Encyclopedia of survival in extreme conditions. Encyclopedia of Survival in Extreme Situations

The legendary traveler and survivalist Bear Grylls shared with us the secrets of survival in the wild. But he didn't let me bite off the bear's liver. Even in exchange for protein.

Text: Oleg "Orange" Bocharov
Illustrations: Sergey Radionov

Imagine: the plane crashed into the jungle, you are the last surviving passenger, you need to overcome three hundred impassable kilometers to the nearest Internet cafe to send a tweet "I'm alive!" and die. Although no, plane crashes are rare, let's take a more realistic option: your yacht crashed on the rocks in the Gobi desert, and the only food here is sand and cholera sticks. What are your chances of surviving? Chuck Norris of the 21st century - British traveler Bear Grylls assures that they are great.

When you watch a Discovery Channel show about extreme survival (there's no other way to call it), Bear Grylls seems like a magician. It looks something like this: “In front of you is the corpse of a penguin, which I found in the mouth of a volcano. It is slightly burned, but the fur is still beautiful. Look, just a couple of strokes of the knife - use only a boiled knife! - and the dead penguin turns into an excellent warm coat with a zipper and a hood.

But it must be admitted that, at the core, Bear's advice is simple, and the concept of survival boils down to three understandable theses: protection, provision, salvation.

The realism of Bear's survival techniques is now proven by the most obvious of possible ways: Looks for real stories of miraculous rescues and reconstructs them. Yes, in front of the camera, but honestly, without cheating. If any Peruvian, who escaped from captivity, ate only hummingbird eggs, and spent the night in snake holes, be sure: new program"Bear Grylls: get out alive" Bear will do exactly the same throughout the journey.

And yet, MAXIM magazine does not exist to retell TV shows (you can see them yourself). Our mission is to steal the most valuable experience from Grylls and give it to you.

Protection

So, you woke up in the middle of Siberia, the Amazon or the Sahara. Your thought... no, not "I want to eat and drink" and not "Get me out of here." Do you want to live? The number one challenge is to protect yourself from the cold, sun, water, wildlife and injury.

There are no single recipes for all cases of attacks by snakes, tigers, scorpions and sharks and there cannot be. This is bad news. There is good news too. It turns out that wild animals almost never get into tents where people live and sleep, so if you manage to build not just an awning, but a full-fledged shelter with a roof and walls, you can not wait for guests. The exception is bears, who strive to climb into the tent, but only if food is stored there: they smell an ordinary apple or a basket with raspberries from afar. Therefore, it is understandable that food should only be kept outside, and the farther from the camp, the better.

The figure shows a diagram of a simple construction of a hut based on a lying tree (we found this and other architectural designs in Grylls' book Life in the Wild). Only such a construction option does not require any ropes, much less nails, only a fallen trunk is needed, lying at a height of about one meter from the ground, as well as branches and grass for the roof.

By the way, the more you build your camp on a grand scale, the more likely it is to be discovered by rescuers. But we will return to this later.

Of the natural shelters from the weather and animals, the most reliable are caves and overhanging cliffs. The caves are far from being as cozy as they seem from cartoons about cavemen - for the most part they are disgustingly damp, cold and dark. You can’t just build a fire there either: the cave will be clogged with smoke and the neighbors will have to call “01”, but it will be too late. Bear Grylls points out that caves with bats are especially dangerous: their droppings are contagious and cause histoplasmosis (fever, cough and death-death-death). It's a pity, but it is under such cliffs that an unpleasant draft is often observed (due to the Venturi effect), so you need to either wrap yourself up or fence yourself with walls.

When you wake up in the morning, give your clothes a good shake before you continue on your way: snakes or insects may have crawled into it. By the way, many small creatures they don't really want to meet a person and attack only if you stumble upon them.

Therefore, in regions with an abundance of snakes, it is better to move with maximum noise so that they have time to crawl away.

It may sound strange as advice to a dying tourist after a crash, but you should keep yourself clean. In the dirt on the body, in sweaty clothes, bacteria and insects accumulate, which are often no better than a plane crash. We do not urge you to shave once a day, but from time to time to wash, wash clothes and clean shoes is a definite plus in the karma of a survivor.

If the shoes have rubbed a callus, do not rip off the sore - let it remain as it is. But try to avoid corns at all. If you wipe your feet with alcohol (it makes the skin coarsen) and put moss in your shoes, you can prevent corn attack.

The temperature inside your body must not fall below 28.8°C and rise above 42.7°C* or death. And death is bad.

*- Note of a warthog named Phacochoerus Funtik: « By the way, do you know how a person knows at what temperature he will die, how long he will last without water, food, air? No, this is not a computer prediction. During the Second World War, the Japanese created a top-secret experimental camp of Detachment 731 in Manchuria, where inhuman experiments were carried out on captured Chinese, Mongols and Russians. This is where most of these statistics come from. »

Do-it-yourself forecast

█ The best misfortune is the predicted misfortune. If the sky is red in the evening, it means that the rays are passing through dust raised by high pressure. High pressure (warm dry air) does not promise storms, the weather will be fine.
█ But if the sky is red in the morning, then the area of ​​high pressure has gone towards the sun, to the east, it will soon be replaced by low pressure, and rain, spleen and sadness will most likely come with it.
█ Rain portends and a halo around the luminaries (moon and sun): high clouds contain ice crystals. Yes, and cirrus clouds portend the same thing. Surprisingly, a rainbow can also be useful: if it is on the windward side, then the rain is moving in your direction.

Or a hearth of two stones.

An ordinary person, even as smart and beautiful as you, loses more than three liters of water per day (urination, sweating and breathing). Even worse, in the cold, water is just as necessary as in a hot desert: in the cold, a person urinates much more often, because the body does not want to waste energy on heating the excess fluid in your bladder. And your body is right in this case. Bear Grylls insistently repeats to everyone and everyone: you need to drink even before you start to feel thirsty.

The following figure shows a diagram of a simple earthen water collector, about a meter in diameter. The pit is covered with a plastic film (you press it to the ground with stones), in the center of which a load is placed. Moisture, rising from the ground, accumulates on the bottom of the film and flows into a helpfully substituted glass.

If you are lucky and have found a natural source of water, be extremely careful to boil it anyway. In the book Life in the Wild, Grylls describes the case when a guy drank water from a crystal clear mountain stream and became disabled after that. He had no idea that a hundred meters upstream in this stream lay the corpse of a sheep.

Let's say you're the unluckiest person in the world and all you have is muddy puddles and goat's hooves filled with water. But what is it? You are no longer the unluckiest person in the world because you groped in your pocket old number MAXIM and read these lines in it: “Build an impromptu three-layer filter. Fill the bottom of the bag with fine sand, put a layer of small pebbles on top, and large stones on the very top. After passing through these three layers, the filtered water will drain into the container below. Add syrup and soda to taste."

The rescue

Rescue implies two goals: moving in the right direction and issuing distress signals.

The arsenal of ways to alert rescuers is scarce and unchanged for the last hundreds of years. Bonfires with thick black smoke, sunbeams, laying out inscriptions and notes in bottles. They say that in good weather, smoke from a powerful fire can be seen for 50 kilometers. The night bonfire is visible from the air for 20 kilometers. But do you know that three bonfires located in a triangle at a distance of 10–20 meters from each other are officially considered a distress signal? So the helicopter pilot will understand that you are really in distress, and not merrily frying shish kebabs from reindeer moss in the tundra to the sounds of "Vladimirsky Central". Have a few unlit fires at the ready, as well as a torch with which you can quickly set them on fire.

Throw the portable camping church out of your luggage and grab a dozen compasses. If there are none, remember where the North Star is, pointing north, or if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, find the Southern Cross and mentally make its lower crossbar six times longer - there will be a landmark to the south.

The last thing you might need is calculating distances. There is a Naismith rule: in an hour a person walks about 5 kilometers, the time will increase by 30 minutes for every 300 meters of ascent. Let's say the length of the path is 15 kilometers, 500 meters of them - with a rise. So, you will spend 4 hours on the road.

A well-known anomaly: moving from landmark to landmark is easier for a traveler than a dull, purposeful movement forward. Just remember that your eye is a big deceiver. Any object seems closer if the day is very sunny or if you stand below it, and also when all the objects around the object are small. In poor lighting, the landmark, on the contrary, seems more distant.

Well, you survived. Having overcome half a thousand kilometers, you returned home, where your wife is waiting for you with a rolling pin and the question “Where have you been?”. And here we need other survival skills, which we write about every month anyway. And all to no avail.

Applications

Viking Wetsuit

We find a dead seal.

08
oct
2016

Encyclopedia of survival in extreme situations. How to save life (Andrey Ilyin)


ISBN: 5-04-006918-9
Format: PDF, OCR without errors
Andrey Ilyin
Release year: 2001
Genre: Textbooks, reference books, encyclopedias
Publisher: Eksmo-Press
Russian language
Number of pages: 384

Description: The proposed book contains the basics of knowledge on human self-rescue in various extreme situations. From it you will learn how to properly send a distress signal, what can and cannot be done, how to navigate the terrain, what and whom you can eat, how to use the most ordinary things in an emergency, how to provide assistance and keep the presence of mind in the most, seemingly hopeless circumstances.

The book will help you not only survive, but also save others.


04
mar
2014

Textbook of survival in extreme situations. The experience of special units of the world (Peter Darman)

ISBN: 5-8153-0223-6
Format: PDF, DjVu, Scanned pages
Author: Peter Darman
Release year: 2001

Publisher: Yauza
Russian language
Number of pages: 352
Description: The book tells about how to survive in various emergency situations: in the desert, taiga, jungle, in the Far North. You will learn how to find food, build a fire, provide first aid. medical care himself and his comrades, as well as many other useful information, gleaned from the manuals of the special forces SAS. Detailed pictures explaining the creation of the simplest weapons, means of tra...


29
aug
2009

Kuropatkin Dmitry - Secrets of street martial arts - How to defeat any opponent in extreme situations

ISBN: 5-7905-3133-4, Martial arts

Release year: 2005
Author: Kuropatkin D.I.
Genre: Various
Publisher:
M.:RIPOL classic
Number of pages: 192
Description: A street fight is a fight without rules, in which the victory is often won, if not by the strongest, but by the more dexterous and cold-blooded opponent. There is no specific street fighting technique. All of the defensive and offensive techniques recommended in this book are the result of an amalgamation of many of the most effective combat techniques. This publication is recommended primarily to people who seek ...


17
oct
2014

The Complete Guide to Wilderness, Land and Sea Survival in Extreme Situations (John Wiseman)

ISBN: 978-5-17-045760-1, 978-5-271-17738-5
Format: PDF, Scanned pages
Author: John Wiseman
Translator: Y. Suslov
Release year: 2011
Genre: Textbooks, reference books, encyclopedias
Publisher: AST, Astrel
Russian language
Number of pages: 576
Description: John "Lofty" Wiseman served 26 years in the British Special Air Service (SAS), and his book is based on the training techniques of this world famous elite unit. This practical guide shows you how to survive in the wild, in all climates, on land and at sea. Designed for everyone who...


08
sep
2015

How to defeat any opponent in emergency situations. Secrets of the special forces (Sergey Kashin (comp.))

ISBN: 978-5-386-07748-8
Format: PDF, FB2, eBook (originally computer)
Author: Sergey Kashin (comp.)
Release year: 2014
Genre: Combat and martial arts
Publisher: RIPOL classic
Series: The Art of Real Combat
Russian language
Number of pages: 256
Description: Modern world full of danger. How to repel criminals and protect yourself and your loved ones? This publication fully answers the questions posed by a large number practical recommendations. At the same time, it is absolutely not necessary to be a special forces fighter or a professional athlete. The book covers a wide...


25
oct
2018

How to Keep Love in Your Marriage (John Gottman, Silver Nan)

ISBN: 978-5-496-00723-8
Format: FB2, eBook (originally computer)
Author: John Gottman, Silver Nan
Release year: 2014
Genre: Psychology of relationships
Publisher: Peter
Russian language
Number of pages: 387
Description: This book is written for those who are just about to get married, and for those who have been living with their spouse for decades. In this wise and long-awaited book, famed psychologist and family counselor John Gottman reveals the mysteries of love: Where Does Love Come From? Why do some people continue to love when the relationship is gone? And where does love go? Gottman has spent decades researching...


28
june
2015

Encyclopedia of Extreme Situations (Antonio Ackermans, Bill Mattos, Bob Morrison, Harry Cooke)

ISBN: 978-5-8029-2042-8

Author: Antonio Ackermans, Bill Mattos, Bob Morrison, Harry Cooke
Translator: Elena Mishchenkova
Release year: 2008
Genre: Textbooks, reference books, encyclopedias
Publisher: Arkaim
Russian language
Number of pages: 141
Description: What to do if you are in trouble: in nature, in the city or at home? This book tells: How to survive on land and in the air, on water and in the wilderness; How to survive in different climates and in the wilderness: how to build shelter and find water, how to make a fire and get food, how to protect yourself from...


25
May
2012

How to save a family? (Ilya Shugaev)


Author: Ilya Shugaev
Release year: 2012

Publisher: Charitable project "Hand"
Artist: Dmitry Chursin
Duration: 02:41:36
Description: The church says that the husband is the head of the family. “But there are almost no such men left,” contemporaries object, “and obeying a tyrant-despot is terrible; therefore women cannot be in that Christian obedience.” This attitude is the main reason for the discord in family life. Where is the truth?


20
Apr
2012

How to save a family (Shugaev I.V.)

ISBN: 978-5-88017-215-3
Format: PDF, DjVu, DOC, OCR without errors
Author: Shugaev I.V.
Release year: 2011
Genre: Family psychology, popular psychology
Publisher: MP Publishing House
Russian language
Number of pages: 81 / 98 / 81
Description: It is customary to say that the husband is the head of the family. “But there are almost no such men left,” contemporaries object, “and obeying a tyrant-despot is terrible; therefore, women cannot tolerate such a distribution of roles. This attitude is the main reason for the discord in family life. Where is the truth?
And most importantly: how to extinguish the growing family conflicts? On the pages of...


01
oct
2013

Personality in extreme conditions (Lebedev Vladimir Ivanovich)

Format: audiobook, MP3, 128kbps
Author: Lebedev Vladimir Ivanovich
Release year: 2012
Genre: Psychology
Publisher: Do-it-yourself audiobook
Artist: Unknown
Duration: 12:12:56
Description: Doctor of Psychology V. I. Lebedev, known to many from the books "Psychology and Space", "Psychological Problems of Interplanetary Flight", etc., in this material summarizes considerable experience in studying the characteristics of psychological activity in extreme conditions (space and aviation flight , sailing in submarines, being in the polar zones, etc.). For this reason, I analyze...


16
Feb
2010

Extreme driving. Driving in critical situations. (E.S. Tsygankov)


08
dec
2007

How to be a rat - the art of intrigue and survival at work (J. Sgriivers)

Genre: audio course
Author: J. Sgriivers
Publisher: Olimp-Business
Release year: 2006
Duration: 05:45:38 Tired of hearing about the habits of high-performing managers? Are you unable to do something in a minute? Here's the antidote to all management books. Learn about the way to influence people and achieve career goals - listen to the audio course "How to be a rat". Using cunning, black humor and incredible insight, the author proposes to explore the dark side of modern business. It illuminates those corners of the office that many companies would rather hide. This is the place where envy nests...

Russian language
Number of pages: 192
Description: The book tells about the history of inventions in the field of heat engines from ancient times to the present day. This story is full of drama. Many outstanding inventors ended their lives in poverty, having experienced the collapse of all their hopes, others quickly became celebrities, in the life of still others, success and failure went hand in hand. Book of...


11
july
2013

VV Pokhlebkin - Big encyclopedia of culinary art. All recipes V.V. Pokhlebkina (V.V. Pokhlebkin)

Format: DjVu
Release year: 2001
Genre:
Author: Ilyin A.A.
Publisher: EKSMO-Press
Number of pages: 384
Description: How to survive in the wild? Everyone asked this question to themselves, having left the city. This book is more of a response to that. I will be glad if it is useful to everyone. A person who finds himself in a dense endless forest, on a deserted sea coast, on a dangerous mountain path, can and must survive. This is the deep conviction of the author of this book, which tells in detail about the ways of survival in extreme situations. From it you will learn what needs to be done in difficult circumstances, and what ...

Afanasiev's book "To help the partisan". The book gives advice on survival in the occupied territory and the conduct of guerrilla warfare in this territory. The book contains a lot of advice that relates to survival. Published by the Military Publishing House of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR

Encyclopedia of Survival. One on one with nature


Big encyclopedia of survival in extreme situations. The book talks about how to survive in the wild.

Encyclopedia of extreme situations

A book on survival in extreme situations, this book contains tips on how to survive in various situations. Moreover, both very unlikely - for example, hostilities, and very possible - a car accident or, say, a fight. Lots of good advice, I highly recommend reading the book.

The Art of Survival

The Art of Survival is a book, or rather a collection of very interesting articles on survival from different books and Runet forums.

Life in the wild

Survival guide by Grylls Bear. A large selection of survival tips and instructions from a practitioner and traveler, the founder of TV shows on survival in the wild.

Survivors are representatives of a subculture who deliberately end up in an extreme situation. The movement originated in the United States and in recent decades has become famous throughout the world. The goal is to emerge unscathed from difficult natural conditions and temper character. "Hobby" requires dexterity, courage and determination.

Life in the wild. Survival guide

Bear Grylls

The name of Bear Grylls is strongly associated with survivalism (from the English. Survive - to survive). The host of the famous TV show “Survive at all costs” made an invaluable contribution to the popularization of the direction, demonstrating resilience and courage when crossing the jungle, subtropical and icy deserts.

In the book, the traveler and conqueror of Everest shares his solid experience: he gives advice on the selection of equipment taking into account climatic conditions, talks about choosing a place to set up a tent or a hut, about tools that are indispensable on a hike (knife and ax), about finding food and making fire.

Wildlife School

Andrey Ilyin

Handbook for extreme amateurs. The author begins the work by listing the factors of survival. The will to live and control over your own fear is a must. Physical fitness plays an important role: it is better for a clumsy and weak person to postpone the trip for an indefinite period and start running, hardening and pull-ups. The first chapters on self-rescue tactics deal with navigating the terrain and estimating distances.

The ways of searching for water sources are analyzed, methods of disinfecting water and making a fire are described. The steps to provide first aid. Ilyin shares the specifics of actions according to climate conditions: the tactics of behavior in the desert, forest and taiga vary greatly. The publication is addressed to a wide range of readers: absolutely anyone can get stuck in a dense forest.

Prepper's Handbook

Nikolai Naidenov

A concentrate of useful information in a small and compact book. The author notes the importance of composure, memory training and the right way out of the comfort zone. Instructions are given on four points: seeking shelter, getting rid of hunger, quenching thirst, seeking warmth.

In an accessible language, signs of improvement and deterioration of the weather, methods for determining the cardinal directions by stars, the sun, the moon, trees and anthills are described. Signaling skills, the ability to overcome rivers and swamps can save lives. Any tourist is obliged to know the rules of protection from wild animals: bears, wild boars and wolves. Separate sections are devoted to hunting and fishing.

Ways of autonomous human survival in nature

Mikhailov L.A.

Textbook for higher cadets educational institutions power structures. In a military way, the features of survival in case of emergencies, natural disasters, autonomous existence in the natural zones of the subtropical, tropical and Arctic zones are clearly and concisely set out.

Attention is paid to all aspects of the state of emergency: psychological adaptation, preservation of health in case of mechanical injuries and poisoning. Questions for self-control help to consolidate the material. Improving the knowledge gained in school life safety lessons.

36.6 degrees. The art of staying alive

Cody Lundin

The manual of the American instructor became a bestseller in the West. The book is colorfully illustrated and written with humor. The author skillfully directs the reader's eye to important things. First of all, the specialist focuses on an individual emergency stock, assembled independently, as opposed to commercial blanks. A small bag holds the essentials: a first aid kit, a flashlight and wax matches that light up under any circumstances.

The main enemy of the survivalist is fear. For primitive people, the stimulation of the central nervous system and the fight-or-flight response helped keep them alive. Modern man stress interferes: the body is exhausted, weakness appears, metabolism is disturbed. Lundin writes how to control himself and calm fellow travelers, defeat hypo- and hyperthermia.

Survival technique in extreme conditions

Alexander Stilwell

A guide to survival anywhere in the world according to the methodology of British special forces. Thorough preparation is essential. AT otherwise the first trip can end in failure. Before setting off on a journey, you need to familiarize yourself with the experience of experienced survivors, get basic medical, biological and topographic knowledge.

The compiler touches on topics ignored by other specialists: climbing, setting traps, forming knots, building rafts.

Reference information about most countries of the world is given.

Arctic, Antarctic and Taiga

Dmitry Ivanov

The encyclopedia is devoted to the issues of salvation in severe frosts. The taiga, tundra and rugged Siberian forests are often chosen as the point of departure by survivors of the former USSR. Sled dog racing in the Russian Arctic is gaining more and more popularity as a tourist destination.

Permafrost makes us act cunningly, build strong shelters, make a long-burning fire and use the “natural refrigerator”. Snow helps to quickly find the nearest settlement in human footprints.

Cool inary survival book

Fedorchenko K.V.

After finding a shelter and building a canopy, another problem appears - food. Stocks are rapidly running out. In a difficult environment, a person needs to regularly replenish the calorie deficit. The collection begins with short tips to help mentally prepare for the tests.

In the following sections, you can find methods for extracting fuel, disinfecting and filtering water. Numerous recipes for field meals are given. The reader gets acquainted with edible and inedible plants, berries and mushrooms, learns to distinguish them from each other. The ability to hunt and set snares is considered invaluable. In extreme cases, some insects can also be eaten.

Tourist medical guide

In 1952, French physician Alain Bombard learned of another shipwreck in the Mediterranean. All persons on board became victims, although they ended up on spare boats. Going on a solo voyage in a rubber boat, the biologist decided to prove that in the middle of the ocean you can survive without provisions. The main thing is to gather your will into a fist and overcome mental weakness.

As a result, the Frenchman crossed the Atlantic Ocean, defeating cold, hunger, storms and sharks. The book is written in a journalistic style, without bureaucracy and complex scientific terms. The story of the Frenchman is amazing, inspires to exploits, proves practically endless possibilities human body.

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