The Nomadic 72 Hour Challenge

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Fear of the unknown

Fear of the unknown will give you a hard time in a survival situation. Thoughts of death will mess with your mind. Strange sounds and anxiety will keep you awake at night. Sleep will be a luxury you enjoy the next morning when the sun reappears. Fear of the unknown was probably also the hardest part of this year’s 72 hour challenge if you ask the participants. The thought of venturing into the wild for three days with minimum gear is enough to cause anxiety to most people.

On September 14th this autumn we were on our way to Sweden by car for the Undepend 72 Hour Challenge. This year’s participants were skilled outdoorsmen. Yet stripping them of most of their gear made a huge difference to their self confidence. We talked about how the trip would play out and I sensed a slight uncertainty among the participants. That was right until we parked the car. We went to meet Jon from Immeln Canoe Center. He had agreed to lend us some canoes for this year’s challenge. It changed the perspective of the challenge quite a lot. 

Departure
As we launched our canoes and started paddling into the Swedish wilderness at Lake Immeln, uncertainty was already replaced with excitement. The weather was almost too nice to call it a challenge. Swedish nature is really beautiful especially when you experience it from the lakeside. We knew that from now on we would need to conserve our energy but we were also keen on leaving behind all signs of civilization. We paddled for a couple of hours looking for a spot to camp for the night. Immeln is filled with small idyllic islands but we needed more than idyll. We stopped on several occasions to check out the islands only to realize that there wasn’t enough resources available for us to be able to establish a camp. When you don’t bring everything with you, you rely on nature to provide things for you. This was a new perspective on the traditional challenges where we usually head off into unknown territory by foot. 

Our plan was to find a place for the night and move on the next day. The challenge started on September 14th at 1600 so we had to stay focused on our priorities. It wasn’t long until sunset and we needed to find a campsite, build a shelter and preferably make fire before it became dark. As time progressed we were forced to make a quick decision. We found an island where we decided to stay for the night. It didn’t have a lot of resources but we were able to prepare a fire and a makeshift shelter. It wasn’t really suitable for a rainy night but the weather seemed nice so we took a chance and slept on the ground. Normally participants are obliged to take care of themselves but this was another deviation from the norm. There simply wasn’t enough resources for all of us on the small island, so we had to build a shared shelter and campfire. Even if there had been enough ressources it would have felt weird lighting three camp fires within such a small area that the island offered.

I found some reed that I carefully picked. Just enough to make a small bedding for the night. However careful I was when picking it I still cut my hands. I even used birch bark as protection, but reed has super sharp edges and without tools it’s hard to avoid cuts.

Each participant is allowed to bring: 1 t-shirt, 1 woolen shirt, 1 pair of underpants, 1 pair of long pants, 1 pair of socks, 1 pair of shoes, 1 belt + 4 items of their own choice.

I only brought one extra item this year namely a fire steel. I’ve done these challenges many times now and I could complete it with nothing at all. Making fire on the go with natural materials only however takes me about 24 to 48 hours however since most materials need both locating, preparing and possibly seasoning. You can’t make fire with fresh green materials. I prioritized the luxury of being abe to make fire immediately. On the other hand I opted out of having a pot and cutting tool which would be my second priority, It meant I relied on being able to build a shelter and a natural bedding with my bare hands and drink unpurified water from the lake. I’m certain that most people could easily get by for 72 hours with just a firesteel if only they knew how to. It’s not hard. That’s what I aim to teach people on these trips. Because once you realise it’s possible you become much more confident in nature. You begin to see it as your tool rather than something you need protection against. Everything you need can be found in nature.

Rasmus, one of this year’s participants, told a great story about a fishing trip he went on after hearing my talk at The Danish Outdoor Festival. He had lost his last fishing float after a long and troublesome day by the lake. He was about to give up and go home when he remembered something I said: “You can find an alternative to all your gear in nature”. Instead of giving up and head home he decided to turn his unfortune into a challenge. Soon after he had mounted a small wooden stick to his fishing line as a makeshift float and he ended up catching two fish.

That night I walked down to the shore in the quiet of the night to take a sip from the lake. It was an amazing feeling of connecting with nature. I just stood there with no gear, no jacket and no light. I was completely at the mercy of the elements and then nature just provided me with life. Water never tasted better.

The next morning we cleared our camp and headed out to find a suitable place to spend the rest of the challenge. We went ashore on different islands along the way to forage and scout for a suitable place to camp. We spent quite a lot of energy on paddling. Although the canoes would seem like an extra advantage, they also ment we had to spend more energy getting around. Mostly because we traveled greater distances. A couple of hours later we found a place to camp along the shore of Immeln. The islands on Immeln were unable to provide all of us with enough materials for building a natural shelter. You can tell they have a lot of visitors during summer.

After deciding on a place I immediately began building my shelter and a couple of hours later I felt pretty much on top of things. I had a waterproof shelter and firewood ready. I went out to collect som reed to use as bedding. I took one of the canoes and went around the headland where I had seen som reed growing in the water. This was a much more relaxed day than the one before. Everyone was busy building their shelters. This is usually a very rewarding part of the challenge for everyone. I will give directions to people if they ask for it, otherwise they are on their own.

When building a shelter you should consider its location: Choose a spot somewhere in between the top and the bottom. If you build it on the top of a hill or a mountain it will be windy. It means you will cool down faster, your firewood will burn faster and you will burn more calories carrying materials to and from your camp. If you build it in a valley or lower lying area it will be cold. Cold air and moist settles at the bottom. If it rains you’re also at risk of being flooded.

Don’t build it too close to water either. It doesn’t matter if it’s a river or a lake. Tide can come quickly and a river, even a dry river bed, can become flooded without a warning. Look for flat, elevated and well drained ground and make sure it’s not at the foot of a ravine or on a slope. Make sure it’s close to ressources such as drinking water, building materials, fire wood etc. It will save you energy.

A foraging trip
With our shelters in place we decided to go foraging. This challenge took place mid september, a little later in the year than normal so most berries were gone by now. There was nothing we could eat in the vicinity of our camp so we had to head out on a foraging trip. We had passed the first 24 hours of the challenge now and our energy levels were dropping after a long day of paddling and building shelters. We launched our canoes and went across the lake to a sunny side with lush greens. We went from island to island but we only found very little food. The few berries we found were often unripe so I began to eat birch leaves, plantain and whatever else I could find. It wasn’t much. You don’t really need food short term but it helps you get that extra bit of energy for other tasks. At this point however we were spending way more energy paddling than the energy we gained from foraging. We found a couple of rough-stemmed boletes (Leccinum scabrum) but mushrooms don’t give you energy. On the contrary actually. Mushrooms are thermogenic, which means they affect your metabolism negatively. After that we went back to our camps and began to prepare for the night.

I always try to stay ahead of things in the wild. I prepare everything before need it so I don’t end up in a situation where I’m unable to make fire, build a shelter, find water etc. Of course you do a lot of improvising when it comes to wilderness survival but staying ahead of things minimizes risks. One of the participants struggled to make fire so I suggested some materials he could use with his firesteel. The deal is you can give advice to others but you can’t help them physically and you can’t lend your tools to others. His firesteel wasn’t the best quality so it worked against him too.

I made a mistake
After collecting some new tinder materials and sweating for some minutes he was able get a fire going. Meanwhile I walked back to my own camp. I had collected some tinder in advance so I was ready to light my fire too. It was about time because now it was getting dark. To my surprise I also struggled with my tinder. This was a problem since I couldn’t see much in the dark forest. I had waited too long before starting my fire and now I was stuck in the darkness. I guess my tinder had become moist from the evening dew. I went down by the shore of the lake to see if I could locate some new tinder knowing it would probably also be moist by now. There was a bit more light here and I found some withered grass that might work. I only picked the top of the leaves. They stay dry for longer because of their exposure to the wind. They are also further away from the moist coming from the ground. In a situation like this little details matter. I thought to myself how embarrasing it would be if I was the only one unable to make fire. :)

It took me about 15 minutes of striking my firesteel. I was really frustrated before I got a flame. I had my kindling lined up, so it didn’t take med long to build up a strong hot campfire from there. This is another tip for building a fire. Make it bigger than you need in the begining. Collect about three times the amount of kindling you think you need for starting it. You are looking to build a bed of strong embers that will keep you fire going strong even if you add some wet firewood by mistake. If you do, don’t hesitate to remove it from you fire again by the way. You’re better off replacing it with a dry piece and let the wet piece dry up next to your fire before you burn it. Bark holds on to the moist inside the wood so remove it before you add it to your fire to get more heat out of it.

After a challenging evening I could finally relax. There’s nothing more rewarding than lying in a natural shelter next to a crackling fire in the middle of the woods at night. I fell asleep soon after. When you rely on your fire to keep you warm throughout the night you better not sleep too tight. I have this inner alarm clock that wakes me up every now and then when it is time to add another log to my longfire. I guess you learn from your mistakes because not listening to it will punish you with a long and cold night. Or you need to wake up and build your fire from scratch.

The next morning was wonderful. I woke up early and added some more firewood to my campfire before heading down to the lake to get a drink. I sat by my campfire and enjoyed the dancing reflections of the Sun as they hit the lake and shined back through the leaves of the trees. The others went down to take a morning swim so I decided to do the same. It was a feeling of pure wellness. The refreshing cold water increases your blood circulation and boosts your energy level. But the real reward comes afterwards when you dry up by your campfire. I had built a reflector out of rocks. As the name says it reflects excessive heat back towards you giving you an extra boost of heat radiation. It was like sitting in an open sauna in the middle of the forest.

I was full of energy and ready to seize the day, but one of the participants felt a little off however. He had a headache and was low on energy. It’s easy to feel that way when your environment changes drastically and you stop eating at the same time. In a survival situation it can seriously decrease your morale, but Jacob was super constructive about it and worked with himself. It was easy to tell he’s a professional coach, workout specialist and a former sergeant at the Danish Royal Guards. An hour later we headed out to explore the surrounding area. At this point we hadn’t eaten for 41 hours.

We headed further North up the lake. At one point we came to a small cove and decied to go ashore. It led us to a big nothing. Just a barren piece of land full of felled spruce trees. But just as we were about set out again we saw something that hyped us all up. Right there in the water was a bunch of crayfish. We didn’t have anything to catch them with so we tried using our bare hands. They’re not exactly defenceless so you want to grab them from behind which can be extremely difficult when you are aiming through the distortion of the water surface. I have no experience with getting pinched by a crayfish so I tried grabbing them with caution, but they kept hiding between the rocks. Then suddenly Jacob saw a big one and in a flash he caught it with his bare hands and threw it into the canoe. We were all hyped up about it. We tried catching some more without any luck. Looking back we should probably have kept trying for another hour or so. It would have been time and energy well spent. But just catching one boosted our morale.

We were super excited as we continued our trip. Our next destination was a fairly big island further up north. It was more lush than what we had experienced before. This time we were lucky to find both Swedish blueberry and lingon. We also found some bay boletes. Just what we needed after a long trip with only little food.

We laid down and enjoyed the sunlight for a while before preparing a small fire by the lake. It was a blissful moment. We cooked the crayfish over open fire and split the meat. It’s incredible how big an impact such a small portion of meat has on your morale. It was a bite sent from heaven. We had a piece of bolete to go along with it. It was an amazing meal. For dessert we had blueberries and lingonberries. Two majestic buzzards took care of the entertainment as they elegantly hovered above us in circles. We had long forgotten about survival.

The rest of the evening we spent relaxing in our camps. A thing about survival that few people consider is the waiting time. Often you will have nothing to do except to wait. Of course you have things you need to do but you will also have a lot of spare time once you’ve established yourself. The danger of it is you risk becoming apathetic. Overthinking is also a known risk in wilderness survival. It may lead to analysis paralysis. A condition that can keep you from taking action on vital tasks. It’s important that you stay active and ahead of things but ofcourse your should allow yourself to relax and be in balance with yourself. Survival is a 99% mental challenge.

We had travelled far on this trip so the next morning we decided to clear our camps early and begin our journey back. We wanted to be able to take it easy and enjoy our last day of paddling.

I always practice the art of LNT (Leave No Trace) when I spend time in nature. Not just because it’s the right thing to do. Covering up your tracks is also quite fun. From a survival point of view covering up your tracks can be a very useful skill to learn if you are on the run or are being hunted by someone. Evasion and counter tracking techniques are very hard to do properly however, especially if you’re facing professional trackers or a hunter force. But if you know what they look for, you can at least be aware of it and possibly make life a little harder for them. Just in case you need to.

Even if you don’t care about counter tracking, leaving nature in the same state as when you came is the decent thing to do. After all we love nature, not other people’s decaying shelters right. Think about it, how often do you bump into someone else’s shelter and think “hey, this is cool, I’ll fix it and sleep here tonight”? I’m sure you never did unless you had to. Nobody admires your shelter quite like yourself. So clean up please. It’s quite fun too.

The last hours before the challenge was over were a little boring to be honest. To kill some time one went swimming and two of us took a nap. I was going to drive back to Denmark after we finished the challenge so I was happy to get a good rest. That was it. We returned to civilization exactly 72 hours or three days after we took off. Great weather made the challenge a great experience and a walk in the park from a survival point of view. The canoes added a new dimension to the concept. We had become nomads.

Practicing tropical island survival in the Maldives

posted in: Nature, Survival | 0

36 hours after coming home from Alaska I was on a plane heading for the Maldives. This time I was together with my family. I had missed them on my trip to Alaska but now we had two weeks together ahead of us. This was our summer vacation.

It wasn’t a wilderness vacation in the sense that we lived outside but we stayed in a beachfront bungalow 15 meters away form the water’s edge. A perfect vacation for all of us. We were surrounded by nature in a luxury resort with the most beautiful view and still within close range of a swimming pool and other facilities for my kids.

Staying on a tropical island still made me wonder what my priorities and challenges would be in a survival situation. The first thing I do when I go to a new place is to read nature. What fire making materials are available, what sources of food and water are available, what resources are available for shelter making and so on. It’s not something I think about it has just become a habit to me.

I found plenty of firemaking materials including some palm leaf sheath. Apart from firemaking this fibrous mesh can be used for numerous things. The fibres are very strong and can be used for making both rope, baskets and nets just like palm leaves can. The mesh itself can also be used directly as a brush, washcloth, padding, and much more.

Nature here is so lush that finding food wouldn’t be your biggest challenge. The ocean would probably be your biggest resource of food in a survival situation. When we were dropped off on the island the first thing we saw was a Blacktip reef shark swimming under the bridge where we landed.

One early morning my wife and I took a stroll along the beach. We were paddling in the shallows when we suddenly heard a big splash and snapping jaws behind us. As we looked back we saw a 1.2 meter long shark right behind us. Apparently it was hunting something all the way up on the shore. As it went back into the sea it passed right by us along with a few other sharks.

On the beach we saw both hermit crabs, ghost crabs, Oriental garden lizards, beetles, Grey heron and more and above us smaller birds and the Indian Flying fox (Pteropus vampyrus). We had been swimming in the ocean for a couple of days before buying a diving mask. After this it became clear to us just how lush the ocean was. Twospot Demoiselle, Picasso Triggerfish, Grouper and the poisonous Yellow Boxfish were just some of the fish I saw. One time I was snorkeling in the shallows when I coincidentally looked up and saw a girl looking at me while pointing. I turned around to see what she was pointing at and I saw a huge shadow right behind me. A big stingray was passing me one meter away.

Had we not come during the monsoon water would probably have been an issue here. At this point we had plenty of rain water so this was also not a priority. When people think of the monsoon they often think of endless rain for months but in the Maldives the “Halhangu” as the Monsoon is called here is more versatile and heavy rain can come within a few minutes. During the day time we had perfect weather throughout our two week long stay and most of the rain came during the nights.

So if both food and water was plentiful, what would my biggest challenge be if I ended up on a tropical island like this one in a survival situation? The answer is heat. When I first arrived here I had nausea and felt both dizzy and tired. I wasn’t sure whether it was jetlag from traveling east through 15 timezones or 221 longitudes the last couple of days or whether it was the heat. Either way the heat was humid and intense and it made me lazy and indolent. Not an ideal state of being in a survival situation where you want to stay on top of things.

The heat aside my light skin is not well protected against the scorching sun. So this would definitely be a challenge for me too. Without sunscreen I would need to stay out of the sun most of the time.

Luckily sharks and stingrays are more active after dusk so I could hunt for them without being exposed to the sun otherwise I would need to stay covered up.

My kids and I often go on trips together and sometimes I leave them to solve tasks on their own . Whether the task is building their own shelter, lighting fire or foraging for food they always go at it with passion. This time they were the ones to give me a challenge though. They had been playing around outside for an hour or more when they came in with some coconuts they had collected on the beach. They had been trying to open them for some time when one of the locals came by and showed them how to do it. Now they wanted me to do it too. It was both great fun and a challenge I couldn’t say no to.

Coconuts have edible fruit flesh as you probably know and they are great for many things in a survival situation. Green coconuts contain a lot of water too. Well it’s not actually water rather than a kind of fruit juice rich in natural sugars, vitamin C, and minerals such as potassium. Coconut water is also rich in fibers. Be careful not to drink too much of it though since their high amounts of potassium can cause unconsciousness, uncontrolled diabetes, red blood cell destruction among other things. It also contains natural laxatives which can be helpful if you get constipation but it could also leave you dehydrated. So you shouldn’t drink too much of it. Probably not more than two cups a day.

Climbing a palm tree to get the green coconuts is not an easy task though. And it is certainly not risk free either. I talked to one of the locals who’s job it was to climb the palm trees and cut down coconuts and withered leaves with his machete. His technique was to tie a rope around his back and lean into it as he moved upwards. The rope he used was made from hide and which made it very strong. Others use a rope around their feet which they press towards the trunk of the tree to avoid slipping. These are ancient techniques that require great strength and practice and you don’t want to risk injuring yourself in a survival situation unless absolutely necessary.

Another way to get water is from palm leaves. And you don’t have to climb the trees to get it. What you want to do is to locate some young shoots that grow straight from the ground near the base of a tree. Find a flowering stalk, bend it downwards and cut off the tip. The leaves contain a sugary fluid that you can drink. The next day slice off another thin piece of the leaf and it will give you up to a liter of fluid a day. Be aware that this fluid also contains a laxative so take care that you don’t drink too much of that either.

There are many other ways to get water in the tropics. If you have a plastic bag condensation is another one. There are two immediate ways to do it. One is by tying a plastic bag around the branch of a tree with green leaves and let the sun evaporate the water inside the branch and leave it to condensate on the plastic bag.

The other is by making a solar still. This can be made in different ways but the principle is the same. You dig a hole in the ground and cover it with the plastic bag. In the middle of the hole under the plastic bag you put a container to collect the water. Then you place a small stone on top of the plastic bag right above the container to weigh down the plastic bag a bit. The idea is to make water from the ground below evaporate and condensate on the plastic bag above. Because of the weight of the stone the water will then dribble down into the middle and into the container. You can use this method to render salt water or dirty water drinkable and you can put wet leaves into the hole to extract the water from them. Mind you that this is a method that requires some patience.

The Maldives is a tropical paradise and I would recommend everyone to visit this place. From a survival/SHTF point of view, which is my take on this blog, there are a few things to consider however: First of all remember you will most likely be staying on a remote island with no immediate medical help available so take your precautions. There are some very poisonous fish here so don’t step on the corals. Well don’t step on them anyway since you will destroy them. Also don’t swim in the ocean at night since sharks are more active at night and this is their feeding time. Tsunamis and severe storms happen but I wouldn’t worry too much about that though. It is however a Muslim country where radical Islam is very strong. 200 Maldivians have been known to fight for IS in Iraq and Syria out of a total population of only 345.000. I didn’t know about this until after we visited the country but in Male, the capital of the Maldives Islam was clearly present. At the moment there are no risks for tourists visiting the islands however since tourism is a big business for the country. And the Islamists are able to launder their money through it. Just don’t bring alcohol through customs. You can buy it at the resorts anyway since the government is turning it’s blind eye to it.

Whether or not you want to indirectly support radical Islam the Maldives is definitely worth a visit from a holiday perspective. And boycotting the country would probably only help the radical forces within the country gain more power. So my recommendation is to go and experience this tropical paradise. The irony of it all being of course that by flying here you will encourage global warning and it is believed that the islands will disappear within the next 10-100 years due to sea levels rising.

Wilderness Survival. What can you learn from failure?

posted in: Bushcraft, Gear, Knowledge, skills, Survival, Wild food | 0

Welcome to Undepend 72 Hour Challenge.

This years Undepend Challenge started out in pouring rain. We went from ten participants to two in just two weeks prior to departure. I received the last three cancellations the day before departure. I suppose someone had seen the weather forecast.

As my friend Casper and I drove the 300 km to the pre-challenge base it was already raining heavily. And it didn’t stop until the next morning. When we woke up and packed our things to leave for the wild it was dry for a short while.

The rules
The rules were similar to previous challenges: Spend 72 hours in the wild with 4 items only. Your total gear was limited to: Underwear, socks, pants, footwear, a shirt, a belt, 2 liters of water and 4 items of your own choice. So no shell layer and no sleeping bag unless you chose them as one of your 4 items. My 4 items were a hatchet, a pot, a fire steel and a knife. I know that the hatchet and the knife are outweighing each other a bit but I just like having my knife with me as well.

The concept
The idea behind Undepend 72 Hour Challenge is to challenge the participants and teach them how to thrive in the wild with less gear than they are used to. Once you learn that everything you need can be found in nature you will feel more comfortable and confident if you end up in a survival situation.

Chances are that if you end up in a survival situation you don’t have acces to a sleeping bag or even your rain jacket anyway. Because you don’t normally plan for accidents. You don’t always bring a jacket in your car and you don’t bring your sleeping bag on a plane. Even on short hikes people usually don’t plan for getting lost. They don’t expect their short day hike to turn into a survival situation. However it is often people like that who get lost in the wild. And they are often found exhausted or disoriented close to civilization.

Challenge start
We drove our car as far into the forest as we could before the trail became too rough to continue. We parked the car and got out. The challenge was on.

It was raining just a little bit as we headed into the forest. But the night before it had been poring down so everything was extremely wet and slippery. I think we walked for no more than ten minutes before both my socks and shoes were soaking wet. My pants were wet up to my knees. I had expected this so it wasn’t a problem at all. My plan was to push through, build a shelter and get a fire going later on. The bigger challenge was to find some dry tinder since we couldn’t bring anything with us at all. Everything around us was wet. I found a few semi dry pine branches as well as a piece of fairly dry birch bark that I brought along in my pot.

Walking in circles.
We soon passed a small stream and we talked about camping in that spot since we would have easy access to a safe water supply. We wanted to go deeper into the forest however and figured it would be easy to find water in this weather. After walking for about an hour or so we suddenly realized we had returned to a place we had passed half an hour earlier. With no compass, dense vegetation and heavy clouds, navigation was difficult. We had to try again. We set a tree behind us as a marker and used a tree further ahead of us as another marker. We were trying to avoid walking in circles again. But the terrain was also very rocky with a many differences in height. It wasn’t easy and I think it was down to luck rather than skills that we didn’t end up walking in circles again. Instead we walked straight out of the area and suddenly we stood by a paved road. We had to turn around again and try the opposite direction. At this point we had spent a couple of hours walking around and we decided that we should find a place to camp within the next hour. It had been raining on and off ever since we left the car so we were very wet at this point.

Imperfect spot
About four hours into the challenge we finally found a spot to camp in. It wasn’t the perfect spot but we were under pressure to make a camp before sundown. Casper had brought a tarp as one of his items, so he was fairly quick to set up his shelter. I was still walking around a bit restless trying to find some leveled ground and a spot with some natural materials to use for my shelter. I decided to build an A-frame lean-to in order to get as much protection from the wind as possible. It’s a classical wilderness survival shelter. Since I didn’t have a jacket or anything else to protect me from the elements, I figured this was a the right thing to do. I made it tall enough for me to be able to sit up straight under it if I wanted to. This is a good thing to do if you have to spend a lot of time inside it. If it’s raining you want to have a fair amount of indoor space to stay in.

A race against time
Unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of materials around. We were allowed to stay in the area but we didn’t want to cut down trees unnecessarily. So I spent a lot of time walking back and fourth scavenging for materials. It took me about 4 hours before my shelter was finished. I made it just before sundown. We had spent much of the day hiking so I was desperately trying to gather some spruce branches from the bottom of the trees at the same time as I was collecting branches to use as bedding for my shelter. There was no way I would be able to sleep directly on the ground since it was extremely wet and cold. When I was done with the bedding it was already getting dark. I had only managed to collect a few spruce branches to use as kindling. And they were still a bit wet. During our hike through the terrain, I had dropped the tinder I collected earlier, so I had to look for suitable tinder as well. I found some birch bark but it was soaked. I thought it might dry out so I brought it with me anyway. It was a race against time and I was loosing it. I found a fallen tree where I was able to collect some semi dry wood from the inside of it but now it was so dark that walking around in the forest was becoming too risky. I settled with the thought that I would have to spend the night in my shelter without getting a fire going.

Spending the night
Knowing that the coldest time of the night is usually around 4 to 6 in the morning right before the sun rises, I decided to get some sleep right away while the air was still somewhat warm. Without a fire this was going to be a cold night. On top of that I was wet from my thighs down. And I mean soaking wet. Luckily I was wearing wool socks, a wool t-shirt and a long-sleeved wool shirt on top of that. But my pants were made of cotton.

I was knackered as I lay down on the branches I had used as bedding. so I didn’t pay any attention to the rain outside. I just closed my eyes and fell asleep. When I woke up the next morning I was so well rested that all the struggle I had been through the day before was forgotten … I’m kidding of course. I woke up a few hours later from a drop of water hitting me right between my eyes. I was shivering heavily and I had severe muscle cramps in my left leg. It was really cold and it was only 11.30 PM. I sat up for a while trying to get rid of my muscle cramps before I lay down on my other side and fell asleep again. Throughout the night my body was shivering to stay warm and I remember two dreams reappearing throughout the night. Hugging my wife and eating a burger. Basic needs covered in my dreams I guess.

The next morning
The night continued like this. Me waking up, trying to get rid of my muscle cramps and turning to the other side to get some sleep again. At 4 o’clock in the morning I got up. It was till dark but the cold prevented me from getting any more sleep. I waited another hour or so before I could see a bit of light appearing in the sky. And yet another hour later it was finally becoming light enough for me to see what I was doing.

I immediately started searching for dry firewood. The weather was actually fine right now but it had been raining all night and everything was wet. Even the mushrooms couldn’t hold more water. At the same time I was exhausted from the cold night, the physical activity and a lack of food. Last year we had plenty of berries to eat but this year it was as if we had come later in the season. There were only very few berries to be found and the ones we did find were either tasteless or not ripe. We found loads of mushrooms however but they don’t provide the same amount of energy as berries do. And some mushrooms you have to cook before you can eat them so the lack of fire was an issue again.

At this time Casper woke up. Or at least I thought he did. You see he had been awake for an hour or so without being able to move or speak he told me. Since he was also soaked when he fell asleep it seems his tarp had worked more like a greenhouse keeping all the moist inside instead of protecting him against the rain. He had also suffered from muscle cramps during the night and since he had slept directly on the wet ground with only the tarp as protection he was probably even more cooled down than I was.

We agreed that we would not spend another night out there unless we got a fire going. Since we were both extremely wet it would be too risky and not worth it unless we were able dry up.

The last battle for fire
I managed to find a bit more kindling but not much. However the tinder was still wet so I still wasn’t able to get a fire going. But now the sun was actually shining so I was hoping that it would dry things up during the next couple of hours. Often however if the sun is shining early in the morning the weather becomes cloudy later. This morning was no different. Soon clouds began to fill the sky again. We were a bit low on water now and since we had moved away from the stream earlier we had to locate some safe drinking water soon. We were very close to a lake this time however so we walked down there to fill our bottles. On the way I collected some Broadleaf plantain that I thought would give me some energy later. I was still hoping to get a fire going so I kept them for later.

When we got back from the lake we sat down to make a plan. Casper told me that he had heard me walk around looking for firewood this morning, but unable to talk to me he thought I had woken up well rested and fit for fight. But when our eyes met he was relieved to see that he wasn’t the only one who had suffered. At this point we both realized that we didn’t have any more in us left to give. We looked at each other and ended the challenge right there. About 25 hours after start. It immediately felt like the right thing to do. At this point I wasn’t thinking clearly. My energy and my motivation was gone.

The interesting thing is even before we decided to end the challenge you could tell by our conversation that we had already given up mentally. We discussed how impossible everything was, how little energy we had left and so on. It was a looser’s talk.

So what mistakes did we make and what can we learn from them?

We didn’t S.T.O.P.
It was my own suggestion to keep pushing through in the rain because I was looking to get a bit further into the wild. This was probably the biggest mistake we made and the mistake that prevented us from succeeding. If we had stopped by the small stream in the beginning of the challenge we would have had plenty of time and energy left to build a shelter and possibly even a fire. We would have had easy access to water and we wouldn’t have become as wet as we did from hiking through the wilderness for hours. So even without a fire we probably wouldn’t have ended up on the border of hypothermia. During the hike I also lost some of the dry tinder I had found so the chance of us getting a fire going would have been much bigger.

Walking in circles.
Even if the terrain was hard to navigate in without a compass we could have done more to check our direction. Despite the rain clouds we could still sense the direction of the sun and we could also have used the trees to set a direction. But because we were too eager to get going we didn’t do any of it. And we ended up wasting energy unnecessarily.

We picked the wrong spot to camp in.
Because of time pressure and fatigue we picked a spot without sufficient supplies in the vicinity. This meant we had to work harder to build our shelters and we didn’t have easy access to food and firewood.

We gave up.
It is very likely that we would have made it if we hadn’t lost our motivation. After all it wasn’t raining when we ended the challenge. It was wet but not raining. Possibly we might even have gotten a fire going within a few hours if things had dried up a bit. But we lost the will to try. This is probably the hardest thing to acknowledge but also the biggest lesson we learned from our trip. Never give up and keep a positive mental attitude because mood affects your abilit to act.

Undepend 48 Hour Challenge 2016

48 hours in the wilderness with no shell layer and maximum 4 items

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No jacket, no backpack, no sleeping bag. Unless you wanted to bring them as part of your 4 items you would have to do without them. Personally I didn’t need any of them. To me having a pot, a hatchet and a fire steel was sufficient. I also brought my knife although I didn’t really need it. I just enjoy having it with me.

THURSDAY

Leaving for Sweden
Thursday evening on August 25th I was picked up by one of my friends in his dads car right after work. We were 7 people, driving in two cars from Copenhagen heading for the Swedish wilderness in the Northern part of Jönköping near Vättern.

The destination, a small hut in Aneby, was about 400km north of Copenhagen. A little more than a 4 hour drive. My longtime friend Petrus from Stockholm who had helped me arrange the trip was meeting us there. His family owns the hut which was to serve as our pre-challenge base.

We were full of anticipation as we crossed the Öresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden. The sun was shining and the weather forecast looked extremely good for this time of year. We were talking about everything from music and work to challenge related stuff like the terrain and our strategies. As the organizer of the challenge I was also a little bit keen on getting to our base in time to plan for the next morning.

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But after about an hour of driving our car started acting weird. We pulled in at a nearby gas station just in time before it came to a full stop. This was definitely not what we had hoped for. There was a roadside service insurance signed for the car but even so we had to wait for more than an hour to get help. We ended up being towed back to Helsingborg which is about half way back from where we came. Everything was closed there including all the car rental companies. It took my friend Thomas many discussions with the insurance company as well as a lot of work and stress before we finally managed to get a rental car. I don’t know how he managed to stay calm but apparently he is a highly trained diplomat. By the time we reached the hut it was 1 o’clock at night and the other guys had gone to bed. They didn’t quite sleep yet so we all had a quick chit chat before hitting the sack. We agreed to postpone next days challenge start two hours because of our late arrival. Unfortunately I never got to meet my friend Petrus who was supposed to meet us there.

FRIDAY

Breakfast and preparation
We woke up to a warm and sunny morning. We all helped each other prepare breakfast before challenge start. We had oatmeal with milk, scrambled eggs, sausages and bread with cheese. A last proper meal before take off. Everyone was excited. We exchanged thoughts about the 4 items we had decided to bring as we prepared both mentally and practically for the challenge. It was the right decision to postpone challenge start two hours. It meant we had a calm morning with enough time to clean the hut and get ready without any stress.

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Gear check
Besides your regular clothes, in this case underwear, socks, pants, a shirt, footwear, a belt and 2 liters of water in a plastic container, you could bring 4 items of your own choice. With these items you had to spend 48 hours in the wilderness. These were the rules of the Undepend 48 Hour Challenge. To some it may sound like too little, to more experienced bushcrafters and survivalists it may sound like plenty. Either way the rules gave all participants the flexibility to adapt their gear to their level of experience. And the more experienced still had the possibility to challenge themselves and go more primitive.

Adam, the more experienced participant of them all decided to bring only two items. Well he insisted on keeping his hat on so he ended up bringing three items actually. Apart from his hat he brought a small hatchet and a fire steel.

One participant with long hair was very challenged by the fact that I deemed his hairband as an extra item. It was almost equal to a Buff which would have given him extra protection against the elements. So he had to replace it with a simple hair elastic band.

After gear check we packed up and took off. We drove our cars down some small roads left and right before finally turning up a small dirt road leading us into the wilderness area where we were to spend the next couple of days. We parked our cars between the brush next to the road, grabbed our things and got out. It was time for challenge start.

Challenge start
I briefly outlined some safety principles as well as a few instructions on what to do if lost. Basic stuff like S.T.O.P. (Stop, Think, Observe, Plan), a little bit about distress signaling, principles about eating wild plants, the Rule of 3 and the like. I also repeated the challenge rules as well as a few rules of conduct. And THEN we took off into the wild.

It was an extreme feeling of freedom and anticipation as we walked deeper and deeper into the forest. The terrain was rocky with a mix of birch and spruce trees growing dense.

We occasionally stopped to collect tinder from thistles, tinder fungi and birch bark. Since it was a hot sunny day it was a perfect opportunity to get some dry tinder for later. It could become a valuable resource in case it started raining later.

As we walked on we saw tracks from both moose and wild boar meaning we were not going to camp in those particular places. You don’t want to camp on an animal path. Both for the sake of your own safety as well as the risk of disturbing local wildlife.

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Setting up camp
As much as we had hoped for it, we never crossed any streams or creeks on our way. The weather had been warm and dry for a while so they had probably dried out we figured. It would have been a perfect situation to find running water before setting up camp. But it was getting late considering that we needed time to establish our camps before sunset. So we decided for a suitable spot and started building our shelters.

The first ones to start building had found a nice, well drained spot on flat ground between some spruce trees next to a glade. I was a little jealous of their spot but I didn’t want to camp right next to them. Instead I found a spot halfway up on a small rocky hill. When finding a place to camp in the mountains the general rule is that you want look for flat ground in between the top of a mountain and the valley. Although we weren’t on a mountain, the principle turned out to be quite favorable even on a small scale.

Some of the other participants had built their shelter on top of the rock which gave them a great view. It also meant however that they were exposed to the wind. Luckily for them the weather was fair so it wasn’t a real problem. Another participant had build a cave like shelter all the way at the bottom of the terrain. He didn’t have to worry about the wind. But when he woke up the next day surrounded by morning mist he was freezing.

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I was a bit challenged by the fact that I couldn’t find any flat ground to build my shelter on. So I came up with an idea to kill two birds with one stone. I created a raised bed that would keep me off the damp ground at the same time as leveling the ground for me. I used two spruce trees as the foundation for my construction. I put a couple of long logs uphill of the trees so that they would naturally be pressed downhill towards them. I then cut up a lot of smaller logs to use for slats. It was a lot of work but the comfort it gave me was worth every drop of sweat.

I then proceeded to create the roof. In order to fasten the crossbar I went out to dig up some spruce roots. They work excellently as rope for shelter making. They are very flexible and you can easily dig them out from right under the surface of the ground.

To prepare my camp for the night I collected some firewood as well as some big rocks that I found near what appeared to be a dry creek. I used the stones as a reflector for my fire to keep me warm through the night. I was quite tired when I pulled out the thistle seeds that I had collected earlier on and prepared to light my fire.

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In need of water
We had brought 2 liters of water each. (Normal Recommended Daily Intake is 2-4 liters for a male adult at normal activity) But the hot sunny day as well as our increased activity meant that almost everyone was already low on water before the first day was over. A few people complained about a beginning headache and so far we had only spent about 8 of the total 48 hours.

We knew there was supposed to be a lake somewhere, but it was a big area and there was no guarantee that it was near by. I talked to a few of the other guys about making a last attempt at locating water. It was about to get dark now, so heading out would be risky. Darkness comes quickly in the forest. And finding your way back in an unknown wilderness in the dark can be both difficult and dangerous.

We still decided to give it a try. Wary of the danger we decided to go to the edge of our camp where we were certain we could find our way back – even in darkness. There we left one person. The rest of us moved on as far as we could without loosing visual and auditory contact with him. Then we left the next person there and so on until we reached a nearby peak. We had seen it earlier on and we were hoping to be able to see something from the top of it. It was really disappointing when we realized that there was no view at all from up there. There were trees all over and we couldn’t see anything. It was getting dark quickly now so we went back down and returned to our camp.

I felt so privileged as I lay down in my shelter with my fireplace in front of me. As I looked up to the sky right before falling asleep, the last thing I saw was a beautiful red sky.

A red sky at night is a sign of fair weather the next day. I have come to learn that the old saying “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight, red sky in the morning, sailor’s warning” is correct most of the time. At least here in the Nordic region. And there is actually a scientific explanation to it as well.

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SATURDAY

Breakfast
The next morning I woke up with the sun at about 5 o’clock. I fed my fire a few small logs and had myself some breakfast: Juicy sweet blueberries mixed with a few sour lingonberries that I had picked the day before and saved for this moment.

It’s a funny thing about living outside actually, you quickly begin to follow the rhythm of the day. At least when you’re not tugged away inside a sleeping bag. Only one of the other guys was awake. Adam who is also a very experienced outdoorsman. It was a great inspiration to have him as a participant in this year’s Undepend 48 Hour Challenge.

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Continued search for water
Knowing that water would soon become an issue for everyone, I suggested to Adam that we should head out to look for a resource before the others woke up. We knew there was supposed to be a lake somewhere but we had no idea about the direction or how far away it was. We also didn’t know if the water would be clean enough to drink if we found it.

As we left camp we had an idea that we would need to go east in order find it. The problem was that it was a very hard and potentially dangerous direction to follow. We would need to climb down a steep cliff and walk through really dense forest. I suggested to Adam that we headed north instead hoping that we would cross a creek leading to the lake.

As we walked on we occasionally turned around to take note of landmarks and change in vegetation, in order to remember what the landscape looked like from the other side. This is a really good idea if you are walking in a place that you need to find your way back from. Even on a trail there may be a fork in the road that you can’t see on your way out. Mind you that we weren’t allowed to bring any compass, GPS or the like.

We continued like this for about 20 minutes when Adam suddenly cried out: “The lake! I see it! It’s right there”. Contrary to what we had thought we had been walking straight in the direction of the lake. And furthermore it was only about 20 minutes away from our camp. When we reached the shore the water looked as clear as it gets. There didn’t seem to be any algae in it. This was almost too good to be true.

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We filled our bottles and headed back to camp. This was indeed a motivation boost. Some of the other participants were down to less than a mouthful of water. So it really made a difference. Most of you are probably familiar with The Rule Of 3. It’s a rule of thumb helping you prioritize in a survival situation. It says that you could die in as little as 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food. This doesn’t mean that you can go without water for three days however. You quickly begin to feel the effects of dehydration if you don’t drink regularly. Fatigue, mudded thinking, headache are all symptoms of beginning dehydration. The problem with this is that you may end up making wrong decisions or mistakes. This can be critical in a survival situation.

We no longer had that kind of problems though. Our trip had suddenly turned into a luxury trip. This is where my pot really came in handy. For purifying water. Most of the other participants didn’t bring a pot so they had to take the chance of drinking the water as it was. Some of them had expected to be able get by on 2 liters of water for the whole challenge. I believe they learned something here. Luckily no one experienced any problems after drinking the water.

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Pure vacation and some foraging
The sun was shining and people either just hung out or they were out foraging for food. We had no permission for hunting or trapping but there was plenty of opportunities for foraging. I collected tons of berries, mushrooms as well as some birch bark and some ants. I was never really starving at any point. I just had fun testing different kinds of wild food.

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As we reached evening there was a slight change in the weather. It was getting a bit colder. I started collecting firewood for the night. I had a feeling it was not going to be as comfortable as the first night. I had been running around barefoot with just my pants and a t-shirt on. As I lay by the fire like this I quickly realized however that I needed to put on my socks. A few minutes later I also put on my shoes and my wool shirt. It was definitely getting colder.

SUNDAY

A change of weather
The next morning I woke up at about 5.30. It had been a cold night and I had been awakened by the cold numerous times. Each time I had fed my fire, gone back to sleep just to wake up about an hour later and start over again. The first thing I saw this morning was a beautiful red sky glowing through the silhouettes of the surrounding spruce trees. Sailor’s warning.

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Almost 43 hours had passed with great weather, what more can you ask for? I knew this morning would be spent taking down our shelters and erasing all tracks before heading back to civilization. So there was no need to feed my fire. It takes a really long time for embers to burn out and we certainly did not want to risk setting the forest on fire.

About 3 hours later we were all about ready to leave. It had started raining now which was actually perfect. Because although we had made an effort to put out our fires you can never be too certain. I have to admit that I also enjoyed the fact that the participants didn’t completely avoid a bit of rain. With only a hike through the forest and two hours left of the challenge this was still a luxury trip.

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Challenge end
It was obvious that some of the less experienced participants were feeling the wear of the trip as we began finding our way back out of the wilderness. They felt that they had already made it and all they wanted now was for the challenge to end. Personally I enjoy being outside in the rain and I wasn’t looking particularly forward to going back to civilization either. The trip back was a great one and we even managed to find some big and beautiful penny buns on the way. A couple of hours later we were back in familiar territory. And just as the 48th. hour ran out we finally reached our cars. Everyone had made it with bravour.

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A few thoughts on the rule of 3

posted in: Bushcraft, Knowledge, Survival | 0

For people who are accustomed to spending time in the wilderness the Rule Of 3 is common knowledge. A rule of thumb helping you prioritize correctly in a survival situation or before ending up in one. But how often do you reflect over this rule?

 

Here is an infographic I made to show you the importance of getting your priorities right when in the wild (Feel free use it in it’s original form):

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Have you ever considered how long you can in fact survive without food or water though? And did you consider the rule not always being relevant in all environments? Say during summer in temperate climates where shelter could be secondary to water or maybe even food?

I’m thinking it would be nice to know, for motivational reasons, how long people have survived. Let’s say you end up in survival situation where you have to extend the time frames of the rule of 3. Wouldn’t it be motivating to know that someone had made it for even longer?

You only have to look at some of the more recent survival reports to realize that your mental attitude outweighs any other principle or rule in survival. Take for example an incident from Umeå, Sweden in 2012 where a 45 year old man got snowbound in his car for 8 weeks with no food at all and survived. An even more recent incident is from Australia less than three weeks ago where a 62 old hunter survived for 6 days without water. He survived by staying in the shade and eating ants. Something he had learned from watching survival TV.

Our body is capable of amazing things if our mind doesn’t give up on us. And if you can think straight in a survival situation you have a far better chance of making it. Your mind allows you to be creative and inventive. So if you’re in an environment with no or only little risk of hypothermia you may want to start looking for water straight away. Because staying hydrated keeps your mind healthy as well as your body. And although you may be able to survive for three days without water. You may not be able to stay focused without it for more than 24 hours.

I ran a course this summer challenging a few of my fellow bushcraft/survivalist friends to spend 24 hours in the wild with a minimal amount of gear. With 2 liters of water plus 4 items of your own choice it wasn’t a survival test. But what we learned was really interesting: Although everything except long pants, shoes and a shirt counted as extra items the hardest part of the 24 hours wasn’t settling with the small amount of gear, water and food. It was boredom and a certain amount of apathy. Sure I was hungry after 18 hours of being physically active and getting only a little food. But waking up the next morning with all the basics taken care of (shelter, fire, water and food) I was just plain bored and waiting for time to run out so I could get a proper meal instead of what I had been able to forage. 4 hours before the challenge was over we even talked about breaking up earlier because we had basically “made it”. Which in fact would have meant that we had failed our mission.

So getting you priorities right doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to make it in a survival situation. And also not getting them right doesn’t mean you are doomed for failure either of course. But the Rule Of 3 is a great rule and I suggest you use it to get your priorities right. Just remember to stay active and keep a positive mind.

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Links:

Missing hunter ‘survived on ants’ and didn’t drink
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3270216/Missing-hunter-survived-ants-didn-t-drink-water-SIX-days-going-missing-Outback-hunting-camel.html

Sweden snow: Man ‘survives two months trapped in car’
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17088173
How did Swedish man survive in this frozen car at -30C for TWO MONTHS?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2103339/Swedish-man-Peter-Skyllberg-survives-frozen-car-months-eating-handfuls-snow.html
Sixty days under the snow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWloyZwSu-I