have the added responsibility (and sometimes advantage) of looking out
for the others in your group. The buddy system used by underwater div
ers should be used in survival as well. Check others for red or pink skin
and excessive sweating, two sure signs of overheating. A dehydrated per
son will often be slow, clumsy, or withdrawn, and show poor judgment (I
must have a lot of chronically dehydrated friends!). This simple test also
works well: pinch the skin on the back of the hand. If the pinched skin
returns very slowly—that is, does not “snap” back quickly—to its original
shape and form, the person is suffering from dehydration. Another sign
is urine color. Dark yellow indicates dehydration. And if you are not pee
ing at all, you are not drinking enough water, period.
Some guidebooks distinguish between mild, moderate, and critical lev
els of dehydration. Don’t get bogged down in semantics. Dehydration is a
quick killer and preventing it should remain among your highest priorities.
Finding and Collecting Water
REGARDLESS OF YOUR LOCATION, KEEP THIS IN MIND: Almost every environment
has water present to some degree. Your ability to survive will likely depend
on your ability to find and collect it. The more proficient you are at iden
tifying indicators of nearby water, the better off you’ll be.
I separate waterfinding and watercollecting methods into what I
call primary sources and lastditch efforts. The amount of water the human
body needs to thrive is much more than what you can get by licking dew
off leaves or peeing in a hole and distilling the condensed water. If you are
going to make it out of the wilderness alive, you will need, often desper
ately, to find a primary water source.
Locating Primary Water Sources
The best primary sources of water are those that flow. These include riv
ers, streams, and creeks. If these aren’t available, you have to move on to
progressively more stagnant bodies of water. Lakes and ponds are the next
best primary sources, followed by swamps, marshes, fens, bogs, et cetera.
Snow, slush, and ice are also primary sources of water.
(^74) | Survive!