents. Finally it hits the traditional idea of shelters being windbreaks from rocks and logs that you turn into a shelter.
The next rule of Threes is 3 days without water. Now this one I need to remind you again is just a guideline not an exact rule. you might last 4 hours in the Mojave Desert without water, you might last 4 days in the jungle without water. All this rule is designed to do is to remind you thatwater is more important than food.
The next rule is 3 weeks without food. An interesting study in Canada showed that you can go 40 days without food as long as you have vitamins and water and only about 20 days if you have roughly 500 calories per day without permanent long-term side effects. What this tells us is that it might be better to go without food and eat all of what you have when you have it than it is to nibble all the time and never go into ketosis. You can live a long time off the fat you have on you right now, so your takeaway should be that food is not the most important item, it might be the third or fourth most important item so if you're hungry work on fire water and shelter before you eat. When you eat it’s ok to binge a bit and don’t feel the need to spread it out over time. Lastly 3 months without companionship. even if you have everything you need you're eventually going to go a little bit crazy without your friends. so remember the purpose behind all of this stuff is to get yourself found then like my friend Justin always says, go home and eat tacos.
