Chapter Seven
SHELTER
The controversy over what is the most pressing initial survival task will continue as long as there are survival stories to be told. After you have calmed down and assessed your situation, your priorities will shift among several needs, depending on the variables involved. Water is crucial—without it you won’t live long—but you can survive for quite some time without food. And in some circumstances, I have lasted many days without bothering to make a fire. But if the deck is stacked against you in terms of the elements, nothing will kill you quicker than lack of shelter. Remember, however, that searchers have a much more difficult time finding victims who have made a shelter, which is, after all, the perfect camouflage.
You don’t need a log cabin to call home in these situations (though it would be nice). Your shelter can be extremely simple. But there’s no question that you will need something—anything—to shelter you, beginning on your first night. Though the primary purpose of shelter is to protect you from the elements, it offers other advantages. It gives you a place to store and protect your supplies. A shelter also provides psychological comfort when you’re facing the possibility of a predator attack. In reality, it would take a matter of seconds for an aggressive 600-hundred-pound bear to tear apart a tent, but there’s something about that thin piece of nylon between us and the wilderness that makes us feel safe.
Although shelters are not barriers against wildlife, they can be deterrents. Even a flimsy nylon tent or roof of pine boughs may serve to confuse the animal long enough to buy you time to decide your next move…at least that’s the hope. In Africa, for example, I used thorn bushes to build a 5-foot-high (1.5 m) thorn corral that effectively deterred curious lions from getting too close. If the lions really had wanted to get me, the corral would not have stopped them, despite the fact that thorns in Africa can grow to be 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) long!
A survival partner-in-crime with me for many an adventure, Doug Getgood, relates this next story: “During a survival course I was on in Utah, a group of students went to sleep in a substantial brush shelter, big enough to fit a number of people. In the middle of the night, a large black bear crept into the shelter, reached over two students and grabbed the one that was ‘just right.’ Nobody even awoke until they heard her screams and she was already halfway out the door, with the bear’s mouth clamped around her ankle. They eventually scared off the bear, but clearly it had no fear and understood the purpose of the door!”
Humans are creatures of habit, so one of the most comforting qualities we can hope for in a survival situation is familiarity. As soon as you realize you’re lost, your entire world becomes unfamiliar, intimidating, and scary. A shelter gives you “home.” And the sooner you start undertaking familiar tasks and routines, the sooner you begin to build confidence and overcome your fear. Creating a shelter, big or small, is a significant accomplishment that will boost both your mental and physical well-being. You can also use a shelter as a place in which to plan operations, or as a workshop for making survival aids.
Exactly what type of shelter you should build depends on your surroundings, the time of year, the climate, and the expected length of your ordeal. You’re not going to make an A-frame, small-log shelter in the sand dunes of a desert, and you can’t build an igloo in the jungle. The ability to make a successful shelter is not about memorizing methods thrown at you in a book. It’s about understanding the basic characteristics of a good survival shelter, and then using your abilities to improvise and invent.
One of my first survival teachers, Dave Arama, says, “Most lost persons become lost very late in the day…therefore, the ability to improvise and build quickly, and have shelter items in a survival kit, are critical.”
The first order of business is to look around at your supplies and what the surroundings provide and decide what you can use, break, cut, make, or put together that will give you shelter. Sometimes you just get lucky. In Africa, I landed on the ground in a hot-air balloon in a mixed forest and plains area. The parachute material from the balloon provided plenty of waterproof roofing for a shelter that I made with the balloon’s basket. I was even able to design a hammock from the fabric to keep me off the ground at night, and a blanket to keep me warm.
Take stock of all the man-made materials you have on hand, and don’t be squeamish about destroying what you have if you can use it to make something that will keep you alive.
The Importance of Site Selection
THE FIRST DECISION YOU’LL MAKE with regard to a shelter—no matter how long you think you’ll need it—is where to put it. Even if you have all the right materials, building your shelter in the wrong place could be a fatal mistake.
The first time I made a survival film, I flew to a beautiful area in Ontario known as Wabakimi. I built my shelter in a spot I figured would work both for filming and survival: close to a smooth rock outcropping on a small remote lake. It worked great…for a few nights. Then the wind turned on me and my shelter became a wind tunnel. I spent one entire night pacing on the outcropping and doing push-ups to try to avoid hypothermia. My poor choice of shelter location was the reason I had to endure that horrible night. Well, that and the fact that I hadn’t been diligent in ensuring that my shelter was sealed off and had a tight-fitting door!
What do you need to consider in selecting a site? First, choose a spot that is relatively flat and free of loose rocks. And as my buddy and premier desert survival expert David Holladay says, always remember the five W’s: widowmakers, water, wigglies, wind, and wood.
I spent one long and miserable night in the “wind tunnel” shelter in the Wabakimi area of northern Ontario.
Widowmakers: Widowmakers are the standing dead trees just waiting to come down in the next big wind storm. It can be dangerous to build your shelter in the midst of widowmakers—though you may not have a choice.
Water: Your shelter needs to be as close as possible to a source of drinking water; the farther you have to travel for water, the more energy and precious calories you burn in doing so. That said, you shouldn’t choose an otherwise poor location—for example, the coldest or buggiest spot in the valley—just for the water source. Try to balance the proximity to water with other factors.
And while you want to be close to a source of drinking water, make sure you don’t build your shelter where the water will get to you, such as in a dry streambed that may fill the next time it rains, or in any depression that may turn into a puddle. Remember, flash floods kill more people each year than most other natural occurrences.
Wigglies: Build your shelter in a place that keeps you as far as possible from the wigglies: biting, stinging, slithering, and crawling creatures such as snakes, spiders, and ants. In the Amazon, the bullet ant—which the Waorani call the Maunyi—grows to be nearly 2 inches (5 cm) long and sports a massive pair of mandibles. Jim Yost, my guide and Waorani interpreter, describes the painful bite/sting combination of the bullet ant this way: “Imagine jamming a scorching-hot pair of pliers into your skin, squeezing and twisting them as hard as possible, and keeping them there for at least five hours.” The Waorani fear this more than a snakebite; they know that three to six stings from the Maunyi can knock a full-grown man to the ground, if not kill him. So avoid building close to anthills because ants and snakes use these as shelters.
Bullet ants live in colonies of about 60 occupants. They will attack humans if their nests are disturbed.
Weather/Wind: Protection from the wind is a critical consideration in site selection, for of all the elements, wind is the most likely to cause hypothermia. It will slice through your temporary home no matter how well-built it is. Build your shelter in a location that is as protected as possible. If you’re in hilly terrain, make sure your site is on the leeward (downwind) side of a rise.
Wood: Assuming you are surviving in a part of the world that offers wood, choose a spot that is close to it, both for building and for burning.
Beyond the five Ws, temperature is an important consideration when selecting a site. If you’re in hilly terrain and seeking warmth, it’s typically better to pick a spot about three-quarters of the way up a hill. Cold air settles in the valleys at night, and the hilltops are often windy; both will chill you in the middle of the night.
Another place to avoid putting up a shelter (in Africa especially) is under or next to a fruit tree. Fruit attracts insects and animals, and ripe fruit will fall on your shelter interfering with much-needed sleep. Bird droppings will mess up your survival area. Avoid building on or near animal trails because passing creatures might destroy your shelter and possibly hurt you.
Remember that time of year and geographic location will play a large part in determining the ideal location for your shelter. You will want to choose a location that is close to a source of drinking water, and in warm regions or in summer, as free from insects as possible. In cold regions or in the winter, seek a site that offers protection from the cold prevailing winds, is close to wood for fuel, and has direct sun exposure.
STROUD’S TIP
Don’t get hung up on what kind of shelter to build. Anything that keeps you warm, dry, and protected is a good shelter, regardless of the design. Remember, though, that shelters made from forest materials are camouflaged and difficult to see from above—not a good thing when there’s a chance that passing planes are looking for you.
Shelter Construction Basics
Step 1: The Bed
When you are ready to build your shelter, don’t make the mistake of starting with the frame. You’re better off creating your bed and then building your shelter around it. Why? First, with this approach you’ll have lots of room to build the bed, rather than constructing in the cramped confines of your shelter. Second, you’ll be able to correctly size your bed and, as a result, your shelter. One of the most common mistakes travelers make in building their first shelter is making it too small. More times than I can remember, people I’ve known have made the bed too small, built a terrific shelter around it, then crawled inside, only to look down and see their feet sticking out the door!
It’s also important to create distance between you and the ground, either by elevating your bed or by putting as much material as you can underneath you. This step is vital! Aside from the wind, nothing will suck the heat out of your body more quickly than sleeping on the ground.
If you have wood available, you can get yourself off the ground by starting with a layer of logs.
Your next step is to cover those logs with your insulation/bedding layer. This can be made of almost anything, as long as it’s somewhat soft and provides loft. Boughs, grass, or leaves work well in many environments. Snow and boughs work well in the winter.
You can use almost any type of material available for your insulation/bedding, but be careful not to choose a poisonous plant such as poison ivy, or anything that’s infested with insects that are likely to feast on you during the night. Be careful even when gathering materials (such as grass), as you could be disturbing a poisonous snake or spider. Poke long grass with a stick before reaching in with your bare hands.
Whatever you use for your insulation/bedding layer, you should use much, much more than you think necessary. You might put down 6 inches (15 cm) of spruce boughs or leaves and grass, but once you roll around on them all night, they’ll flatten down to almost nothing and you’ll be lying on the hard ground again before daylight.
Most people don’t change their bedding during a survival ordeal, although changing it may not be a bad idea (provided you’ve got the materials) if you’re stuck somewhere for a very long time. Regularly replacing your bedding gives you a sense of pride in your surroundings, a continued level of comfort, and keeps your mind occupied, satisfying the all-important psychological aspect of survival.
The Cree of northern Quebec have a weaving method for evergreen boughs that renders their floor and bedding soft. They replace it often for freshness.
Step 2: The Shelter Frame
Once your bed is built, it’s time to turn your attention to the frame of your shelter. No matter what type of shelter you decide to build, keep in mind these key points:
Don’t underestimate the importance of the roof’s pitch. A flat roof is very difficult to keep from leaking. The steeper the pitch the better.
- The pitch of the roof should be steep enough to shed rain and snow easily. This is especially important if you don’t have a piece of plastic, such as a tarp, as part of your roof.
- The roof should be strong enough that it will hold the weight of whatever insulation materials you’re going to use along with any snow that may fall on it. A sign of a great shelter is that it can support your weight (although that’s not always necessary).
- Insulation is important as it will keep the heat where it belongs—inside the shelter. After your roof and walls are built, insulate them with anything and everything you can get your hands on, the thicker and fluffier (i.e., the “loftier”) the better.
- Pay attention to your body while constructing your shelter. Building is one of the most strenuous tasks in a survival situation, so don’t wear yourself out. Stop often to rest, drink water on a regular basis, if your supply allows, and if it’s cold outside, pace yourself so that you don’t sweat too much.
The boughs of evergreen trees work well as roof insulation, as do plant fluff, grass, leaves, bark, moss, fur, or even snow.
Step 3: Windproofing and Waterproofing
Windproofing and waterproofing a survival shelter is difficult, particularly if you don’t have some sort of plastic sheeting. Increasing the pitch of the roof helps substantially, as does using whatever material you have available as shingles.
Shingling a Shelter: There are many ways to shingle a shelter, depending on the materials you have at hand.
To shingle a shelter, start at the bottom and apply each subsequent layer of roofing material (bark works best) by slightly overlapping the previous layer.
Large strips of birch bark can be very useful as roofing.
Always enclose your shelter to make it as windproof as possible.
Fire in Your Shelter
Your shelter’s primary purposes are to keep you warm and to increase your sense of well-being, and there is no better way to achieve these goals than to build a fire inside. This isn’t possible in all shelters, however, and you’ll need to be very careful even where it is possible. But should conditions permit, it’s worth the effort to use this technique in a survival situation. An inside fire takes you one step up from feeling like an animal in a hole.
If you’re planning to have a fire inside your shelter, you’ll have to create the space for it before you do anything else, even before making a bed. Clear an area for your fire pit against a boulder, sand embankment, or a few bowling-ball-sized rocks you’ve moved together, as any of these will help to reflect heat into the shelter. Create a barrier between the fire and your bed area with rocks (best option), dirt, or wet and punky logs. When building the frame for the shelter, make a smoke hole in the roof, allow for the height of the flames, and ensure that no combustible material is directly above it or close enough to catch fire. Oxygen should be able enter the shelter to get to the fire without blowing across your body. Finally, create a space to pile and protect your collected firewood. See “Fire,” Chapter 6, for more on building fires within your shelter.
The benefit of a fire in your shelter is that it will keep you warm and comforted at night or when trapped inside due to storms. Although the fire will not be big (a long, narrow fire along a rock face will keep the length of your body warm), it requires serious effort. Shelter fires need to be fed constantly with small pieces of dry wood, so you’ll sleep very little. You sleep 20 minutes; the fire dies, you get cold; you wake up and feed the fire…and so on until the first rays of sun bring you the relief you have been praying for all night.
STROUD’S TIP
Build your shelter big enough that you fit comfortably in it without feeling claustrophobic, but to maximize your shelter’s heat retention, don’t make it so large that you have extra air space to keep warm. Also, build your door as small as possible and lower in elevation than your bed (particularly important in the cold).
Heated Ground Shelter
An aggressive and calorie-burning (yet effective) way to keep your shelter warm without a fire inside is to build a fire in the place where your shelter will be (on a large, flat rock is perfect). While your large fire burns throughout the day, prepare the materials you will need to construct your bed, walls, and roof.
As day turns to night, let your fire die down and cover the hot coals with an inch (2.5 cm) of soil or sand. Construct your shelter and mattress directly over this spot. Heat will emanate from the coals throughout the night, keeping you toasty and warm. If you have built your shelter on a large, flat rock, push the hot coals off to the side (they will become the small fire that you keep inside your shelter all night). Then put your forest-debris mattress on the heated rock. I have often done this so efficiently that I can’t even crawl into the shelter for two or three hours because my bed is too hot!
Emergency Short-Term and Long-Term Shelters
THERE ARE A FEW BASIC SHELTER TYPES, all of which can be modified and adapted according to location, the materials offered by your surroundings, and whatever you brought with you.
An important distinction must be made between emergency short-term shelters and long-term shelters. Emergency short-term shelters are the ones you need right now, usually on your first night or two, to protect you from the elements and from any immediate dangers. These shelters tend to be crude, cramped, uncomfortable to varying degrees, leaky, drafty, and largely unable to stand up to the rigors of human occupation for any length of time. They will, however, keep you alive for a short time, and that’s why it’s critical to know how to build one.
Once you’ve spent a night or two in an emergency short-term shelter, it’s important to think about a longer-term solution to your predicament. In building a long-term shelter, you’ll pay more attention to comfort and practicality. For this reason, building a long-term shelter is generally harder, takes longer, requires more materials, and will use more of your energy. But if you have the other aspects of your survival covered, a long-term shelter will act as a tremendous psychological benefit. You’ll be warmer, more comfortable, better protected, and better rested…and more likely to survive.
Emergency Short-Term Shelters
Sleeping sitting up against a tree trunk or rock is miserable, and during a survival ordeal you must do everything you can to find shelter that will keep you warm and dry, and allow you to get some rest. To succeed at finding and successfully using an emergency short-term shelter, remember that you are, in essence, an animal. So make like an animal and toss aside your aversion to filthy clothes and grimy fingernails.
Children often do much better in these situations than adults, because they have no qualms about getting dirty and, for example, crawling into a rotted log for shelter. As adults, on the other hand, we are burdened by our phobias. Crawling into that rotted log might protect me from the snow and wind, but it just looks so filthy, slimy, and full of insects. Insects, by the way, are a fair concern, but that rotted log may be the one thing that will keep you warm and dry that night, and save your life.
The simplest form of emergency short-term shelter is something many of us played with during the autumns of our childhoods: fallen leaves. If you find yourself lost in a deciduous forest in the autumn, it doesn’t take too much time or effort to create a big pile of leaves, into which you can slither like a worm. You’d be surprised how much warmth leaves will hold.
Natural hollows in the ground or fallen trees are another form of emergency short-term shelter, and work especially well if you can fill them (and cover yourself!) with leaves. Caves or animal dens also work, but make very sure they are no longer inhabited.
Crawling like an animal into a pile of forest debris (making a “nest”) can get you through a night or two.
The Lean-To: A Short-Term/Long-Term Hybrid
Straddling the line between emergency short-term shelter and long-term shelter is the lean-to. This structure requires some constructive effort, making it more effort than a true emergency short-term shelter, but not really suitable as a long-term shelter because it has many drawbacks.
The lean-to offers wind protection from only one side. This may be fine if the wind always comes at you from only one direction. But if the wind changes, the lean-to offers little, if any, protection against the elements, and you will find yourself getting slammed with wind and rain on your bed and your fire. In addition, absolutely no heat is retained in a lean-to.
When weather isn’t an issue or scarcity of building materials makes constructing a full shelter challenging, use the lean-to. To build a lean-to, place a cross beam between two trees that are far enough apart to fit your sleeping body. The cross beam should also be high enough to allow you to sit up comfortably. If you can’t find two trees a suitable distance apart, you can make do with two Y-shaped branches or tripods. Place these far enough apart to fit your sleeping body, and drive them into the ground. Lay the cross beam between the two Y supports.
I wouldn’t want to spend a very long time in a lean-to, though it’s okay for a night or two. If you’re going to the effort of making one, why not make another wall and build yourself a proper A-frame, which is a terrific long-term shelter.
Line the cross beam with branches (use as many as you can), which will act as the ribbing for your roof. The steeper the ribbing, the more effectively the roof will shed rain. If you have plastic sheeting, drape the sheeting across the ribbing as a waterproofing layer. Be careful not to puncture the sheeting.
If you don’t have a tarp, crisscross a layer of windbreak/roofing materials over the ribbing. Keep adding layers until you feel the shelter will provide the protection you need.
To reinforce your lean-to, you can build a short wall underneath the high end of the structure. Drive two sets of stakes into the ground, far enough apart to hold the logs you will use for the wall.
Stack logs inside these stakes. You can make the wall more airtight by filling the cracks between the logs with dirt, grass, moss, or any other suitable material you can find. Once complete, this kind of wall works well as a fire reflector, particularly if built with green logs, which don’t ignite as quickly as older logs.
Lean-tos are not my favorite shelter in any location where wind is an issue—which is almost everywhere. In a place like the Amazon jungle, however, where the near-constant rain comes down in torrents, these shelters can be quite effective, especially if the roof hangs far enough over the front.
Consider the lean-to as your first step toward a more secure A-frame structure. Close in the open side of a lean-to and you have an A-frame that is strong and protected on all sides.
STROUD’S TIP
Lack of sleep is extremely dangerous and will lead to frustration, clouded thinking, clumsiness, depression, and despair. But sleeping during the day in the warmth of the sun reduces your chances of rescue. So ensure that you get as much sleep at night as possible by making a good shelter.
In the Amazon, Kinta, one of my Waorani guides, taught me to use banana leaves to rain-proof my lean-to.
Long-Term Shelters
Making the transition from emergency short-term shelter to long-term shelter is necessary if you realize that rescue is not coming soon. Crawling into a pile of leaves might work for a night or two, but it’s not going to keep you alive for three weeks and proves particularly uncomfortable in the rain.
As you consider your long-term shelter, think comfort. Try to build a temporary home that will at least allow you to sit up. Being able to stand in your shelter is a luxury that few wilderness shelters can accommodate, so don’t make this your goal. The following shelters can be created in many geographic regions, depending on the natural features and materials available.
Finding a Long-Term Shelter: The ideal long-term shelter is one that you don’t have to make at all, saving you an incredible amount of energy…and potential grief. If you’re on the move, the key is to determine, calmly, whether you should spend the night in the dry cave you just stumbled across or keep moving, in which case you’ll have to make a shelter in a few hours anyway.
In fact, in some parts of the world—especially North America—local authorities construct survival cabins in strategic locations throughout the wilderness. These structures not only provide much-needed shelter in emergencies, they are usually stocked with a small supply of survival gear and food.
As part of your trip planning and preparation, you should look into the availability of such shelters and note their locations on your topographical maps. I once came upon such a shelter in the northern Canadian region of Labrador, after a long day of running a dog team and with bad weather closing in. Though the relatively new, 100-square-foot (9-m2) cabin had no food or supplies, it came with a wood stove and some split wood, turning my concerns about staying dry and comfortable that night into non-issues.
Beyond man-made structures, your next best option is finding a natural shelter that will serve your long-term needs, although these are rare in some areas. The best natural shelter is one that you don’t have to build, that is big enough, and that allows you to have a fire inside. One of the few structures that fits these criteria is a cave. In Utah, I found shelter in a small cave that had been used by Butch Cassidy and the “Wild Bunch” during their desperado days.
Because I had consulted with local expert David Holladay before the trip, I knew that the type of rock in this cave didn’t “calve off,” so it was safe to make a fire inside.
A rock “calf” big enough to crush you.
The danger you’ll face in a cave is making a fire inside it. As you can imagine, the rocks that form caves are not used to heat, so a fire may lead to a fracture and cause a piece of rock to break off from the cave roof.
If you’re lucky enough to find a large cave, don’t get lost while exploring it. Mark the walls or the floor, or even tie a piece of cord to the cave mouth. Bear in mind that caves sometimes have occupants already or may attract other animals seeking shelter while you’re there. If you do make a fire, build it near the cave mouth to prevent other animals from entering (then again, some of those animals seeking shelter could be a source of food!).
Complete natural and man-made shelters are rare. Don’t expend energy going out of your way to search for one; just consider yourself extremely fortunate if you find one.
When discussing natural winter shelters, many survival manuals mention “tree wells,” snowless rings found at the base of coniferous trees and surrounded by walls of snow, which (they say) require no additional construction (not true; they always do). I have spent many winter nights snowshoeing around the forests of North America, and I rarely find one of these magical, ready-to-sleep-in, tree-well snow shelters. They are predominant, however, in the mountains of the North American West Coast, but finding one takes a lot of searching and wastes your time and energy. You’ll likely have to make a tree-pit shelter, which I discuss later in this chapter.
If you can’t find a cave, the next best natural shelter is an overhang.
Making Your Own Long-Term Shelters: The thing to remember about these shelters is that they can be built in many geographic regions, depending on the natural features and materials you have on hand. Your ability to construct a viable long-term shelter, as with so many survival tasks, depends on your adaptability and ingenuity.
The A-Frame: Unlike the lean-to, the A-frame is a long-term shelter that, if properly constructed and maintained, can serve you well for an extended period. A-frames can be made to be strong, to adequately (if not completely) repel the rain, and, when well enough insulated, to keep heat in and wind out. One of the best things about the A-frame is that you can continually improve it by adding more roofing, insulation, and waterproofing materials every time you return to your camp.
To make an A-frame (one-person version), first clear the area (and create a fire pit, if necessary) and make your bed. Then, find a fallen tree that will act as a ridge pole (around 12 feet [3.6 m] long) as well as a standing tree with a thick, sturdy branch about 4 feet (1.2 m) off the ground. Rest one end of the ridge pole against the inner edge of the branch, where it meets the trunk of the tree. If you can’t find a tree to lean the ridge pole against, use a boulder, two forked branches, a root bed, or any other similar structure. Now line the pole on either side with a series of branches that will serve as ribbing; these should extend away from the ridge pole at approximately 45 degrees and be spaced a few inches apart. The steeper the ribbing, the more effectively the roof will shed rain.
Try to keep the top end of the ribbing poles no more than an inch or two (2.5 to 5 cm) higher than the ridge pole they are resting against, or you will not be able to cap the peak with shingles. If the ribbing poles are thin or you feel the need, crisscross another layer of insulating/roofing material over these branches. Then cover the roof with anything and everything that may provide insulation. Get down on your hands and knees like an animal and even scrape up debris from the forest floor to use for insulation.
Don’t forget to pile some insulating material at the entrance to your A-frame, which you can pull toward you once you are inside. (Did you remember to build the door lower than the shelter itself, or at least at the low end of the shelter?) You can construct a door by lashing together some sticks and small branches in a grid pattern. A door will provide more insulation if you make two stick grids this way, place a layer of insulation between them, and then lash them together.
Doug Getgood, who spent a winter sleeping in an A-frame, had this to add: “The problem I had when I spent my winter in the debris hut was that I leaned the ridge pole against a tree. When the rains fell, the water would run down the tree, then channel down the ridge pole and drip all over me. I would have much preferred to use two forked sticks, thus eliminating the problem. When I did use the tree, I extended the ridge pole about 6 feet (1.8 m) past the tree. This gave me a working and changing area in the front, and a smaller sleeping area in the back.”
The Bent-Pole Frame Shelter: The bent-pole frame shelter is a fantastic solution if you are in an area with a lot of 6-foot (1.8-m) shrubs or underbrush with trunks approximately the thickness of a pool cue. Collect at least 20 of these “poles,” then strip them of their branches and leaves.
1. After you’ve collected at least 20 poles, strip them of their branches and leaves. Jab the branches into the ground while making the general shape of the shelter.
2. Tie off the branches at the top to hold them in place.
3. Then, using whatever materials you have on hand, layer your insulation and windproof materials over top.
The Hanging Shelter: Hanging shelters—hammocks or platform beds—are useful in two ways. First, they get you off the ground, thereby keeping you warm. Second, they put some distance between you and any creepy crawlies, such as scorpions, snakes, spiders, and other biting or stinging critters.
A platform bed, such as this one I built in the Amazon, is a good alternative to a hammock.
The Wiki-Up (or Tipi): A close relative of the tipi so ingeniously used by many North American native groups, the wiki-up comprises three center poles that are tied or fitted together at the top to form the basis of a tripod frame. For additional support, place more poles against the tripod. Cover these poles with any material you can find in the surrounding area. By comparison, a tipi uses the same rough frame, but its walls are covered with whatever man-made materials you have available, whether a tarp, plastic sheeting, parachute materials, or even canvas.
The beauty of both these shelters is that they are very strong, shed the rain well due to their steep wall pitch, let you sit up (sometimes even stand up!), and allow you to have a fire inside because the smoke exits the shelter through the top. Building an air trench to provide oxygen to the fire helps to force the smoke out.
Tarp Shelters: If you have a survival kit, you should have at least two garbage bags, and maybe even a solar, or “space,” blanket. Items such as these (or a tarp if you’re lucky enough to have one) are invaluable in making shelters because they can be used almost on their own as a tent, provided you also have some kind of rope or cord.
When using a plastic sheet as your only roof material, however, remember that rainwater and other precipitation may collect in pockets. This can cause leaks and even bring your entire shelter down on you!
Any time you incorporate a plastic sheet into the construction of a shelter, be careful not to puncture, rip, or otherwise damage the sheet. Not only will the sheet no longer be waterproof, it will continue to tear once the process has started.
In the desert and other arid environments, a plastic sheet can be used in conjunction with rocky outcroppings or sand mounds to provide much-needed protection from the sun.
Anywhere there are trees, you can stretch your rope between two, then drape the plastic sheeting over them to make a rudimentary A-frame. Use rocks or other heavy objects to hold down the edges of the plastic. Similarly, you can use your plastic sheeting to make a lean-to.
STROUD’S TIP
I advise against digging shelters unless you have no other option. Not only is digging labor-intensive, but (other than in snow) there are very few places you can dig effectively without running into some kind of natural obstacle such as roots or rocks. Even desert sand is extremely hard to dig into.
If, on the other hand, you are lucky enough to find a hole or depression in the ground, by all means use it as the basis of your shelter (assuming it’s not in an area that collects water). After clearing out any debris you may find inside, build a roof by adding branches and other deadwood. Cover the roof frame with plastic sheeting (if you have it), leaves, and earth.
I used a solar blanket as part of my shelter’s roof during a rainy week in the mountains of British Columbia, Canada. I dug into the sandy ground to create shelter. It was the warmest shelter I’ve ever made.
Region-Specific Shelter Considerations
THE TYPE OF SHELTER YOU MAKE is going to be largely—if not entirely—dependent on the region in which you find yourself. Your location will determine what materials you have to use, the type of shelter you require, how much protection you need from the elements and animals, and whether you need a fire inside.
I had enough parachute material during my week in Africa to make this hammock and another shelter.
Arid Regions, Deserts, and Canyons
These are environments where you should have the benefit of rock overhangs and caves, usually lots of them. Early American bandits and gunslingers used the cave systems of the West as their hideaways for decades.
Staying out of the rain is not of particular concern in the desert, so shelter becomes less important in that respect. Where shelter plays a vital role, however, is in keeping you out of the sun and the wind. Rocky outcroppings and overhangs afford at least some protection from the elements. Caves offer still more protection. Study local topography and try to identify features that might house a cave.
STROUD’S TIP
Sleeping in a shelter during a weekend survival course with a group of well-fed friends often doesn’t give a fair indication of just how miserable it can be to sleep in a true survival shelter, when all you really want to do is go home. Sleeping in a survival shelter is always uncomfortable, usually barely warm enough, often claustrophobic, and always smoky (if you’ve got a fire going). But don’t be discouraged. All the shelter has to do is keep you warm and dry, and allow you to get some sleep.
If you need to build a shelter in the desert, plastic sheeting such as garbage bags, solar blankets, and tarps are vital. You can construct a sun-break by suspending plastic sheeting from a rocky overhang or stretching it between mounds of sand.
No matter what type of shelter you end up using in the desert, your bed should be up off the ground and away from poisonous critters, such as scorpions and spiders, which are attracted to your body’s warmth. Also keep footwear off the ground while you sleep, and in the morning before you put them back on, hold them upside down and bang them together to check for scorpions. Scorpions get more people by invading their shoes than any other way.
Boreal and Other Temperate Forests
If you have to make a shelter in a survival situation, this is the place to do it. The abundance of trees not only gives you ample fuel for making fire, it also provides lots of natural materials.
The best suppliers of shelter-building materials in the forest are coniferous trees such as spruces and pines, and rotting birch trees. The boughs of the evergreen trees are terrific wall and roof materials and are particularly good at repelling rain if angled with the butt end of the broken branch toward the sky (they’re not quite so good at repelling the wind, however), and can double as insulation/bedding materials.
Large sheets of old bark can provide you with ample roofing material. Bark is often filled with small holes, but these can usually be covered by laying the bark in shingles.
As with any natural material, boughs may not always be where you need them to be. Once, while teaching survival skills to a husband and wife, I was touting the benefits of boughs as shelter materials. It was a perfect teaching opportunity, because we were walking right through a “Christmas tree” forest. Two hundred yards later, however, we had left the spruce forest and entered a deciduous forest, where there wasn’t a bough to be seen! Our discussion naturally turned to making an emergency short-term shelter out of leaves.
A couple hundred yards can make all the difference in the world when it comes to survival. When you travel, make a note of the natural materials you see.
You might be lucky enough to come across a tree that’s been blown down by the wind, root bed and all. These root beds are walls of earth as large as 10 feet (3 m) in diameter that often stand up perpendicular to the ground and can be used to form the walls of a shelter.
You may also come across a boulder in the forest. If it’s large enough, use this as one wall of your shelter, as described above for root beds.
A root bed is also great to use in an emergency short-term situation because it provides a ready-made windbreak and wall.
The added benefit of incorporating a boulder into your shelter’s construction is that if you build a fire up against it, it will reflect the heat back at you.
The Arctic and Polar Regions (or anywhere in the snow)
The best shelter to use in the Arctic (in the winter) is the igloo. The problem with igloo building, however, is that it takes skill and practice. Few people can make an igloo on their first try if they haven’t been trained. You have to know what kind of snow to look for—it feels like you’re cutting into Styrofoam—and understand the process. A few photos in a book will not give you the instruction you need to build one successfully. That’s why it’s imperative that everybody planning to travel in the Arctic in the winter take a survival course, and one that includes igloo building.
Another option in areas of ample snow is the snow cave. Although most books make the snow cave seem like an easy shelter to build, it’s not (at least not the first time). I’ve been in survival mode in the middle of winter where there was snow all around me, and still I could not find a suitable spot for a snow cave. In the right location, however, a snow cave can provide protection that could save your life in winter conditions.
Related to the snow cave is the quinzee. The difference between a quinzee and a snow cave is that a snow cave requires that you find a snowdrift and dig into it. With a quinzee, you take matters into your own hands and make the pile of snow yourself, then dig out a cave. This can work, but I hesitate to call it a survival shelter because a) you have to be in a place where you can maneuver enough snow into a large pile, b) you need a shovel (or at least a snowshoe) for digging, c) building it exhausts you, and d) you get soaking wet while making it.
If you decide to make a quinzee, dig your entry hole on the side away from the wind. And with any snow-cave shelter, make sure you poke a hole in the ceiling for ventilation. Finally, make a small fire inside for a few minutes to glaze the ceiling. The ice-glazed ceiling will reflect your body heat back inside and any moisture will drain down the sides rather than drip on you.
Whether you decide to build a snow cave or quinzee, the effort you exert making one (as well as the snow that accumulates all over your body) will make you wet. So brush off snow constantly and remove layers as necessary to minimize sweating.
Summer in the Arctic changes your perspective greatly, and your first priority will be getting away from the bugs. Choose as windy an area as possible; that’s where the bugs won’t be.
Making a Snow Cave
1. Start by digging a snow trench. A snow trench is the emergency short-term version of the snow cave. As you dig, use the excess snow to make the walls higher.
2. Make a bed on the floor of the trench using available materials and cover the top with branches to make the roof frame.
3. Close the roof off to the weather with a tarp or emergency blanket. If you don’t have this type of man-made material on hand, you can also use boughs, bark, or leaves.
Making a Quinzee
1. Find a spot that has a large enough deposit of snow for a quinzee, or the right pitch and angle to allow you to dig a snow cave. This is a task unto itself.
2. Place a few sticks at strategic locations throughout your snow shelter. Then, if you come upon one when you’re digging out from the inside of the quinzee, you’ll know how far you’ve come and how thick the wall is.
3. Hollow out the snow pile to create a cave. The inside platform must be higher than the entrance so that the cold air flows out and the warm air stays in.
4. Keep a pole inside with you while you dig your cave. It can save your life if the roof collapses. Should this happen, twist the pole slowly until it bores an opening in the snow above you.
STROUD’S TIP
It’s important to keep the inside of winter shelters free from snow. Native peoples, particularly the Inuit, are fastidious about shaking off every last fleck of snow before they crawl inside a shelter. You need to be the same way. If you aren’t, the snow will melt, leaving you damp and miserable.
Jungles
The best type of shelter in the jungle is a lean-to combined with a hammock or platform bed to keep you protected from the critters that live on the jungle floor.
Wind is not usually a consideration because of the denseness of the vegetation, and a lean-to should allow you to make a fire. Just make sure your bed is well up off the ground! A Waorani friend of mine once woke up to find a snake sleeping curled around his legs. He lay still for the next seven hours until the snake finally moved on, apparently fully rested.
Your jungle survival kit should contain bug netting, which will make all the difference in the quality of your sleep. Drape it over your bed or cover yourself with it to keep most flying and stinging insects from getting to you.
Coastal Regions
Most coastal regions provide ample materials for shelter, as they are usually not too far from temperate forests. Driftwood is another possible shelter-building material found along the coast.
One often-ignored material in these regions that may help you when constructing a shelter is the flotsam (beach junk) that washes up on shore. You may find items such as fishing nets, pieces of plastic, and barrels, all of which you—the adaptive and ingenious survivor—can use to your benefit.
In some coastal areas you may find enough large rocks to construct a rock shelter. Build the shelter in the shape of a U, and cover the roof with any suitable material, including driftwood. Be warned, though: these shelters are labor intensive and difficult to build, especially if you are lacking food and energy.
I built this shelter from flotsam collected from the beach.
Mountains
Mountainous areas are often surrounded by forests, so any of the shelters that use trees or are mentioned in the boreal/temperate forest section apply here as well.
A possibility in coniferous mountain forests where the snow is deep is to dig a tree well, also known as a tree-pit shelter. Locate a tree with low-hanging boughs and dig out the snow around the trunk until you reach your desired depth and diameter, or until you reach the ground. Clear away any dead bottom branches that are in the way (use them for firewood). You can place evergreen boughs or other material in the bottom of the pit for comfort and insulation.
No matter where you build your shelter in the mountains, take into account the risk of avalanche, rockslide, or rockfall.
Swamps
The ground near swamps is generally damp, so your primary concern is to make sure your bed is well off the ground. One option is to make a swamp bed. Find three or four trees clustered together. Use sturdy poles to connect the trees at the same height; this is the frame of your bed. You can either rest the poles against the trees’ branches or attach them using rope or cord. Now fill the space within your frame with a series of cross pieces. Cover the top of the bed with any soft insulation/bedding materials you can find.
While a swamp bed can get you out of the water, it can’t get you away from alligators.