What Is a Survivalist
What is a survivalist? Skills, not just supplies
A prepper relies on supplies stored in advance. A survivalist relies on skills: finding and treating water, keeping warm, giving first aid and finding the way when the supplies run out or have to stay behind.
Most of us are best served by being a bit of both: supplies at home for the likely emergencies, and a few skills for the moments when you are away from them. The skills that matter most are simple and can be learned in a weekend: treating water, staying warm and dry, first aid and CPR, reading a map.
Be wary of TV-style survival tricks. Many of them, like drinking from a cactus or sucking out snake venom, make things worse. Our guide to survival myths sets the record straight.
Guides
- Emergency kit Survival and preparedness myths The doorway in an earthquake, the "triangle of life", alcohol to warm up, butter on burns, rubbing frostbite with snow: common emergency and survival myths and what experts actually say.
- Emergency kit Urban survival skills Urban survival is not about fire and stick shelters but knowing how to shut off the gas, find water in your building, walk home, give first aid and work with your neighbours. Ten skills to learn now.
- Emergencies Lost in the wild: what to do What to do if you get lost in the mountains or the woods: stop and think (STOP), call for help, stay put, protect yourself from the cold, make a simple shelter and signal so you can be found.
- Health Air in an emergency Why breathable air is the first survival need, what makes it dangerous (smoke, dust, carbon monoxide, chemicals), what N95/FFP2 and FFP3 masks can and cannot do, and what to do if you are trapped in a building full of dust or smoke.
- Water Emergency water purification Four ways to make contaminated tap water, well water or rainwater safe. What each method removes and what it doesn't, with exact amounts.
- Water Equipment Water filters: what to choose Filter jug, under-sink filter, reverse osmosis, portable or gravity filter. What each removes, what it costs to maintain and which make sense in a crisis.
- Health Hypothermia and frostbite How to recognize hypothermia and frostbite in adults, children and older people, what to do until help arrives, what never to do (rubbing with snow, alcohol, direct heat) and how to protect yourself in extreme cold, a winter power cut or stuck in a car.
- Health CPR and the defibrillator What to do if someone collapses and isn't breathing normally: how to recognize cardiac arrest, why you call the emergency number at once, how to do chest compressions properly and how to use an automated external defibrillator, even if you've never taken a course.
- Health Bites and stings What to do about a tick, a wasp or bee sting, a dog bite or a snake bite: how to remove a tick properly, how to recognize a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis), when to see a doctor about rabies, and what never to do.
- Emergency kit What is a prepper? Who preppers are, where the term comes from, the difference between common-sense preparedness and the movie stereotype, and why European governments now advise every household to be ready for 72 hours.