If you plan on taking survival courses and don’t want to
drop a fortune on new gear, go the other route: buy second
hand clothing such as wool sweaters.stroud’s Tip
rugged traditional clothing for your outer layers. But this usually applies only
for survival courses or hunting and fishing trips, not sea kayaking, mountain
climbing, hiking, or other similar adventures. For anything that requires a
high level of physical activity, the lighter, hightech gear wins out.
When Clothing Kills
CLOTHING DOESN’TALWAYSFIT ORWORK the way it’s intended to, which can
be deadly in a survival situation. If you begin to feel any kind of chafing
or rubbing from your clothes or shoes—especially on your feet—stop and
deal with it immediately. When you’re fighting to survive, you’re not going
to finish the day in the comfort and cleanliness of your home, where you
can take a bath, throw your clothes in the laundry basket, and tend to your
wounds. In the wild, you can’t afford to wait.
Perhaps nobody better understands the urgency of such situations
than adventure racers. They know that they have 1 to 10 days of nonstop
tromping through the bush ahead of them, so if they begin to feel any type
of hot spot developing, they stop and do whatever they can to prevent it
from getting worse. If they don’t, it could cripple them. Remember, you
can’t walk on a foot full of blisters, and if you can’t walk, you can’t perform
any of the tasks necessary to survive.
Keep It Dry and Clean
INASURVIVALSITUATION, YOU SHOULD STRIKE a symbiotic relationship with
your clothing: It protects you, and you should also protect it.
To the best of your ability, keep your clothing dry. Now, that doesn’t
mean you shouldn’t crawl into that old rotting log to sleep for the night,
(^292) | Survive!