Originally Posted By: Glock-A-Roo
Originally Posted By: Leigh_Ratcliffe

Tube tents and plastic biviy bags make excellent body bags. Perfect for wrapping the hypothermia victims mortal remains in.
Cut the tube tent in half length ways. That will give you two decent sized plastic sheets. Use them to waterproof a A-Frame shelter. Using them in the classical fashion is a tactic of desperation.


Um, ok... a little UK hyperbole there, perhaps? Why so doctrinaire? I suppose you believe yourself to be more of an expert on this than Peter Kummerfeldt, who spent decades teaching SERE in the military and teaches this very technique today. It works; I've tested it (on purpose during training) firsthand in the field.

Wear some insulating clothing underneath the bag & you are fine. Sweaty, but insulated enough to be warm while the bag keeps out the wind & cold rain. An A-frame blocks the wind & blowing rain much less. If you have no insulating clothes, you're no better off under a breezy A-frame than you are wrapped up in the bag.


As you correctly say: you had better be wearing the right clothing under it. To me that means wool or pile and a Gore-Tex layer. You also need some sort of flameless heat source in there.

And in the nicest fashion possible, you might want to consider the possibility that "taught for decades" does not mean right in all circumstances. I would be curious to see if demonstration of the technique involves a discussion of it's limitations.

"I suppose you believe yourself to be more of an expert on this than Peter Kummerfeldt?" Under what circumstances?

As it happens I looked at his web-site and added it to my list of Recommended Viewing for Neophyte Outdoorsman.

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I don't do dumb & helpless.