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The Five C's of Survival
A guide to the five most important resources for wilderness survival
Cover
Cover basically means shelter, and shelter is one of the Four Key Components of Survival. Cover is what protects you from the elements, be it rain, wind, or Sun. Cover includes shelter building materials, such as a waterproof tarp or tent. It also includes your clothing, of which there is a wide variety of possibilities. Cover can even include miscellaneous gear such as a rain poncho, shoes, hat, sunglasses, gloves, bandanna, sleeping bag, blanket, mosquito net, etc. You might could even consider sunscreen as a form of “Cover”. Anything that protects your body from the elements. Your clothes can even protect you from things like getting cuts, scratches, burns, insect bites, animal attacks, sun exposure, wind chill, dirt, foul substances, etc. Cover protects your body, preventing infection, sunburn, hypothermia, etc.
Hypothermia is the number one cause of death in the outdoors. It's not animal attacks, starvation, dehydration, etc. It's just cold weather. And especially cold and WET weather. This fact illustrates the importance of Cover.
You are far more likely to become hypothermic if you or your clothing gets wet, as water draws away body heat 25 times faster than normal. Even in moderate temperatures such as 60 Fahrenheit (15 Celsius), a person can develop hypothermia if they or their clothing becomes wet. This is why waterproof rain gear and shelter materials are so important in most environments. If nothing else, a simple $1 throwaway emergency poncho is a great addition to any survival kit and could literally be a lifesaver. When buying rain gear, check whether it is water-resistant, or water-proof. There is a big difference between “resistant” and “proof”. Water-resistant gear will often soak through if it gets very wet, and so is not effective rain gear.
Waterproof rain gear is arguably essential survival equipment for almost any environment
In a desert you will likely have the opposite problem. The Sun can be very dangerous, causing sunburn, dehydration, and heat stroke. You need to keep your body shaded with clothing or a shelter. This is not the time to walk around in the Sun with your shirt off like your on vacation at the beach. There is a reason why people in the Middle East usually where full-body clothing made of loose, breathable fabric. Again, this is a form of Cover. Sunburned skin becomes like an imporous wall, and cannot sweat or dissipate body heat as efficiently, increasing your risk for heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
A breathable shemagh style scarf is commonly used in desert survival and can be worn several different ways
But even blazing hot deserts can become freezing cold at night so hypothermia is a risk even there, and adequate shelter and clothing is needed to keep in heat from your body and/or a fire. Often times, in such hot, arid, Sun-exposed regions, it is recommended to travel at night when it is cooler and darker, and to relax in the shade during the daytime when the Sun is intense. Again, what provides shade? Cover.
A bandanna is another simple but multifunctional piece of Cover gear. Bandannas and shemagh scarfs can be used to hold your hair back, keep bugs out of your hair when traveling through brush, cover your mouth during a sandstorm or dusty conditions, wrapped around your forehead as a sweat guard to keep sweat out of your eyes, dipped in water and wrapped around your neck to cool your body down if you're getting overheated, a first aid bandage or wrap, and more, and a 100% cotton bandanna makes great charclothe for Combustion. Bandannas are cheap, lightweight and expendable, so I often carry one or more in my survival kit.
Clothing comes in many forms and materials, and what is best is a complex and often debated topic, so I will not try to discuss all of it here. However, here are some common views:
- Cotton is not recommended for cold and especially wet environments because it loses virtually all of its insulative value when it gets wet. However, cotton can be quite warm and comfortable when completely dry and so may be suitable as an undershirt.
- Fleece, which is a form of polyester, is very warm and insulating and keeps decent insulative value even when wet, and it is very easy to dry out, but it's bulky. Fleece is a good choice for medium-cold temperature environments such as 32-72 degrees Fahrenheit (0-22 Celsius)
- Wool is often recommended for very cold, below-freezing environments because it is very warm, is naturally water-resistant, and maintains high insulation value when wet. Wool is also fire-resistant, but it's heavy, bulky, and can be itchy on the skin, and expensive.
- Down feather gear is extremely warm, lightweight, and compressible for packing, but loses almost all of it's insulative value when wet and is difficult and time-consuming to dry out. Down gear is great for extremely cold environments, but it's generally expensive and there is some question about animal ethics involved with the collection of down feathers.
Do some further research into what the benefits and detriments of certain types of clothing materials are, and make sure that what you choose matches your environment. Find out what the locals wear. When it comes to clothing, usually it's better to have too much rather than not enough.
In cold environments you should dress in layers, with the thinnest layer close to you and getting thicker each layer out. As soon as you start to feel hot, remove layers until you feel comfortable again, and as soon as you start to feel cold, add layers. The last thing you want to do in a cold weather situation is lower your core body temperature, or start sweating. As sweat cools, the salt will cover your skin and give you deadly chills.
Aside from clothing, what Cover especially means to me is a good waterproof tarp. It is what I often use to build my shelter with while camping in the woods. It blocks the rain, wind and Sun. If I had to choose only five items to take with me into the wilderness, a tarp would probably be one of them.
A tarp makes an excellent rain-tight shelter and there are several different structures possible with a tarp, such as a lean-to, an A-frame, or a tipi. Tarps come in many different sizes and thicknesses. My personal choice is a 10x12 feet, medium-duty (5 mil), camouflage tarp. 10x12 is big enough to construct a variety of structures and provide some extra space for comfortable living and gear storage. Medium-duty (5 mil) is my choice of thickness; heavy-duty (10 mil) is just too big and bulky for backpacking, and light-duty (3 mil) is too fragile in my opinion. You will need some type of Cordage to tie up a tarp, I use 550 paracord.
A tarp is one of my favorite pieces of survival gear, producing easy and effective shelter
Even a “waterproof” tarp can leak water sometimes in heavy rain, especially if it is set up at a shallow angle. The shallower the angle, the more likely it is for water to drip through. Avoid touching the underside of a tarp or tent during rain/wet weather, as this can actually pull water through. I have seen some people hang up tarps very loosely with a lot of slack, but I like to pull my tarps taught almost like a drum skin.
Some people prefer tents instead of tarps, but I personally am not a fan of tents because they are too closed off from the surroundings and can get very muggy inside. Plus, you can't have a fire inside a tent, but it's possible to have a fire under a tarp as long as there is enough clearance for the flames and adequate air circulation.
Some environments can provide natural materials great for building weather-tight shelters, such as large banana leaves, birch bark shingles, or bamboo which can be used to construct waterproof roofing. Other environments will provide very little in the form of natural shelter building materials, especially for waterproof roofing.
Sometimes "Cover" can come from unlikely places. Even garbage bags can be improvised into Cover. They can be cut into ponchos by cutting a hole in the bottom for your head and two holes on the sides for your arms. Garbage bags can also be cut into flat sheets that are great for making rain-proof shelter roofs, or for complementing a tarp in an incomplete shelter. A garbage bag can be worn like a jacket and stuffed with dry leaves, grass, etc. to provide insulation in a cold, desperate situation. For these reasons and more, I often include several *heavy-duty* garbage bags in my survival kit when backpacking or camping in the wilderness.
Heavy-duty garbage bags can be improvised into Cover several ways, including a waterproof poncho and shelter roof
Cover is the broadest category of the Five C's of Survival and can include many things. But what is important to remember is that your body needs protection from the elements, or it can become damaged or even killed. This is why Cover is so important and why it is included on the list of the five most important resources to have in the wilderness, The Five C's of Survival.
Click below to learn about each C of the Five C's of Survival:
• Cutting
• Combustion
• Cordage
• Container
• Cover
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