Survival Pack

[Prince_Alarming107]

Emergency chocolate. Flares. An old mobile phone. Condoms- useful for more than just the obvious

 

[Gyakuto107]

Well I live in a very rural area with lots of wilderness so I have some hope of short term survival. I have food, fuel, medical supplies, water and filters, batteries, solar chargers, wood stove, hunting and fishing gear etc. I guess my main concern would be serious injury or illness. I live on a hill a mile from the ocean with many creeks and rivers very near. Wildlife is abundant here and we have a very stable microclimate. Unless a personal catastrophe occurred, I could certainly last a month without leaving my home.

Is it a warm microclimate?

 

[Gyakuto107]

Rule of three applies here, 3 minutes without air, 3 hours exposure, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food…

…3 seconds without youtube

 

[Wing Woo Gar42]

Is it a warm microclimate?

In general we average 55f and about 40” of rain per year. A very few days each summer reach 80f and even less days that hit 35f in winter. We get a snow once every few years. We are the most stable temperature in the entire contiguous 48 states. Lots of lakes and streams with 6 large rivers. We have a small mountain range( the Trinity Alps )50 miles east where snow and 100f summers are available in a short drive.

 

[Flying Crane]

Where I live it can reach over 115 degrees F in the summer. That’s a tough environment if the power cut out and nobody had air conditioning. I think we would head for the coast.

 

[Wing Woo Gar42]

Where I live it can reach over 115 degrees F in the summer. That’s a tough environment if the power cut out and nobody had air conditioning. I think we would head for the coast.

There’s the rub, you and everyone else that was mobile would do the same. The locals here talk of knocking out roads and bridges to prevent mass influx in our community.

 

[Flying Crane]

There’s the rub, you and everyone else that was mobile would do the same. The locals here talk of knocking out roads and bridges to prevent mass influx in our community.

Yup, it did not escape my notice either. We are suddenly all in very direct competition.

 

[Gyakuto107]

In general we average 55f and about 40” of rain per year.

Almost exactly the same as Devon!

A very few days each summer reach 80f and even less days that hit 35f in winter.

Almost exactly the same as Devon!

We get a snow once every few years.

Once every 6-8yrs here! There was a sprinkling in 2018 when I was up north and snowed under!

We are the most stable temperature in the entire contiguous 48 states. Lots of lakes and streams with 6 large rivers. We have a small mountain range(

No mountains here but we have castles!

50 miles east where snow and 100f summers are available in a short drive.

About the same distance from here but 5hrs via ferry to Britany in France!

 

[Gyakuto107]

Yup, it did not escape my notice either. We are suddenly all in very direct competition.

He who has the biggest guns, wins

 

[gspell68]

He who has the biggest guns, wins

That was going to be my statement.
If you don’t have a gun, you’re just gathering food for me whenever the Zombie Apocalypse comes!

 

[drop bear107]

In the event of some sort of Western Hemisphere Conflict (non-nuclear), is ‘survival’ realistic? No clean water, no electricity (good luck EV drivers), no reliable information, never mind no access to daily life-preserving medication. Would you want to live in such a world?

At best, I see my survival pack as a three or four day ‘comfort buffer’ whilst I migrate to an emergency shelter centre, should I choose to do so, which, thinking about it, is very unlikely; can you imagine the sheer number of people going to these places and the conflicts one would have to endure from frightened men ‘protecting and providing for their families’?

Putting together a survival pack is, for me, a bit of fun (mainly revolving around curating large cool knives ) and I have no illusions that I’d be able to survive an apocalypse, so I hope diplomacy and cool heads prevail.

You basically need a story first.

And then the pack goes with that.

 

[Wing Woo Gar42]

Yup, it did not escape my notice either. We are suddenly all in very direct competition.

Exactly. That’s when things go wrong.

 

[Wing Woo Gar42]

You basically need a story first.

And then the pack goes with that.

Earthquake and subsequent tsunami is the most likely catastrophe in my area.

 

[Gyakuto107]

That was going to be my statement.

Dammit, I should’ve copyrighted it!

There have recently been comments in the press lamenting the use of words like ‘STRONG’, ‘POWERFUL’, ‘DECISIVE’ by about certain, supposedly adult, world ‘leaders’ in their rambling incoherent, social media posts. They asked where words like ‘diplomacy’, ‘agreement’ and ‘cooperation’ have gone. I think they’re naive and the belligerent have generally always won and had their way whether it was an opposing tribe’s sortie taking control of your watering hole or a bully taking your lunch money. We’re told to stand up to bullies, give them a bloody nose, but that presupposes that there’s someone more senior and above the bully - teachers, headmaster, school governors - to step in, particularly when things look like they’re going to turn bad, and prevent them actually maiming or killing you. In the real world, as has been demonstrated recently, we don’t really have anyone above the world’s bully who might be able to sanction it. We have to hope that several dweeby nerds, banding together, can coerce the bully to stand down because it is actually more about bluster than strength and ability.

Isn’t this what our martial arts confrontations are like? We might bash makiwara with our fists, tighten our muscles against slaps and probing foot jabs during kata to give us the illusion of invulnerability, but we’re still all soft, pinky/brown warm-bodied lumps of flesh and we hope that flicking a rapidly moving foot in the vicinity of our adversary’s head will deflate their fighting ardour and they’ll back down sufficiently to come to a mutually beneficial agreement.

Until we transcend our physical bodies and it’s ability to feel pain, the biggest guns will always win…

If you don’t have a gun, you’re just gathering food for me whenever the Zombie Apocalypse comes!

In that case I hope you like very spicy aubergines, naan bread and superheated, chai tea!

 

[Gyakuto107]

You basically need a story first.

And then the pack goes with that.

…and hope you have the time to assemble your pack appropriately. Isn’t a survival backpack a general assemblage that covers many scenarios without being perfect for any one in particular? That’s just the nature of preparing for an uncertain, undefined emergency.

Or you could have several packed for all eventualities…

 

[Gyakuto107]

Earthquake and subsequent tsunami is the most likely catastrophe in my area.

Then be resigned to your agonising death

 

[drop bear107]

…and hope you have the time to assemble your pack appropriately. Isn’t a survival backpack a general assemblage that covers many scenarios without being perfect for any one in particular? That’s just the nature of preparing for an uncertain, undefined emergency.

Or you could have several packed for all eventualities…

It would be nice. But your brain would explode. And your pack would be a container truck.

Ok. Let's take one scenario of a bushfire.

To make it from your house to your car you are going to need a bunch of ppe.

Mask, goggles, fire retardant clothes, boots. All really important if you wanted to run through a fire.

That is a backpack full of stuff before you have gone ten meters.

Unless its not a fire.

In which case its a backpack full of junk. Because what you really needed was a fist full of cash, some I.D. and a phone charger to get a hotel room.

I have tried them. And used them and failed and failed to create a catch all.

Because we have natural disasters. I have used bug out bags. And been humping around with a ton of the wrong stuff.

And it makes the discussion almost impossible.

What do I put in my bug out bag?

Oh. Well in case of nuclear war.

No wait. You need zombie defence.

Hey. You can't do without a change of clothes for work.

You bug out you die. You always have to shelter in place. There is no reason to even have a bag.

Everyone is just firing everything and hoping something sticks.

That story is what binds the kit together. And makes the discussion cohesive and productive.

 

[drop bear107]

…and hope you have the time to assemble your pack appropriately. Isn’t a survival backpack a general assemblage that covers many scenarios without being perfect for any one in particular? That’s just the nature of preparing for an uncertain, undefined emergency.

Or you could have several packed for all eventualities…

One example is my choice of survival knife.

Cos they are cool.

Now. I envision a survival situation being around other people. Because I assume it will be an evacuation. And generally you all get grouped up somewhere. Packaged on to a bus or a shelter or just roaming the road in a big pack.

my knife needs to be concealable. I don't want people to borrow it. I don't want people scared of it. But I also want a tank. In case I have to cut my way though a wall or into a car. Or some silly thing.

So. Because of that story. I pack a cold steel 4 max. Which compromises weight mostly for versatility. (Strength, honesty not so much. It is plenty strong enough for a folding knife)

 

[Gyakuto107]

You have a folding knife for survival? You’ll get crud in the folding and locking mechanism which might cause it to fail. I love folders, but worry they might break under batoning

I went for the K-Bar Becker B2 in Magnacut and replaced the hollow plastic handles with a far grippier solid micarta.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf106]

There’s the rub, you and everyone else that was mobile would do the same. The locals here talk of knocking out roads and bridges to prevent mass influx in our community.

That was my issue whenever doomsday theorizing when I lived on long island. The way out is pretty much two bridges, or go the opposite direction and hope the ferrys are still active. Two main highways going across the entire island that everyone would be using to go in one direction or the other.

Given that regular rush hour traffic could sometimes mean 20 miles = 1 hour, I can't imagine what a true scenario of people trying to leave would result in.

FWIW, my friend lived on the beach and had multiple kayaks. His house was roughly around 10-15 miles away from connecticut by kayak, I could drive there (not along traffic), or worst case scenario bike the 5 miles to his house, then take a kayak and head across. At least I'd be off the island in the event something was happening to LI.

I've got significantly less concerns about that now that I no longer live on an island.