How to Slay Ave 88.2pat Sof 448 923/18
INTRODUCTION
have spent much of my life travelling to some of the most
inhospitable places on the planet. I've summitted Everest, tra-
versed the treacherous Northwest Passage in a small inflatable
boat, and survived some of the most remote and wild deserts,
jungles and swamps on earth
‘Along the way, I've found myself in some pretty hairy situa-
tions, moments when my own life, and those of my fellow travel-
lers, hung in the balance. How to Stay Alive is the distilation of
the survival wisdom | have accumulated over the years. During
my time in the British Special Forces, | applied many of these
survival principles firsthand.
| begin How to Stay Alive withthe basics, the rudiments of any
adventurer’s education: what you need to carry in your survival
kit, how to make fire and purify water, and how to tie the three
‘most important knots that will help you get out of a jam. Then
we get into more exotic territory, You may have never found
yourself in a sandstorm, but | can tell you that you'll want to be
prepared. Likewise apocalyptic snowstorms, flash floods and
tornadoes,
There are other books out there about survival, but these
pages hold the tacties and techniques that go far beyond bush-
craft. We cover it al, from kidnappings to car brake failures, from
shark attacks to how to fly a plane in an emergency. So dig in—
and the next time you find yourself lost, cornered or in a spot of
trouble, youll be properly prepared,How to Stay Alive 88.3.pa1 136 0 448 3/28/18
lions of people get lost every year. Sometimes they lose
thoir lives as a result. They find themselves completely
tunable to retrace thelr steps, They become dehydrated or
hypothermic, Their critical faculties grow impaired and they
become less able to make smart choices, It’s a vicious eycle
that can end in a corpse.
When that happens, it’s almost always because they've made
tone simple mistake: they didn't stop as soon as they realized
they were lost.
1's a natural human instinct to keep going. We don’t like going
backwards. We don't like retracing our steps. we're Intending
to go from A to B, we feel we've failed if we turn back to A, s0
Wwe risk ending up at C, We talk ourselves into thinking that
Wo're going the right way.
Instead, we need to be rigorous about not fooling ourselves,
Wo need to swallow our pride,How fo Stay Ave_68.3.p4" 187 of 448 S729
DON'T PANIC.
‘That moment when you fst realize you're lost can be scary. It
can make people lose their heads. It can be disorientating and
frightening, | have experienced it @few times and the inital urge
to panics strong, But panic decreases your chance of survival. Ty
to keep a ld on it. Know that a clear head helps you make smart
choices, Have a breather and get some water down you. You're
not lost yet, you're just temporarily confused!
‘A good way to stem the panic is to remember the acronym
stOr
‘+ Stop: don't make a bad situation worse by pushing blindly
‘on and getting more lost.
“+ Think: your brain is your best survival tool, so contra it and)
Use it to think logically
+ Observe: if you have # map, lock for big, obvious features
that you can't mistake for anything else in order to
orientate yourself. t might be a tall antenna, or a huge
lake, Don't fool yourself into thinking that a small stream
is definitely the one you want it to be when there are
loads of streams in the vicinity
‘+ Plan: have a definite strategy, which will force you to think
things through clearly and, crucially, keep your morale.
up, Nothing is more dispiriting than not knowing what
you're doing or where you are going,
RETRACE YOUR STEPS
This is the most important thing you can do when you're lost.
Don't keep wandering blindly into the unknown, The chances
‘of you stumbling across the right path are minuscule, f you can
twtrace your steps to the last point where you were sure of your
location, than job done. De this by looking out for landmarks that
you recognize, or by @-walking an existing tral, or one that you've
‘made, Don'tlet your pride get in the way.