5 Wilderness Survival Tips

If you ever find yourself in a wilderness survival situation, your life could depend on the choices you make and the actions you take. Here are 5 tips to help increase your chances of survival.

Wilderness Survival Tip #1: At First, Do No Harm

This slogan is borrowed from the medical industry, but it also applies to survival. When you first realize that your survival is at stake, you want to be careful to do no harm - don’t make your situation worse.

Wilderness Survival Tip #2: Stay Calm & Be Rational

The worst thing you can do in a survival situation is to freak out or act rashly. The best thing to do is stay calm, ad carefully and rationally decide what to do. If it takes you 30 minutes to calm down and think things through, that’s OK (in most circumstances - if you are cold and wet, for example, you’ll need to act faster).

Deal with any emergency issues, such as injuries, then move on to take care of shelter, water, & food.

Wilderness Survival Tip #3: Shelter First

In most instances, your worst need will be shelter from the weather - cold and precipitation, usually. Find or create shelter before you find food or water.

Wilderness Survival Tip #4: Water Next

After you’ve taken care of your shelter, find water. You can live for a long time with no food, but you’ll only last a couple days without water.

Wilderness Survival Tip #5: Food Last

Once you have shelter and water taken care of, find food.