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Building a survival shelter
made from natural materials
If building a survival shelter, a lean-to shelter is probably the easiest and quickest type of shelter to build. A lean-to shelter is suitable for most terrain. Always build this type of shelter with its back to the wind.
Lean-to shelter
 Place two Y-shaped sticks in the ground about 1 foot (30 cm) down, so they stand about 3 feet (1 m) high. Take a long branch about 6 feet (2 m) long and use it as a ridge pole. Lay the ridge pole between the two forks. Now, fill in the roof area with other straight sticks tied at the top and buried in the ground. You now have the skeleton of the shelter.
Finally, you must cover the skeleton with whatever material is available, for example, spruce twigs, grass, bracken fern and large leaves. Always start at the bottom of the shelter and work upwards when thatching, so that if it rains, the water will run over the joints and will not leak through onto you. Try to make life as easy as possible by using any standing or fallen timber, or a wall, as one side of the shelter.
If warmth is needed, build a fire in front of your shelter.
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A wilderness survival course will provide you with the practical experience necessary to handle many kinds of problems that could arise in the wilderness. It's essential that you have some basic principles of wilderness first aid and know how to apply them, even under stress. Building a survival shelter is an absolute priority if you face a survival situation in harsh or unpredictable weather. Selecting appropriate gear is important to have a safe wilderness trip. A "pocket survival kit" should be small enough to easily fit into a shirt or a coat pocket. The Wilderness Survival Blog keeps you up-to-date with all additions and changes to this web site.
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