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Survival Clothing For Outdoor Emergencies
By Steve Gillman, Thu Dec 8th
Maybe you don't need to learn about survival clothing. Maybe youalways hike with a spare jacket. Perhaps you never go out intothe wilderness overnight, but just for day hikes. Or you bringlots of warm clothing when you do go backpacking. Nonetheless, hundreds of people die or come close to dying everyyear from exposure. They thought they were prepared. They didn'texpect their clothes to get wet from falling in a stream, theydidn't think they'd be out there for the night, or they get lostfor days. Coming down from Mount Whitney I met several young men int-shirts on their way up, determined to get to the top. They hadno gear, and not enough time, but they probably made it there bysunset anyhow. They also certainly didn't make it the elevenmiles back to their car before dark. It was below freezing thatnight, so I imagine they were uncomfortable at best. Quick Survival Clothing What survival clothing could they have made in that situation?One of them did have a light jacket. He could have used hist-shirt as a hat (a lot of heat is lost through the head) andfilled his jacket with the fluff from the cattail seedheads forinsulation. (Cattail down was once used to fill those old orangelife preservers.) Insulation is the important principle here. You can stuff ajacket, shirt, sweater or pants with dry leaves, milkweed down,bracken ferns or almost anything that creates a lot of "dead airspace." It's better if you have two layers to sandwich itbetween, but being itchy is better
than being frozen in anycase. In a jam, you can also use the flat leaves of cattail plants toweave a vest that will block the wind and some rain. Two breadbags full of milkweed down or other silky plant fibers make warmmittens (tie them at the wrists). A plastic bag full of the samecould be tied onto your head as a hat. Usually, you'll do better to look first at what you have, beforelooking to kill animals for their skins, or weave grass skirts.If you have a sleeping bag, it can double as a coat - just wrapit around you. Socks can be mittens, and garbage bags can bemade into snow pants. A garbage bag can also be a raincoat. Otherwise, tie bunches ofgrass tightly together along a string or strip of cloth, andthen wrap it around your shoulders. This will repel a lightrain. You can fashion a rain hood of birchbark as well. In the desert you can make a sun-hat of large leaves, like thosefrom a fan palm. String some together to wrap around yourshoulders to prevent sunburn.
You'll probably never have to use animal skins for survivalclothing. You might never lose your shoes and need to glue treebark to your feet with pine sap, for hiking. Still, knowing howto improvise a few basic pieces of survival clothing can makeyou more comfortable, and possibly save your life
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