Survival Shelter Options & Solutions

Core body temperature has to be your primary concern in any survival situation. You can survive for days without water and weeks without food, but you can only survive for a few hours without properly "regulating your body temperature" or as most of us know it, keep yourself warm or cool, depending on your environment.

So what is the significance of this fact? You are more likely to die from hypothermia/hyperthermia than you are from dehydration or starvation. Yet sadly when most people think of "survival" they tend to primarily think in terms of finding food and water. While water is a close second in terms of survival priorities, core body temperature is first... assuming you are under no immediate threat from injury or physical harm.

There are four primary ways to protect yourself from getting too hot or too cold:

1) Clothing
2) Fire
3) Shelter
4) Bedding

SURVIVAL CLOTHING

Your first line of defense against the elements is your clothing. During daytime, your clothing protects you from cold, heat, wind, wet, and more. Wearing the right clothing for your environment is key to guarding your precious core body temperature. Breathable fabrics allow you to stay dry by keeping precipitation from getting in but allowing perspiration to escape. This is critical in preventing dampness that can lead to hypothermia. Moisture wicking base layers are also wonderful in keeping moisture away from the skin, but make sure you keep your base layers clean since they begin to clog with dirt and dead skin cells as you wear them and stop functioning properly.

It is always a good idea to keep an extra pair set of clothing in your car with you. If you wear dress shoes to and from work, consider putting something a bit more practical in your vehicle like running shoes or hiking boots. Putting an extra set of clothing in your vehicle kit is also a good idea. At a minimum include an extra set of socks and underwear. Always keep some kind of hat and gloves in your vehicle or EDC. These will come in handy even on just a cold day if you run out of gas or get a flat. A rain jacket is also a good idea to keep in your vehicle.

SURVIVAL FIRE

Another obvious way to stay warm is with fire, but as we have covered elsewhere, fire is far more valuable as a resource in a survival situation than just for warmth. Fire is also great for purifying water, cooking, signaling, and so much more. What makes fire such a tremendous resource in terms of maintaining core body temperature is the fact that results can usually be produced so quickly compared to shelter making. If you fall through the ice in a stream on a cold winter day, buiilding a shelter is just not going to cut it the way an intense radiating fire is. We are not going to cover survival fire in depth on this page. For more on survival fire making, we suggest checking our our survival fire making page.

As great as fire is, it does have its limitations. Fire can be the best way to get warm quickly in many situations, but producing and maintaining fire may not always be easy or even possible. For example, fire can be difficult to light and maintain in rain and wind. You may be someplace where fire fuels are in short supply. Fire cannot protect you from wind, rain, or provide you with refuge from the hot sun. Fire produces light and smoke that may give your location away when you don't want it to. What then?

SURVIVAL SHELTER

For protection from cold, heat, wind, wet, snow, etc. it is hard to beat a shelter. A survival shelter can be anything that protects you from the elements such as rain, wind, heat, and snow. Look for good shelter opportunities BEFORE it gets dark and cold. Locate a site that factors in prevailing winds, altitude (even minor fluctuations make a difference), sunlight, and moisture. Ideal sites will be dry, protected, and if possible require very little additional work to optimize to conserve much needed calories for other tasks. Don't choose a location that is too close to water sources like creeks, streams or rivers to minimize risk of your camp site (and you) getting washed away by a flash flood. Beware of choosing a site under dead standing trees and broken branches that could fall and land on you while you sleep. These are called "widow makers".

First thing you should look for is an already existing "shelter" if available, a location that will give you some refuge from the elements. This can be anything from a vacant building to a fallen tree to a rock crevice. Make sure that the ground you will be making your shelter floor is as dry as possible. This "foundation" will ideally protect you (at least partially if not completely) from wind, precipitation, and sun. You can supplement to this starting point with more materials adding cover and ground insulation. Once you have at least chosen a site for shelter and have at least some protection from the elements, you can then shift your focus toward creating a fire.

Remember, unlike a survival fire, your shelter does not require constant fuel to keep you warm . The investment (effort expended) in a survival shelter can be greater than the effort required to build a fire, but the pay off is usually worth it.

SURVIVAL BEDDING

Survival Bedding is something many survivalists overlook or may just consider an integrated part of their shelter system, but we think it is worth viewing as a separate category. Think of survival bedding as the "furniture" for your newly created "house". Survival bedding is not just a luxury. It's actually an important considerationn for your shelter system. You may have created a nice waterproof roof over your head for your survival shelter, but doing so is not going to do you a whole lot of good if you are trying to sleep directly on cold damp ground. That cold wet ground will suck the heat right out of your body and you will be miserable! You will be much more comfortable and sleep much better if you put down some pine boughs or dry leaves under you as a protective barrier from the cold and wet. This layer will act as an insulation layer between your body and the ground. A plastic bag filled with dry leaves and air can do wonders as a make shift matress!

If you are in a hot or humid area or an area prone to pesty biting creepy crawlies, then making a framework to suspend your body off of the ground at least a few inches will help keep you cooler by letting air circulate under you and it will aid in minimizing unwanted bed mates. Raising your bed can also keep you out of moisure as well and may be your only option in swampy areas.

CORE BODY TEMPERATURE:

For one to really understand how clothing, shelter or a survival fire help us combat hypothermia and hyperthermia, we must thoroughly undestand the principles of heat transfer, or how heat is lost or gained.

Convection
Conduction
Radiation
Avection

Elements (wetness, wind, sun, cold, heat)
Clothing (first line of defense – Core, extremities, eyes)
Shelter (from rain, snow, wind, sun)

• Tents
• Hammocks
• Tarp
• Natural material shelters
• Improvised from items on hand (super shelter)

Bedding (radiation, conduction, convection, evaporation, respiration)
Insulation (sleeping bags, under quilts, fur, natural insulators, etc.)
Conduction (Sleeping mats, bedding, natural barriers under you)
Fire (Principles of fire, ignition, tinder, fuel, fire types, ways to get the most from your fire: reflection, absorption, transmission, dissipation)
Improvised “shelter” (leaves, newspaper, trash bag, etc.)
Prepping for warmth
Wood burning stove
Propane/Kerosene heaters
Other

Types of Shelter

Found (existing, either natural or man-made)

Core Temperature Priorities:

So in a survival situation, should you build a fire first, start building a shelter right away, get your wet clothes off first, or other? Answer: It depends on your exact circumstances. Not the answer you were looking for? Sorry. Truth is there is no one answer that covers all scenarios. You need to evaluate your situation, the greatest threats to your core body temperature, and the resources you immediately have at your disposal.

If it is daytime and it is hot, get out of the sun and into some shade. If it is night time and cooler, make your fire first so you have some light to do tasks by and get some warmth, then start to work on your shelter. You have to evaluate your situation and the elements that you need to be protected from. If it is raining, your first priority should be cover. If it is hot and sunny, you need shade. If it is windy, you need something to block that penetrating wind. Shelter would be your best bet in these three situations. But if it is dark, cold and difficult to see, fire is going to be your better option.

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