There may come a time when in an emergency you will have to consider the best survival shelter designs for your situation. This is not the time to panic so having some knowledge on types of survival shelter designs and experience in constructing survival shelter plans will mean you are better placed to survive.
Deciding on the Right Survival Shelter Designs In An Emergency
If you get lost in the woods or the forest the first thing to do is not panic. Having a sit down and a drink and possibly something to eat is good for you as it allows you time to think, to rest and recharge yourself.
You may find that you can recollect where you went wrong and can then backtrack on yourself and then get back onto your original planned route.
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If you stop for a rest; mark the area you are in clearly with something that is highly visible. So that you can identify it from a distance. You can then march off in each direction around your marked location. It may be then that you will discover your original route or recognize where you went wrong and can reorient yourself to get back on your original route.
When to Start Building Your Wilderness Survival Shelters
If the night is drawing in however it is not a good idea to go off in the dark if the trail is not well marked. There is a greater risk of injuring yourself at night and you will be then in a worse survival condition that if you had stayed put overnight. In these conditions the best plan would be to stay put for the night and head off the next day. This will mean building some sort of wilderness survival shelters. If you are carrying all the correct planned equipment this should not be an issue as you will have a tarpaulin and sleeping bag and can rig a quick tarpaulin wilderness shelters.
If you have however possibly become separated from your equipment then again no need to panic. In this situation you will have to build an emergency survival shelter. The type of construction of these will depend on the where in the world you find yourself. But the principle will be to build the best survival shelter that you can acheive such as the a debris hut shelter or an eagles nest shelter.
Conditions Which Influence Your Survival Shelter Designs
When you are considering the best wilderness survival shelter designs to undertake there a number of factors that you will need to consider which will influence your design.
Your Physical Condition
How physically capable are you for building a survival shelter, perhaps you are injured or suffering from exhaustion or some other physical condition which prevents you from exerting a lot of effort.
Your Physical Surroundings
The surroundings that you find yourself in. What type of vegetation is there or what materials are available in your location that you can utilise. If you are in a forested wood or jungle materials will be plentiful. If you are in an arid rocky area there may be less material available.
How Well Equipped You Are
What survival tools and equipment do you have available to you? If you have an axe or a machete it will be much easier to cut materials that are not freely available for foraging. But if you have no survival tools or equipment you will have to rely on foraging for deadfall alone.
Choose Your Shelter Location Wisely
If all else is not available to you, the one thing that you will have a choice on will be the location. Wherever you find yourself you will be able to choose the best spot to build your survival shelter in the woods. If you have equipment you will want to look for some trees to anchor your poncho. If you are building a debris shelter from foraged materials any help such as a fallen tree to utilize the trunk as part of the shelter frame will be a bonus as this will save you some effort in the construction. An uprooted tree with the root ball in the area is another classic survival shelter design in the woods.
Survival Shelters in Mountainous Areas
In a rocky or mountainous areas look for a crevice you can get in to get out of the wind and build some overhead cover from there.
If there is no natural crevices or tree trunks in your area, a dry area to sleep on is the preferred location and one free from rocks underneath you. A kip mat if you have one will help with that.
Types of Survival Shelters in the Woods
If you are the woods another another classic survival shelter design option is the eagles nest. This is similar to the debris hut but uses the materials available around you which you can forage to collect together and build your own nest for the night.
The same way as an eagle would build a nest. Build this up in layers so that you have separation from the ground to keep you insulated. An eagle nest shelter design is a good shelter design if all else fails but it doesn’t allow a fire so easily as other designs as the design would be a fire hazard. With this survival shelter design you will be reliant on building up enough materials beneath you to insulate you and enough materials around you and above you to keep you insulated from the cold and the elements.
Simple Survival Shelter Designs are Still Effective
The eagle nest and debris hut designs should not be discounted however as they may all that is available or possible in the time available. Again best use of these designs is to start with a dry area and build up the base or use features in the ground such as depressions and hollows to help shield from the wind and elements.