Flintlock Annual Skills Gathering: Tarp Shelters

[Music] the weather that we're having is a perfect example of a few things that I'm going to talk about really quick there's a big difference between you know your modern emergency type stuff and your your primitive skills stuff and they all have value for sure but I'm speaking to you from the perspective of a modern type emergency survival where you're out for whatever reason to get stranded and you need weather like this is coming in don't know if the clouds are gonna let go or what so you need to get something up quick and you don't really have you know the hour to four hours depending on your skill level to build a primitive shelter so if you're equipped for it throwing up a quick shelter to keep your primary shelter which is your clothing dry is is definitely a key thing so with that you should be able to put up one of these shelters if it's if it's imminent weather coming in you should be able to put it up in just a few minutes so there's different definitely things you can do to set yourself up to be able to do that when you do your kit and we'll talk about you know a basic emergency kit on another day probably tomorrow morning we'll go into that before we get into the fires but I want to get into this with you today because today's kind of shelter day so how many people are familiar with the Pathfinder system with the five-minute shelter you guys familiar with that no okay this is kind of a blend of those two it's got a little bit of it's definitely got a baseline in that and I used to do it with military ponchos obviously because one military background we always had camouflage podge that's what we had a poncho a poncho liner it's a paracord that's that's it you know for 15 years that was my shelter in the woods for emergency survival camouflage is not the goal so there's a few adaptations that that I've blended with with that system and you'll see that but the five-minute shelter is just that imminent weather I don't want to get my primary shelter my clothing soaked I don't want to get soaked to the bone I want to get it set up let it blow over or hunker down and and you know protect myself from hypothermia so a couple of things that that go to that that shelter and I guess I should go over anything when you're talking about a shelter kit which we'll get into you you've got something to sleep under which is like a tarp or a tent or whatever you have you've got something to sleep in like a sleeping bag or a blanket then you've got something to sleep on you've got to protect yourself from conduction from the ground that's where about 80 percent of your body heats going to be lost so something to sleep on then cordage to kind of facilitate all that is another thing that you want to have in there and then of course you're your primary shelter system we'll get it tomorrow what you're which is your clothing but now that everything kind of talked to you about that we'll talk about some of those elements a simple kit and this this entire emergency kit has you know all your priorities covered and it weighs about 12 to 15 pounds depending on whether your water bottles full so we've got to cover all those elements cordage I've got some ABS tent stakes just because they facilitate the speed of putting this up and they don't weigh enough for me to worry about and if you're trying to get a shelter up in just a few minutes because whether it's coming in you don't want to take the time to to start messing with stakes so if you're setting up a kit don't plan to improvise you know plan to be prepared and then improvise when you're not prepared if that makes sense so just a simple emergency tarp this is a a reflective space blanket and it ties into this entire system then your your cordage of course I've got a couple of different types I've got Bank line and I've got some survivor core the survivor cord if you guys aren't familiar with that it's from Titan it has a monofilament fishing line inside is one of the strands and also has some brass wire like a utility wire and it also has some wax you firestarter and it has the original seven you know inner strands that come with it so this is about six hundred and sixty-seven pound test you know so it's really good cordage and like we were talking about with military stuff it's always camouflage and green you know which is kind of counterproductive to you trying to be found so this is the orange version everything I can get that's orange I'm gonna put in my emergency kit because that's just going to help me be seen you know from above or seen by search and rescue on the ground what's interesting about this stuff also is it has a reflective thread in it so at night it's a passive nighttime signal if they're looking for you by flashlight or flying over with a spotlight it'll actually reflect like a glint like a runner's Clint so that's why I keep this in the emergency kit and then we'll get that set up when I can talk to you about that since we're already on it those big therm arrests are pretty pretty bulky for an emergency like everyday carry type kit so a couple of really heavy mill trash bags and I use clear because I can also use these for water procurement setting up some of those systems but you can fill these with brows and make a mattress to protect you from conduction and also in a pinch you can these are big enough to where you could turn it into a poncho if you're mobile if you wanted there's a lot of different things you could do with these and these are a lot more compact I think then one of the big thermal rests you can of course carry a therm arrest if you want to but as part of that kit I'll use that and then that's your something to sleep on and then something to sleep under or something to sleep in normally I have a small patrol bag in here but it could be something as simple as a blanket you know just so you can cover up and kind of trap some of that radiating heat from your body and protect you from the convection as well so something to sleep under something to sleep in something to sleep on and you've got some cordage and I've got steaks at it to facilitate that that's kind of a shelter kit you know for emergencies and as far as configurations for for this honestly it depends on the weather so there's basically four different configurations in this system so depending on the weather depending on your environment if kind of the three the three season I guess I would say fair weather where you're not expecting it to actually downpour but you need some protection or if you're in a desert and it's hot and you just need some protection for the Sun I would go with a lean-to type configuration if you're trying to trap radium body heat and retain that as your primary source of heat to prevent hypothermia lean-to is not the way to go because it's too open its open on three sides it's not the way to go it's a good shade it's good for a quick flash where it doesn't matter as much if you get wet so that's kind of that first configuration then if it's wintertime I'll go straight to a plow point shelter the diamond plow point shelter and I'll show you all these but I'm trying to tell you kind of how what I consider when I'm starting this which way I'm going to put it up and this is also designed so you can go from one to the other really quickly so for the diamond plow point it allows me to have protection on three sides and it creates a smaller microclimate so I can trap that body heat and and stave off that hypothermia so that's kind of my winter weather thing and it's also good for if you know it's going to start down pouring it'll keep you drier because you're protected on three sides then the a-frame system is kind of like the three season but I know it's gonna get wet you know I don't want to kind of trap all that heat because it's too warm for whatever reason but I'd also don't want to get wet because then we start bringing in conduction and evaporation and all that so those are the three this system also in extreme cold weather you guys familiar with Morris Cohan skis super shelter yeah this same exact system the same exact setup that I'm about to show you if you add in those type of environments like normally I'm up in the Northeast in the wintertime I would have you know a nine by twelve sheet of plastic in there so I can create a super shelter just adding that to this kit not really cold enough down here for that so I don't have it in this particular kit but if you're in one of those areas and it can get that cold the Moors Cohan ski super shelter is a good way to adapt this to that environment is anybody not familiar with that super shelter system you've built one with me in my class yeah that one that but anyway cordage management is huge because if you're trying to get this up quick the last thing you need to do is have a rat nest with this and this one's not set up exactly because I want to show you the knots but I'll show you how to pack it up so that when you put it in your kit you can pull it out run your ridgeline in about 10 to 15 seconds and then go you'll have this tarp up probably within two minutes and that's a good thing to have if it's coming you know and you can see it but I want to be able to show you those nuts so you need a knot on the end so that you can create let me get this out if you can get this out without tangling it you're gonna be golden the key is it take your time and don't let the ends cross that's probably enough and then all of my extra and rather than let it get tangled I can use this to keep it kind of in a ball so they don't have this problem later so yeah the I'll use a figure 8 or a bowline well we already showed you bowling over there so I'll show you the figure 8 real quick so I'm doing as a figure 8 loop so this is your running end this is your standing end so I'm this is a bite it doesn't cross over this is a loop if it crosses over this is a bite so I'm going to take that bite in there's a couple different ways you can do it twist it once twice away from you and then to create a simple figure eight you just come up through there and you've got that figure eight but I need a fixed loop so take that go a little bit further so you have enough room and then I'll create that figure eight by kind of tracing it around there we go and that's not a big enough loop but that's the figure 8 loop that I'm trying to create but I'm going to create a larger one and I'll show you why here in a second actually I'll show you the bowline since we're on it that's the figure 8 for a bowline and I'll go over these with you guys later if you don't know how to tie it or a bowline you're just creating a loop and you're running ends on the bottom side that's your first part there from the working in another stand again I'm going to poke a Bight up through that loop now as I'm looking at it I've got my my clean side which doesn't cross it and then I've got my dirty side which has a knot or start of a not so clean side right dirty side left this is coming from basically your chest outwards so I get to that go in then I can drop that part pull through how much tail I need usually about you know to put a security knot on this I'm going to need about six inches fold that over on itself and now I'm holding there grab that bottom and then only going to do is pull it and you've got a bowline with a nice big loop everybody see that and then from there I'll wrap it all the way around one of the portions of the loop and then come back through and that's an overhand security knot and that keeps my bowling nice and tight and it's just a security not to keep that from coming out no so anytime I tie a knot I usually put some kind of security not on it's just to have it then I've got a hole big enough to get my fist through and that comes into play when I'm trying to set this ridgeline up as soon as I get where I'm going I can wrap this around the tree now and create an anchor and then I can pull this through and when I set this up later this would have to be a lot more this way I can run that whole thing through and not have to pull it all the way through like oh now I'm through do that again after I get this managed like it's supposed to be then I come to the other side on this side I'm just going to do a trucker's hitch now as far as height goes if your goal is to trap body heat and that's your primary source of heating that actual microclimate you're creating higher is not better I like to do lower about you know waist higher or lower so I can trap that heat a little bit closer and plus it keeps the you know the blowing blowing winds and and everything else so I'm gonna bring this a little lower I'll be about waist high run my ridgeline now from here I'm going to create a trucker's hitch on this end because I want to be able to adjust it this one not so much because it has the brass wire in it but normal paracord and other cordage is if it's a nylon it's not static it's dynamic so as it gets wet and as you put tension on it's going to stretch and then your shelter starts sagging so depend on how long you're going to be there I like to be able to tighten it up when I need to but for your trucker's hitch for this system it matters kind of where you end up putting your trucker's hitch because the loop for that trucker's hitch is where one of the points and one of the corners of my shelter is going to be if I want my shelter right here kind of in the center then I need one of my corners my front right corner as you're looking at it my front left corner is I'm looking at it I want to be about right there so this is where I want my trucker's hitch to end up I don't have to tie it back here but for the trucker's hitch overhand loop like we talked about when we're doing the the Marlin spike hitch then I could go around the anchor point around my anchor point on this side and get it about the height I want it go about waist high here and tried to tie this backwards on you now there there is a trick if we use a normal pair cord to where you can run it through twice and it'll bind on itself with this actual survivor cord because it has that wire in there it doesn't work as well so I'll give it a shot but it may not work but now it came around my anchor point I can go back through that loop and from there I can tie what I need to tie what I'm gonna try to do usually doesn't work with this cordage because that wire like I said but I'll try to put that second half hitch in there basically you're creating a round turn and then when you tighten it that's will actually bind on itself and give you some time but sometimes it doesn't work because this is a little stiffer so yeah now that holds the tension for me I want this pretty tight this is a there see how that popped loose and try to get it tighter than that yeah see your Popular's anyway from there I'll just do a half-hitch still keep what the rope management do a half hitch pop that tight and then I'll do a second half hitch but that one instead of pulling the end all the way through I'm gonna put a quick-release on it that becomes the first loop to my corner with this system okay so that's a quick down and dirty Ridgeline and we'll go through the knots again if you want to go through them but this gives me my first loop from there if it's wintertime or the beat I don't want to say the art works because I'm tired of the are but if that if the are is imminent then I'll probably go straight to to a a diamond because I'm trying to keep as much as me as dry as possible with the diamond I'm gonna face the point of the diamond that goes into the ground into the wind you know so that the wind goes Frost and away from me not into the microclimate I'm trying to create this one's already reinforced and already set up for a passive signal but Orange can be seen easily and three X's are already on there with some tape so that from above it's International distress symbol international orange you know so it's a passive signal I don't have to worry about but that that's how you should set it up and because these tarps are kind of more flimsy I go ahead and reinforce the grommets already it gives it a better chance of last time my experience with these is the grommets are gonna pop if I put too much tension on it so I just go ahead and reinforce them from the get-go and you know that that's a point I want to make about these type of emergency kits is use it and figure out what works and what doesn't if it's cheap then get something better you get the best stuff that you can afford you know I think yeah your your life depends on this kind of thing so it shouldn't be something that you just get and then put like in a you know break glass and case of emergency I've never actually used this stuff before kind of thing so I know that these have a habit of breaking these grommets out so I tried to reinforce it with some gorilla tape now you gotta work that tape that becomes my first corner all I've got to do is poke this up through there like this I'm going to take one of my spikes and put it through and then I can tighten that quick release down and I've established my first corner now if I'm in a hurry and I need to get a plough point out all I have to do is stake off this back one and I'll have to get some other cordage for that when I keep the bank line in there this is another thing in your kit that you can prep ahead of time and I want to show you the knots about probably a 24 to 30 inch piece of Bank line will get you where you need to go and you can pre-cut these when you practice setting this up you can pre-cut these and have the knots already on your stake and then it's that much quicker make lines kind of hard to see so I'll come up there and show you guys are real quick but basically what I'm creating is you can do simple overhand to create that knot and you could do a girth hitch you can do a clove hitch you can do a lot of different things on this side but I'm gonna come through here I'll show you this guys that's not close up create a girth hitch run it through pull it about tight find out what my wind direction is and stake that down I'll temporarily stake it and then I'll come back to it if I need to adjust and then really hammer at home but I'm trying to get this up quick for you now I need for the diamond I just need two more of these so I'll come up here and show you show you those nuts about 30 inch pieces all you need all I'm trying to do is create a loop so I can do it with a simple overhand make a bite and then on the ends just an over here now I've got my loop from there when I get to the actual stake you can do a number of things but I'll girth hitch this through all the girth hitch is it's also called a larks head same thing so whichever way you learned it you've got a loop that passes through there and that's a girth hitch or a larks head same thing or the beginnings of a prusik you know which is another nut so anyway that's what I'm doing on that you can also run that through girth hitch it to your grommet and wrap it around your stake and put it in that way if you want a lot of different things you guys set up tents you know do it anyway that's what I'm doing over here so let me put these other two points out a lot of times if you can get away with not tying directly to the grommets you'll save the grommets so another technique if you have enough Stakes or if you have a simple toggle is you can run your loop through there and this actually spreads the tension down a little bit to protect your grommets a lot of times if you tie directly to the ground it'll rip right out so anytime I can I'll try not to do that that's a temporary stake I'll come back if this ends up the way I want it one more of these now once you get to set up for the first time you're practicing you get your kit set up leave the knots and quarters you're already ready and it'll be that much quicker you can you can put these up in just a few minutes cuz when the when the are is coming down on you it's not when you want to be practicing you're not that yeah first sight selections a whole other animal there's a that's a good question there's there's five W's to site selection you want to be or for double use depending on what school you go to but five W's is you want to be near wood because you need fuel source and materials to build and you need to be near water because you need to drink water so this is kind of giving me Mike this is very tight but I can come through and adjust so those are the two double use what you want to be near then there's three double use you want to be away from and that's away from widow-makers so you're looking up for any broken or dead anything that might fall on you in the night and allow your significant other to cash in on your life insurance policy that you wanna stay away from that you want to stay away from wind so sheltering in an area like this that has some windbreak natural windbreak with with the trees is a good thing crest of a hill usually high wind super low ground usually means wet water and at night that's where all the cold sinks to you know so in between those two is what you're going for so wind is the fourth W and the last W is is actually one I learned from Kirsten stay away from wigglies you know so all the things that bite and crawl and sting if that's in your area don't set up there you know find somewhere else but yeah something with a good drainage and considering the five W's and so not what you wanted to know all right good so yeah this is my diamond I can get rid of this but I can get back in there and get pretty well pretty well set and keep myself nice and dry I like this for the wintertime because I can set a fire right there and it doesn't have to be all that big because this is reflective I'm capturing that heat and kind of circulating that into my microclimate if I have that if it's just quick and I need to keep dry I can get in there you know pretty tight about about as tight as a tick you know so check yourself for ticks by the way they're out here they're not drowning but this is kind of my winter configuration for this thing if the ours is coming quicker than you can get this up there's nothing wrong with huddling under this you know and letting it go over but try to keep your your primary shelter your clothing system try to keep that dry if you're eventually gonna want to upgrade that you know you don't wanna sit huddled under there the whole time but the key thing is do what you have to do with what the situation you're dealt you can get these up pretty quick if you get ahead of it if it just comes and you weren't ready just get it out and get under it and protect yourself yeah I go feet first but it really doesn't matter if I'm gonna have a fire I'm gonna want my head up that way and it's kind of stuffy when you really get back in there and I'm kind of tall so I think I would stick out if I was trying to be come from here but that's the first configuration and it's the quickest just throw it up stake it out and go and then obviously you'll want to high winds especially you want to stake these down and I've got a passive signal going so that's that's kind of two birds that way now from here if it's better weather or if I want to just change the configuration of this a little bit it's a pretty simple fix for me to go from this to a lean-to really simple fix so all I've got to do is kind of reconfigure the tarp on the same rage line right so what I'll do is kind of leave it loose I can switch these out if my stakes a little out and you can go straight to this if you want you know depends on on your situation but I want my lean-to to be a different way but that's a simple fix back up through the grommet put my stake in there tighten that down then you got one more knot to show you all right we talked about the prusik earlier basically being a double or triple girth hitch so for this one 30 inches still okay I don't have to be exact I want to kind of create the same thing you can also do a fisherman or double fisherman whatever whatever not you want with your end result being a fixed loop right so for a prusik this is probably a better thing to show you on a prusik is designed to tighten it's not part of this the prusik if you remember how we tied the girth hitch we came through once for a girth hitch for the prusik you're going to come through a second time and you've created it so a lot of these not to relate it you learn one and you actually know several if you just know the little tweak that you're making there for the prusik on bank line it's hard to see but it's a constant tension not as well so if you guys want you can pass that around and I'll tie another one and we'll go over these nuts again I've just kind of want to give you the down and dirty on this what's the advantage the the girth hitch doesn't bind on another rope as well so the prusik when I'm setting up a prusik what I want to do with it is it's designed to for a rope of a rubber cordage of smaller diameter to bind on rope or cordage of larger diameter and it's self tightening so if I didn't want to do this which I need this for this particular shelter system but if I just wanted to set up a quick Ridgeline I can wrap around this anchor point and then tie on with a prusik and there's a couple different prusik tightening systems I can use but the goal is once I get it in there and get that prusik established then I can slide it and it'll stop where I want it to so it's a real quick way to put a tension not on there so the same thing you'll need another spike and Bank line on this is going to bind really well because it's smaller diameter on to a larger diameter you can a prusik will work otherwise but it's sometimes it's a little tricky and you'll have to do three wraps you know for a six wrap prusik instead of the four rap music that I'm showing you but this bank line is pretty sticky and we're going from smaller diameter larger diameter it'll stick really well tonight cool have already got one on there so kind of the same concept of what we did over there I'm going to create my prusik actually I wanted to end up over here to show you one too the more wraps you put on your prusik the more grip it's going to have for you so if your ridge line is already wet for some reason just throw a couple extra wraps in there all right I'm a stickler on nuts I've got my prusik on there come through your grommet let's go from bottom the top now I've got a loop poked up through here just like we got over there and then I can slide that prusik along my ridge line and let her go and I can tighten that as I need to so then all I've got to do is pull the back out and stake it out and I should still have enough stakes to do that that's one drawback to the low shelters is when you're tall so now the same thing I was doing for the stakeout to begin with is just putting my girth hitch through and tying it off to the stake pulling it tight and then I've got a really quick down and dirty lean-to and I still have my passive signal if it's a desert shelter for you Desert Rats out there and you're just trying to protect yourself from the Sun and not necessarily trap a lot of heat in you can fly this a little better you know this is stake down to the ground but if I wanted to fly it to actually open up the back side and have open on all sides to allow like convective breeze to come through if if the situation and weather allows for that then I can actually fly this back side by tying it off the trees so the backsides up elevated off the ground instead of this low and I would do a higher shelter in that case but the lower shelters I think are better for when you're trying to stave off your hypothermia let's take that dude down then because my prusik is adjustable I want it to come a little tighter probably needed three reps anyway that's a quick lean-to I've still got my signal back here they can see that from the air they can see it from the ground they know I'm not just out here camping people don't camp in you know orange survival blankets with X's on them so that's the lead to configuration then I'll bring up because this is setup from here if all you do is the the diamond plow point for a quickie and for your your your imminent your imminent weather that you're trying to stay out of and this for when that's not happening or you know you're not as worried then you're pretty good you can go from here to an extreme cold weather super shelter extremely easily adding that that nine by twelve sheet of plastic clear plastic that just gets incorporated where you wrap it around this drape it over the front and then you create a greenhouse that you're actually living and they work really really well you know so if you haven't seen that you want to check that out but it's an easy adaptation if you can set this up you can set up a super shelter you know those are the main configurations the one thing that I lacked when is this er you're going with the flower you wouldn't necessarily have to set up the ridgeline you there's a lot of ways to do it but for this system to keep it simple it's the ridgelines the same for three tarps for tarp configurations and setting the original lineup the way it showed you so that you get that loop on the end to stick a toggle through and pull tight it kind of depends on this type of Ridgeline but yeah you don't have to do them this way this is just a quick way to do it that you know we use in the Pathfinder system it's all kind of a blend and you can use different knots you know it's just that the end result that you're looking for is is is what we've got here from here if three-season I know the ARS coming then I'll set up probably an a-frame you know I'm not not as worried about cold but I also don't want to get wet so I want a little more protection but it's protecting on two sides instead of the three it might be a little little too stuffy depending on your weather it's a real simple fix same knots that I'm kind of using but instead of tie into the ridgeline I'm just gonna move that up and use my stakes otherwise let's see if I can get that up for you real quick there this also works good if you got hammocks from there I don't want that to pull through I'll get myself a little more room so that that doesn't pull through but I can throw an a-frame on this really quickly about centerline and then all I've got to do a stake out my four corners and I've got two sided protection from the weather but I've still got a little bit of you know a little bit of breathability I think stake that dude out I'll need another piece for that thank you I'll be quick I see one on the ground and you'll probably have to go back around and tighten everything up but you can get a pretty nice little we called these Pancho who jizz in the military use them all the time if you were lucky but real simple just set up an a-frame and get inside there and have two sided protection but I can set it up either you know into the breeze out of the breeze whatever your situation is but that's a fourth configuration for that same system super lightweight really good emergency I've still got my my passive signal happening so those are the four configurations to this type of system for stakes and probably thirty feet of paracord a simple tarp and it doesn't have to be this you can use whatever and some bank line you can use paracord for that as well if you want it's just to me it's easier to have a smaller configuration on there so that the person works better um yeah so once you set this up to the first time when you put it back together you can leave all of your bank line already tied leave that on your stakes you can leave your prusik loop up here I think I saw one on the ground so that it's quicker for you to set up then when I put all this back away I'm going to back feed it in a way and bind it so that all I have to do is get up to it I can undo that first loop of velcro and pulled my fixed loop out and everything's still in a ball running around the tree put the whole thing through that's why I make it fist sized and then start feeding it out over to here and it doesn't get tangled you're not sitting there while the ars coming in and the S is about to hit the th you're not sitting there paying it out and you know trying to untangle it so yeah Poncho's shelters emergency poncho shelters anybody have any questions if you want to get over over the knots we'll go over the knots again if you want to take it down see how easy to set is to set it up any configuration you want it's right here questions yes in your hot desert environment that type of / yes good point yeah reflective side down is reflecting my body heat back to me if it's hot or I'm on the beach or you know Costa Rica or something I'll probably just go to a resort different Costa Rica Veronica but in a desert and you want to reflect that heat away then flip it over and reflect this in some of that heat away that's a really good point if I was in the desert as well since we do have some desert folk here I would actually carry two of these and I would put because the temperature drops as soon as that Sun Goes Down and temperature drops thirty degrees so you can get hypothermic in the desert even if it was a hunter degrees that day you go from 100 to 70 and you're not protected and you were sweating all day if you're lucky if you're not sweating you're probably dehydrated which is another problem but you can actually set up a double layer and then I'll use the reflective side facing up to reflect the Sun away and then I'll use the bottom tarp would be of reflective front side facing down to trap my body heat as I need it and if it's too much body heat I'll raise and lower the entire shelter system you know to adjust but that creates an air pocket between those two that acts as kind of an insolent layer and it really helps you thermo regulate better in the desert if you do a two tarp system you know but that's a different shelter altogether for this system yes flip it over reflective I would do a fly to kind of let some more heat out and adjust that as needed and I would probably go with the lean-to unless it was unless was Orin yeah you had a question yeah since you're a tall guy is there optimal size or typically you um this is too small you kind of got a sleep fetal but I'm comfortable that way I was born that way most of us were but yeah it's a five star gear has a tarp but it's green so I don't like it for that but it's huge both of us could sleep under that comfortably its massive I think Callie I think you've got one set up down there it's huge that's the biggest tarp I've seen out there I think these are like nine by seven so they're a little little little too small you just got to kind of tuck in but I can get in it for an emergency keep in mind this is like an emergency I didn't plan on setting this up we all pack according you know if we're going out for whatever you're going out to I don't know it's recreation what are we recreating we go out to recreate that's the word when we go out and we're going out to hike or backpack we're taking other things we're not generally going out with just this this is kind of a vehicle bag it's kind of a an EDC like I'm going on a day hike like instead of just that Camelback I've got to take that kit with a camel back probably to make sure that I'm set up if I don't if things don't go according to plan which they never do so that's kind of what this is but I would use generally speaking when I'm out I've never been out without whatever I was planning on sleeping in that night it's like going straight to primitive trapping what were you going to eat if you weren't in a survival situation what do you how did you get out there without food you know depends stranded vehicle yes weather yes but yeah so optimal it's nice for us probably an eight by eight is good and I've got an oil cloth eight by eight that I usually pack if I'm hammock camping I've got a big Superfly four more bonnet that kind of comes down and around it's really nice that's big enough yeah but you can make this work and and not not leave the earth questions you guys want to see the knots again up close practice time we got a few minutes still nylon the I really want this in an emergency because of the reflective because without that then I've got a carry of a separate space blanket if I want to set up a super shelter I like the simplicity of this because it's for season including extreme cold weather I like to have the reflective option in desert if you flip it over so really it's it's for season for like a normal winter included in that fourth season then you've got extreme cold weather if you add some plastic and then it's good for the desert because you can flip it over and get that reflective it's I like this the SIL nylon a lot of times you can get brightly colored stuff for sure and I won't ding it on durability because these aren't all that durable either this is it's not something you know you're probably after you get out of whatever situation you were in you'll probably get you something else something new yeah but if it lasts cool yeah well it's still not like a little spark touches it is gonna melt a big hole they're more expensive with the jogger wait I'm trying to ten put out like for an emergent stuff to be you know you can get him like eleven twelve thousand mile bar and they burn a couple holes in its not big deal like that super shelter he's talking about in it was in January I went to Michigan and I I slept in one is like negative nineteen and I had sixty-eight degrees I mean I had a raging fire the whole time when we're out there - and if it burned holes in it and it it still was pretty dang affected so it's a it's a great thing to get comfortable with and like there's lots of different not systems but just have one this is a good one because it's it's simple and easy because like what he's talking about when the our calls we got here yesterday it was it was somewhat driving when he was showing us around and as soon as we started to set up it started pouring and it always seems to work out that way and if you don't have like some kind of thing already set up it's not gonna be quick and your stuffs gonna get wet like that I think Matt's tip got some water in it while you setting it up my hand it got a little bit wet but it's great to have some kind of system a little mini emergency emergency blankets oh yeah you can keep them in your pocket so I've got I actually have a on my belt kit cuz i layer my kind of system I don't put all my eggs in one basket like this this is a grab-and-go back but it's simple it's like a 15 pound kit with with 32 ounces of water in it so I like that system for that I don't I go out and I'm prepared for a lot of different emergencies just like that is but I use different gear that's suited to me that I'm used to because I'm going out and doing this all the time not just when I need it so layered survival system I have certain things in my pocket I wear certain things I have certain things on my belt that's always with me then I have stuff in a backpack and the key to that is is I need to have all of my my priorities taken care of all my metabolic needs or my metabolic needs you know I have to have all that taken care of and I don't want to have to go primitive I want to make the choice to go primitive if I want it's it's not something I want to do it because I have to you've made some mistakes if that's where you're at I think we can all probably agree on that but the I lost my train of thought yeah those little dudes yeah so I've got my backpack stuff that's got big burly heavy-duty stuff that I'm gonna use but if for some reason I'm going out to check traps or set up traps or just go in the water resupply I've got internal I got turned around in the jungle in Panama for probably six hours because I was in a swamp that had a lot of iron ore and my compass just sat in one spot you know so I've got a duffel bag with the entire platoons to courts that we refilled in the water and we can't find them you know his work in the middle of Central America so was lost for like six hours with nothing I had plenty of water had that covered no shelter had no way to make a fire none of that so it happens and all of our gear was with them because we're not going to take our rucksacks also to go down so they had security on it but had we layered our survival system then we would have been better off so those little things have their place one of those places is in a pouch that I keep on my belt kit or your Possible's pass or whatever you've got before just throwing one in your cargo pocket when you go hiking it's it's it's kind of one of those it's it's one step away from worst case when you're gonna have to start making primitives having said that if I'm making a primitive shelter which we'll get into later that makes a really good waterproofing layer you know before I start piling debris on for insulation if I put that down first and then cover that man I've got reflection I've got everything so that's where I think they have their place is in a pocket or belt never as like I plan on using this as my primary but I don't have my gear for whatever reason but I've got my belt kit or my pocket kit that's where I think those go and that's the only place I'll use them on purpose mylar is not very breathable so I've spent the night up going up to Half Dome in Yosemite we weren't playing on that we got a permit last minute my wife and I we're going to hike that we had going up El Cap came back and then got that permit to go up Half Dome you hike halfway up and you camp when you get up there camping here with us so ran to the Pro Shop there in yosemite village and bought some of those sol snow survived outdoor longer bags and that is the worst night I've ever had sleeping inside that because I woke up in a putt what I say woke up but I never really got to sleep because I'm gonna crank I'm like crawling in a chip bag and trying to go to sleep but a really big chip bag so picture that it's crinkling the whole night not breathable so it had gotten cold and the entire time we're sweating in that and it's just you're sitting in it you know so we had sweat soup in a potato chip bag worst night of sleep ever so those two are actually my feet those two bags I wanted to throw away but you know they're actually in my vehicle emergency bag so I just keep them in a box in my in my truck in case I need it you know yeah so if you do plan on using something that's mylar that you're gonna have to sleep in like that use some sort of absorptive layer that pulls head away because it'll be a miserable night it's kind of miserable anyway if you're down to one of them little space blankets oh yeah hopefully that answered your question right anything and then like every second time they came no checking and what are you what would you put in your carry-on for emergency be taking our tanks our sleeping bags already our food yep dehydrated food it's really the only thing you have to worry about is is your your cutting tools are going to be a problem for a carry-on this poncho yep four we can hi longer would you replace this for that for whatever with your honor probably probably I would get that's one advantage I'll give the military poncho or a poncho over one of these is I can tie off the hood and set up a poncho shelter just like this but I can also if I'm still mobile I can't I can but it's not as easy you know use this as as a rain jacket you know where I can do that with a poncho so if you find a brightly colored poncho that you can use both ways that's what I would go to if I was limited if I'm not limited like I would carry this and I would still carry a rain jacket you can get little stash jackets that way like six ounces you know yep yeah if you're still mobile tarp poncho like REI and you can wear it and it's got like little snaps but it's got like tie outs and stuff and useful net clothes so it's a poncho is definitely more versatile because you can make a shelter out of it and use it to keep the rain off of you if you're mobile so if I had to choose one I would choose a poncho over a rain jacket yeah yeah I would I would choose a poncho because it's more versatile for sure any other questions since you're packing this for emergency purposes depending on where you're going I assuming in a forest you don't bother to take toggles with you save time but general do you pack with you I'm using my steaks as toggles okay steak for me for me when I'm going out and like not showing you a basic setup I usually take the time to carve toggles never have to be pretty I could yes here's a toggle you know there's toggles everywhere so yeah I wouldn't pack what I can source from the forest quickly as long as I've got that emergency saying taken care of but I can set up a regular tarp you know pretty quick but it's because we do it all the time so yeah but I wouldn't I wouldn't purposely pack something I can get out of the woods quickly but like stakes they take a little more time to carve up and they got to be a little more durable so those those are worth carrying and I think for the weight but of course you don't have to you you can make those quickly it's you know sharp point pommel end and a stay in a stake notch you know they're pretty quick if you got that time but if you're trying to beat the are you know I don't want to mess with that mark had a good point about advantage advantage reflective tarp over the sill nylon that he was going to talk about it's very useful really jex money cool temperature up using this campus she's got fuses as I should carry both weight savings durability if you will another good advantage for the pocket blankets hypothermia prevention rain catch just trying to do some of these other setups yeah if it's compromised you're done it's gonna go but yeah with that it takes longer because you've gotta you know put them to put an acorn or a pebble in there and tie around it you know it takes longer and they're really small you can get some big ones but there's some big hypothermia blankets they're huge when they go out that could work but they packs down into a brick about this big the one I have so that's in a med kit I don't use that for this I think that's a yes [Music] [Music]

Channel: The Gray Bearded Green Beret

Views: 232,627

Rating: 4.8880682 out of 5

Keywords: Ranger, Green Beret, The Pathfinder School LLC, Survival, Bushcraft, Preparedness, Fire, Shelter, Camping, Hunting, Emergency, Search and Rescue, SAR

Id: Vtnssu5gobk

Length: 57min 59sec (3479 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 14 2018