Winter Survival Shelter De-Constructed
More Articles Related to ShelterMany survival manuals show you how to build a survival shelter for winter step by step from the beginning. This guide will go about it backwards. Starting from the completed survival shelter we will backtrack, pealing back the layers to expose the inner workings of a successful winter survival shelter construction.
Survival in winter is a whole different game than during the warmer months. February in these northern mountains is typically the coldest month of the year. Temperatures routinely go down to minus 20 F, sometimes much lower. When combined with winds that can be gale force, the situation can turn deadly fast. That is, if you are unprepared to meet the outdoor survival challenges of this beautiful mountainous landscape.
Many people have died in cold weather conditions when just a little knowledge on how to build a simple winter survival shelter would have saved them. Unexpected things can happen - lost hunters, downed aircraft, hikers caught out at night when they underestimated the time it takes to get from point a to point b. Perhaps someone has been injured and you are faced with going for help, leaving them alone in subfreezing weather with little chance of survival in the open.
What many would be survivors do not realize is that in cold environments snow is your friend. That cold white stuff can be used as an excellent insulator. If you can use snow to your skillful advantage, you can probably survive just about any winter weather mother nature can dish out. I am here to teach you how to do it.
During a recent blizzard I made a quick winter survival shelter using only local materials and portions of the 15 essentials that every outdoorsman should have with him when venturing out into the great unknown. Even if I did not have any of the 15 essentials I could still have built an excellent survival shelter, though the amount of time and effort required would have been significantly greater.
Safely ensconced within this winter shelter, wearing a minimum of warm clothing and warmed by body heat alone, you can survive the most brutal of weather conditions in comfort. In fact, the inside of the shelter is very comfortable. Laying on your springy mattress of aromatic evergreen boughs, your abode completely covered with a thick layer of snow, nearly all outside noises are muffled. In a womb of your own making you are liable to fall fast asleep, safe and warm as the cold winter weather blows through the northern landscape just outside the door.
Where others freeze to death, you can rest easy in warmth and safety.
The first picture shows a cold and beautiful winter forest scene with fresh snow. If I were to tell you that right in front of you there is a winter survival shelter with someone inside sleeping snug and warm, you would be hard pressed to find it.
Advertising your position is an important consideration if you want to be rescued. As people approach your winter survival shelter they are liable to walk right past it without even seeing it, especially if there has been fresh snowfall or blowing snow has erased your tracks since its construction. For this reason, if you are hoping for would-be rescuers you will need to make some sort of easily recognizable signal flag so that they do not walk right on by. Also, the inside of your warm abode is so quiet that you are likely not to hear anyone outside. Of course if it is your aim not to be discovered, that is another advantage of this kind of shelter.
The second picture shows my day pack next to the "door" of the winter survival shelter. You may be able to make out a clear plastic 55-gallon drum liner that is full of snow. This is being used to plug the opening as a sort of door. Snow is an excellent insulator, and the two or three foot thick pile of snow contained in the drum liner serves to keep out the cold and wind and keep the warm air in.
When you crawl into the winter survival shelter you reach out and pull the bag of snow into the opening you just came through. Like a cork closing a bottle. Because the snow is loose inside the bag, it should conform very well against the entrance, sealing it from wind and cold.
If you do not have a large bag of any sort to fill with snow, you can improvise a door. Use your pack, a pile of evergreen boughs, a block of ice, a log. Survivors make do with whatever is at hand.
Upon opening the door of the winter survival shelter we can look inside. In the third picture we can see some of its supporting structure. There are two cross-pieces tied together and a long ridge pole that form the main support beams. One end of the ridgepole rests in the crook of the two cross pieces and its other end is set some eight feet away on the bare ground. Resting on the ridgepole are the "ribs", which consist of smaller sticks each of which has one end resting on the support and the other stuck into the ground. Over these ribs a 5-foot by 7-foot emergency survival blanket has been placed with the reflective side facing inward. A thick bed of evergreen boughs has been placed on the ground, and a sheet of reflective material over this.
This brings up and important construction feature of the winter survival shelter. It's small size. We want the shelter to be as small as possible in order to minimize the amount of body heat necessary to warm the air inside to a comfortable level. However, we also want the inside of the shelter large enough so that our body is not touching the walls and loosing heat through conduction.
The ideal winter survival shelter is a little difficult to squeeze into. You enter feet first and squirm your way down until your entire body is inside. In the fourth photograph you can see me looking out from the doorway. The bag of snow has been moved out of the way in order to take the picture. You can see just how narrow the survival shelter is, with perhaps a foot or so of space on either side of my body. The next step would be to pull in the big bag of snow in order to block the opening completely.
In the last picture I have removed the thick layer of snow and the survival blanket from one side of the winter survival shelter. Exposed is the complete structure. You can see the three main poles set in a tripod fashion and the supporting ribs. A hole in the snow had been dug to ground level and filled with a thick layer of evergreen boughs. I happened to have with me a short reflective pad, which I put on top of the boughs for added insulation.
In the photograph you can also see an eight hour candle, matches, and candle holder. The inside of the shelter is very small and there is little air space to heat once your entire body is inside it. Also the shelter is super insulated. Even a small candle can significantly heat the inside of your survival shelter.
Other means of heating your shelter include building a fire, heating rocks, and them bringing them in with you.
How to build this winter survival shelter
The following description is wordy, in practice the steps should be quite simple:
- Scout out an area that has easily accessible evergreen bows (or other type of padding material like cattail stalks, grass, etc), poles, and firewood. If you can find some evergreen trees that have recently fallen they can supply you with easy to get boughs that you will need.
- Dig a hole in the snow slightly larger than the dimensions of the shelter you want to build. A rectangle about 6-feet by eight feet is good. If possible remove the snow right down to bare ground, as the earth has retained some heat from the warmer months and you will want to tap into it. Pile this snow nearby as you will be needing it later.
- Obtain three poles. If possible try to avoid unnecessary effort cutting them. In the forest there are often small fallen trees laying about and you can snap them off to the rough sizes you need. Two of the poles should be at least five feet long and the third pole about eight or nine feet long. It is OK for them to be longer.
- Stand the two small poles together side by side on one end of the hole you dug. Tie the poles together by wrapping cord around both of them a half dozen times. The cord should be placed about four feet off the ground. Then splay these two poles outward so that their bottoms are about four feet apart. Continue wrapping cord between the "V" and tie it off. You should now have an "X" shape. If you do not have cord (a part of the 15 essentials) then find a pole that has a natural "V" shape at one end, into which you can rest the second pole.
- Lay the longer pole, the ridgepole, so that one end is on the bare ground at one end of the hole you dug and the other end is resting in the crook of the two poles you tied together.
- Make six or eight ribs for each side of the ridgepole. Just eyeball them and place them at rough intervals. This is where a small saw or wire saw could come in handy in order to make them the correct lengths. I like to use the small saw on my multi-tool for this purpose. Usually all it takes is a little scoring with the saw and the piece can be snapped along the line.
- Place your tarp or survival blanket over the ridgepole and then pile snow on top. If your survival blanket has a reflective side, be sure that is facing to the inside of the survival shelter. If you do not have a tarp or blanket, you can cut evergreen boughs and pile on a thick layer all around.
- Next cover the entire shelter with as thick a layer of snow as possible. A minimum of four inches is fair, eight inches is better. Two feet excellent.
- Cut enough evergreen branches to fill the interior floor of the survival shelter to a depth of at least four inches. The more the better, as long as there is enough room for you to squeeze in.
- Fill a trash bag, drum liner, or other type of container with snow for use as a door.
- Crawl into your winter survival shelter feet first and pull in your door to plug the opening.
- If you have a candle you can light it for additional heat. You could also build a fire outside the winter survival shelter, heat rocks, and bring them inside with you.
Remember that if you are hoping to be rescued you will need some means of alerting rescuers to your position beneath the snow.
With a little practice this winter survival shelter is easy to make and can save your life. For more information on how to keep warm in cold environments, I highly recommend reading the Survival Topic How Body Heat is Lost
Planet Earth
There's something you should add to the list of fifteen essentials and it pertains to this winter survival shelter. They should take along with them fluorescent orange spray paint. Why? To pain the exterior of the shelter once built for rescuers to better be able to see the shelter in the wilderness.
Everywhere
I like the winter snow shelter. I sugest you make it bigger and sturdier. I like the information on this site. Keep up the good work.
Survival Topics - Thank you Outdoors Man. It is readers like you who make Survival Topics worthwhile.
Remember that the idea is make this shelter so small that there is little extra space inside. In this way your own body can often keep it warm, or with the addition of a single candle flame.
The shelters small size and layered construction makes it very sturdy. Remember, this shelter is meant for emergencies and short term habitation. To build bigger and sturdier would require more effort in obtaining materials and construction and a means to heat it during very cold weather. If you need shelter fast you may not have time.
kalskag
Thank you for showing us how to make shelters.
Michigan
Have you ever made a shelter that you were able to bring fire into? If so, do you have any images of that shelter?
Survival Topics - the problem with having an open flame or fire inside a shelter is carbon monoxide poisoning. This insidiouskiller was touched upon in the Survival Topic 6 Winter Survival Health Hazards.
If your shelter is small enough, as in the winter survival shelter shown here, a small candle can provide enough heat to raise the inside temperature to a comfortable level without placing undue risk of carbon monoxide poisioning. However a larger flame, as from a wood fire, poses special problems that are not easily worked out in a small enclosed shelter.
If you want a larger fire you could build a lean-to, which is a three sided shelter with the forth side open. Make your fire on the side that has no wall. This ensures a plentiful flow of fresh air.
Manitoba
You can construct a Tipi out of wood, then cover the outside with packed snow. Leave a 1-foot diameter section uncovered at the top and that will allow any carbon monoxide to escape and still keep a large area very warm.
You are welcome to share this Survival Topic with others. I only request that you use a short blurb (not the entire survival content) and this code to
link to the origional:
Calgary