Howdy, newb. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

As Jim pointed out, we are primarily a gear and situations group, and as a result, we don't spend much time talking about primative techniques. I don't think you'll find any of us disparage them, but let me ask you a simple question:

Can you start a fire at 20 below zero with a 15 mile an hour wind with a fire bow before you freeze to death after pulling yourself out of the lake your snowmobile is now at the bottom of, after dragging your soaked and rapidly cooling bones the 50 yards to shore? BTW, it's a half an hour before dark, and you aren't expected at your friend's camp for another two hours, and there isn't a house or occupied camp for about a mile.

Real world example. Someone dies in my area every two, three years from this. If you have to make your fire bow, you'll probably be dead before you have the first spark. With matches, a lighter, and sparker (and maybe a highway flare), you've got a chance. With the mirror, you can then use your fire to signal to people on the other side of the two mile long lake. Even before you have a fire, your whistle can be heard at the other end of the lake.

OK, now you are warmish, but at least you aren't shivering so hard you can't standup. You've got some brush, small trees, snow, snow, and more snow for shelter, but you know that if you'd stayed on the trail rather than cutting across the lake, your path would have taken you about three quarters of a mile to a mile north of the lake from where you are. How do you know? Becuase you've taken out your compass and your map. And you can hear people on the trail, but there is a ridge line between you and them, and over thier engines, they can't hear your whistle. BTW, the lights that were on at the camp, they aren't on any more, but you did see their taillights pulling away.

A map and compass let you "see" where you are, and get a direction (due to cloud cover, you can't find Polaris). It also tells you enough so you can decide if you can get out on your own, becuase it might be a while before you are found and first light won't be for about 11 hours.

It's still an hour before you're late, and knowing your buddy, he's going to give you another hour before he gets worried and starts looking for you ON the trail. Weather is deteriorating, with increasing wind and dropping tempuratures. It's an iffy move, but hiking towards the trail isn't a horrible option, because that is never more than a quarter mile from a road that forms the major corridor for truckers going northeast. So you take your flashlight out of your pocket, and following your compass, you head toward the snow mobile trail.

Without that compass to follow, you could wander in circles in the woods. Even with the stars out, if you can't see them through a pine and spruce forest, you can't use them to navigate at night. And without the flashlight (yes, you could have made a torch, but that isn't very effecient) you couldn't safely move. Sure, you could stay in one place, and have a fifty-fifty chance of a human-cicle by morning, or walk an hour (which will warm you up some), and within twenty minutes of walking along the three yard strip that seperates the trail and the highway at this point, get yourself found.

The place I'm talking about is a real lake/pond near US Rte 2 in northern New Hampshire, BTW.

Primative skills are better for the long term. They are great when you can be proactive. But they suck for the short term. Gear gives you better odds when you have to react to a situation RIGHT now. There is nothing sporting or romantic about it; we talk about stacking the deck here.

Besides which, most of us have built firebows or spindles or plungers. Most of us have worked with flint and steel. And while you can teach it face to face, there really isn't any good way to do that online. And once you've done it, there isn't much more to talk about, other than patting you on the back when you put up the "I've made fire!" post. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />