At any point in a persons’ life, he or she will need wilderness survival skills. Remember the movie Castaway starring Tom Hanks? There are situations that call for any person to get down to their ancestral roots and be one with nature. Being stranded in an island may be a bit of exaggeration, but when you’re lost in the woods, you’ve got nothing else to do except survive.

Survival experts will tell you that there are different skills that one should know about in order to survive the wilderness. But which ones are they? You may have read some on the web but have you really tried doing them or practicing them to perfection?

Six Basic Wilderness Survival Skills

There are six basic wilderness survival skills that I have learned over the years that will get me through any survival condition. If you want to know what these are then keep reading on. As you thread on further, you’ll be surprised to know that these skills are quite simple yet require a lot of time, effort and practice. That’s why it is called a skill. There are things that you just can’t buy at a local store to get you out of a pinch.

1. Finding and Purifying Water

Finding drinkable water when out in the woods is a challenge unless it rains. You can take water from streams, ponds, springs and morning dew. You can either purify water through heat or via chemical treatments. Two glasses of water, a piece of cloth and great amounts of patience can also help you get rid of pebbles and dirt from the water.  There are also water filtering straws that might just come in handy. My favorite tool to effectively and efficiently filter water, the Aquastiq is perfect for your EDC.

2. Building Shelter

Learning how to build a shelter by using natural materials can be essential for your survival. You will have to protect yourself from extreme elements. Plus you wouldn’t want waking up to a predator trying you out for a snack at night, would you? This shelter no matter how temporary it can be can be our first protective layer from animals that go out hunting at night. You can use sticks and leaves to create a shelter, or you can dig a hole and cover it with a few branches.  Let the 13-in-1 multi-tool in your shelter-building endeavors. Get yours here.

3. Building Fire

We need fire to keep ourselves warm, keep predators away or cook our food. Not to mention that it can use the smoke as an SOS signal during the day and the light it produces when it’s dark.  The important factors to building a fire are a spark, tinder, fuel, and oxygen. You can use waterproof matches, a waterproof lighter, a flint and steel method, an electric spark from batteries, gun powder from a bullet just to name a few.

In need of a firestarter that is waterproof and easy to carry around? The Everstryke is the perfect to addition for any survivalist.

4. Finding Food

If you have the right tools to hunt then do so. If you know how to improvise making hunting weapons then that’s a plus. Setting up traps or fishing with a hook and line on a river or stream can be essential. Foraging for the right fruits in shrubs or fruit trees is also another alternative. Watch out for those that are poisonous though. Other plants that can provide food are conifers, cattails, grasses, and oaks. Catch fish with the Stone Mountain Paracord Fishing Survival Kit. Get it here.

Check out my preferred solution for food in the wild, a survival canned meat with no expiration date. Shop Certain Food canned meat here.

5. First Aid Application

This basic skill can help you help you survive a situation even with injuries or illnesses. Snake bites, spider and animal bites, bone fractures, burns, heart attack, hemorrhage, hypo/hyperthermia, sprains, wounds are among the most common and most dangerous injuries. Without such knowledge or skill application it can either kill or incapacitate a person. Grab a first aid kit perfect for survival application.

6. Navigation

A map and a compass can be a useful tool for a person that knows how to navigate. Learning which way to go when you’re in the wilderness will keep you from getting lost. You can use the stars or the sun to learn where you need to go. Other means of navigation skills are dead reckoning, natural vegetation, a GPS. Watches today have compasses or mobile phones already have GPS features.

Watch this video by AlfieAesthetics on Wilderness Survival Tips.

More than anything else, we must be mentally prepared. It is what separates those that survive and those that don’t. We must have the strong will to live in order to be able to put all our skills to good use.  Even if we have survival skills but have not the will to survive then it is all but useless.  Be mentally prepared and stay calm.

Learn to do these skills. You’ll never know when you might need them. Knowing how to do it is totally different from actually doing it and putting it into practice. When under pressure and placed in a real life and death situation time is of the essence. If you still have time to practice them then well and good. But if not then your life will depend on it. Preparation is the key.

There are other tools that can help you in a survival situation, check out the Survival Life Store!

If you want to learn more survival skills, you can read more about them here.