Survival Kit

DIY Head Torches:

You can save some weight and have fun by making your own head torch with a length of hat elastic, a couple of O-rings (or elastic bands) and a micro cord lock to convert eg any AAA torch into a head torch – or you can sew a couple of pieces of elastic together to

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Pitching the Poncho: Warning: This may save your life:

  Some folks did not find my instructions quite clear enough about this (here: http://www.theultralighthiker.com/sambar-deer-stalking-102/). These pictures may help. You can pitch a 5’ x 7’ nylon poncho as quite a good dry shelter (with a fire out the front). Tie the centre of one of the 7’ sides to a tree (or stick) about

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Hunting Daypack:

Most everyone carries too much gear (whether multi-day hiking, or just as a day pack). After my first solo hike of the Dusky Track Fiordland in 2006 (http://www.theultralighthiker.com/dusky-track-adventures-1/), the first thing I did when I came home was throw mout  my old expensive hunting daypack. I had spent some time working out how to carry

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The Ultimate Survival Gun:

My first one of these was my Armalite AR-7 .22 calibre. What a beautiful little gun it is: the way it folded up into its own stock with its 8 shot magazine is just excellent. At 1100 grams (2.5 pounds) and 400 mm (16”) long it is ideal for backpacking. Unfortunately as it is a

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Smithsonian Multi-Tool Circa 1880

Even contains a PISTOL! Might be a little hard to lug around though. If you hanker to be a an ultralight hiker, you might decide to trim this down a little but, but the pistol could be handy for scaring bears – and other varmints on the trail, or to harvest some critter for the

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Water: Rivers in the Sky: NEVER die of thirst:

Surprisingly perhaps that’s where the world’s largest rivers are. Extracting this humidity from the atmosphere is not necessarily that difficult. In the Atacama Desert in South America there are whole towns which garner their water supply from dew/fog screens which harvest humidity http://www.windows2universe.org/vocals/water_clouds.html . Pliny the Elder wrote of desert island (Hiero in the Canaries)

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