Keeping your wits about you in the wild

If you have ever wondered how you would survive alone in the wilderness in a worst-case scenario, this site provides a raft of tips to keep yourself among the breathing.

Based on the definitive treatise on the subject, U.S. Army Field Manual 21-76, the site puts the most important criterion first: mental stamina. Wilderness survival is 95% psychological, it maintains, and keeping your wits about you is the key to success. But the remaining 5% appears to contain quite a lot of action. There are categories covering survival medicine, water and food procurement, field tools, shelters, and gifts for fellow doomsters (such as the $50 Bushmaster survival knife with built-in animal snare and fishing kit). You also can plot your strategy for various disaster topographies, honing self-reliance skills for wayward misadventures across desert, tropical, cold weather and open water conditions.

If you follow the procedures advocated here, you should be able to survive being suddenly stranded in the middle of nowhere, not to mention nearby tests of resourcefulness, such as a complete disorientation in the local parking structure.

-- Michael Koehn