Survival tip of the day (Ongoing Participation Thread)

An old backpacker's trick for melting snow into drinking water when hiking at altitude is to set out a pan of snow in the morning and put a black stone on top of the snow. Leave it in the sunlight all day and you have a pan of water that evening. Omit the stone, and you still have a pan of snow at the end of the day.

Reference Using dark tiles to heat a pool via absorption of solar energy

 

When I was a Professonal Ski Patrolman, in my youth, we would walk under the Lift Lines, in the spring, looking for "Ice Worm" holes in the Spring Snow. At the bottom of each hole was a Coin, that had fallen, from a Skiers Pocket..... We called it " Nickle Noseing"...... And it was very profitable for Lunch Money.....

 

Hardening a wooden spear tip by fire can be accomplished by holding your intended spear end over flames until it begins to blacken, then pulling it out frequently to rub it on a nearby stone. The goal is to work out any remaining moisture from the stave and to char the end, making it harder. The process can easily be done incorrectly, by toasting your stick far too long and not rubbing the end on rocks. You want to rub the end on various stones, from coarse to finer surfaces until you attain a smooth, glass-like surface on the charred tip. If you wish to fashion a spear point, you will first carve the stave end into a subtle round shape and gradually burn and shape the sharpened tip with fire and rubbing. If you get to the stage of having the tip blackened and smooth from rubbing on stones (sometimes rigorously) and wish to finalize the tip, you may gradually begin to add some melted tree resin in thin layers while finishing your rubbing with leather or a very smooth stone until the tip turns out to be much like a metallic finish.



The final result can prove to be most beneficial when no other steel implements may be obtained.

Tips for making this successful:

• Char the stave more at the beginning, and lessening the time in fire as you progress in each stage.
• Rub the end against stones with pressure and using speed, much like burnishing.
• You can work each side of the point flatly until you get four sides along the tip, and then work every peak afterward.
• A green stave will take more work than a dried piece of wood. Both can serve to be hardened.

 

If you don't have a whistle, horns work the same way. (My whistle is left from Boy Scout days, and the scouting stores still have them if your local sporting goods shop doesn't.)

 

and Five Whistle Blasts, means "Get the Hell out of my way. I can't stop, and we are on a Collision Course......"

 

No, cold water is best initially. Dunno 'bout vinegar, but I'd guess not, it is acidic.

 

My son was boiling water with his JetBoil stove and neglected to turn off the burner when he removed the pot and burned his wrist. He was in severe pain (1st degree that eventually blistered the next day). We were on a backpacking trip that crossed over many streams.

He soaked a bandanna in water and wrapped it around his wrist. The evaporative effect of the water kept the skin cool and by the time we returned home the pain had subsided (12 hours later).