Thursday, January 29, 2009

Emergency Poncho/ Space blanket Shelter

In your Kits I hope you have some sort of shelter plan. This is an example of a super easy and fast shelter that will get you through the night. Will it be fun, no. Will you live, yes. This poncho lean-to with a space blanket is a quick set up for cold weather with no precipitation, basically a reflector. We had to let the fire burn down a little cause my son got to hot. It was 10 above at the time. If you have never built a shelter in the winter you should try it. It is a lot different that in warm weather. Your shelter material is not near as pliable, you have gloves on, the ground is frozen, and it's cold!!!. If you think you might have to spend the night out in below freezing weather, at least have a plan on shelter, fire, etc... By the way the reason we were out in this weather was to teach about 200 Scouts about emergency shelters. Be Prepared!!

2 comments:

DanT said...

Welcome back.
It is nice to see that you are teaching the next generation these skills. I wish more folks were as caring.
Regards from Toronto, Dan

Albert A Rasch said...

I used to hate getting cold!

I spent a few restless night out on the woods when I lived in Vermont. Fortunately there was usually a substantial amount of snow to carve a shelter out of, plenty of pine to make a sleeping area, and sufficient dead wood to build a fire and keep me from freezing to death.

I like the design you've shown. I always carry a space blanket, but never thought to use it in that configuration. Great Idea!

Regards,
Albert A Rasch
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
Proud Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit
Southeast Regional OBS Coordinator