CAVE AND HALF-CAVE SHELTERS
There are many ways to survive in an ourdoor environment with little or no equipment to depend on. In an emergency situation the best resource you have is your mind and determination.
REMEMBER,,,, DO NOT PANIC ! !
These pages are concerned mostly with short term shelters,ones that are needed to help you survive the first night or two.
“Survival is merely a question
of knowing where the dangers are
and how to recognize them, and
how to take advantage of the
resources offered by the country.”
--Royal Canadian Mounted Police--
LEAN-TO AND HALF CAVE SHELTERS
To begin with, it would be nice if you could just stumble upon a
small cave like the one here, but that will be rare.
So, you must start thinking about all the other possibilities.
A small shelter can begin with just a small indentation in the side of a bank
and then you put up a leanto by just leaning some poles up against the flat
face of the bank.
You can also start out with a flat back and dig out a small
cave just large enough for your body to fit in and use the shelter to block out
the weather.
Once you have the basic poles in place you will need to start putting the
weatherproofing into place.
Just remember to leave a small opening on one end so you can get into and out of your shelter without having to dismantle it,,,,:-)
To build a shelter like this you need four things,
( 1 ) Some type of rock, dirt or snow bank to work in.
(Example) You can start out with a flat dirt bank and dig out a small
area in the bank and then build a leanto over the mouth of the cave in
order to block the wind.
You can make this leanto as elaborate as you have time and energy for.
But, remember this is supposed to be a short term shelter to get you out of
the weather in an emergency and what you really need is a small space to
conserve heat and energy.
( 2 ) Materials to use for poles,
(Example)These can be small saplings, dead limbs, skis, ski poles
or anything you can find that will support the debris that you will have
to place over them.
( 3 ) Some type of weatherproofing.
(Example)This can be bushes, small tree limbs, pine needles,
palm fronds, anything you can use to cover the leanto
in order to keep out the wind, rain and-or snow.
( You DO know that your two top priorities is shelter and fire, especially if it is winter time , don't you ?? )
You can survive serveral days without water and several weeks without food, but if it is winter, you will be lucky to survive overnight without some kind of shelter and fire.
You can learn how on to build a fire on my Building A Fire Page.
There are many other styles more elaborate than these and if I get enough requests I will try to build another page showing some longer term shelters.
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