Personal Survival Kit or PSK:
The single most important bit of kit for survival anywhere is your mind. Innovation, motivation, logic, reasoning, problem solving, decision making and the very will to live, all come from the grey matter inside our skulls. If we panic, make rash decisions or don't think clearly, we can very quickly make choices that endanger our lives. Hunger, dehydration and lack of sleep can all add to that decision making process in a bad way. Sometimes people can also just 'give up' and die!
I will go into my thoughts on this most important piece of kit, and the psychology of survival in another section. For now I will concentrate on the thing that for many people will make the difference between life and death, the 'comfort blanket' that is the Personal Survival Kit!
The Personal Survival Kit or PSK, in my opinion, and as the name suggests, should be personalised to the needs of the individual. But far more than that, it should be put together by the individual, including within it items that have been sourced and TESTED by the individual to make sure they are fit for purpose. Cody Lundin writes in his books "..its no good learning how to swim when the ship is going down!" in other words, its no good fiddling and fumbling around with the components of your PSK when your life is on the line! Test the items, use them, get familiar with them, know their limitations, but also just as importantly, know how they can be used in more ways than one. Multipurpose items give you options, options give you choices, choices give you hope and sometimes hope can be the difference between making it, and not making it! There is one caveat to this in my mind though and that's finding the balance between something that is fit for purpose and does a job (and a couple of others!) well, without becoming a 'jack of all trades, master of none' to the point of doing nothing of use at all...does that make sense? I'm sure you know what I mean!
There is a multi-million £/$ industry out there with kits offered for sale. Some are just plain ridiculous with items that would not last two minutes in light use, let alone a survival situation, and put together by companies and individuals that have never set foot out of their own back gardens! Others are better, with items that have at least been tested to destruction by the companies putting the kit together, and with at least a statement to say that the kits are designed to be a platform for additional items and personalisation. It is also my opinion that the PSK should be carried on your person at all times when going out to remote places. It should supplement what I have on my person in terms of my EDC items, as my EDC items form the first, fundamental layer of my PSK, My EDC is examined in another section on my website. I should always be dressed appropriately for the environment that I am in, to give myself the best possible protection from the thing that will kill me the quickest...exposure to the elements!
Perhaps the most familiar style of PSK is the one that many of us will have seen in various survival books, the tobacco tin. These are a great start to learning to build a PSK, but I have heard it said on many occassions that they were initially designed for the military, people with an already high level of training and conditioning. I have also heard the opinion that these kits are tailored more for escape and evasion situations. Whatever your view on them, mine is that they can be in whatever container you want to put them in, as long as the container is waterproof. They can be scaled up or down depending on what you want them for, they can be modular so that one kit can fit inside another larger kit that carries with it, its own additional capabilities. Go with the best items in the kit that you can afford, afterall, what price do you put on your life? Lets take a look at my own kit
I will go into my thoughts on this most important piece of kit, and the psychology of survival in another section. For now I will concentrate on the thing that for many people will make the difference between life and death, the 'comfort blanket' that is the Personal Survival Kit!
The Personal Survival Kit or PSK, in my opinion, and as the name suggests, should be personalised to the needs of the individual. But far more than that, it should be put together by the individual, including within it items that have been sourced and TESTED by the individual to make sure they are fit for purpose. Cody Lundin writes in his books "..its no good learning how to swim when the ship is going down!" in other words, its no good fiddling and fumbling around with the components of your PSK when your life is on the line! Test the items, use them, get familiar with them, know their limitations, but also just as importantly, know how they can be used in more ways than one. Multipurpose items give you options, options give you choices, choices give you hope and sometimes hope can be the difference between making it, and not making it! There is one caveat to this in my mind though and that's finding the balance between something that is fit for purpose and does a job (and a couple of others!) well, without becoming a 'jack of all trades, master of none' to the point of doing nothing of use at all...does that make sense? I'm sure you know what I mean!
There is a multi-million £/$ industry out there with kits offered for sale. Some are just plain ridiculous with items that would not last two minutes in light use, let alone a survival situation, and put together by companies and individuals that have never set foot out of their own back gardens! Others are better, with items that have at least been tested to destruction by the companies putting the kit together, and with at least a statement to say that the kits are designed to be a platform for additional items and personalisation. It is also my opinion that the PSK should be carried on your person at all times when going out to remote places. It should supplement what I have on my person in terms of my EDC items, as my EDC items form the first, fundamental layer of my PSK, My EDC is examined in another section on my website. I should always be dressed appropriately for the environment that I am in, to give myself the best possible protection from the thing that will kill me the quickest...exposure to the elements!
Perhaps the most familiar style of PSK is the one that many of us will have seen in various survival books, the tobacco tin. These are a great start to learning to build a PSK, but I have heard it said on many occassions that they were initially designed for the military, people with an already high level of training and conditioning. I have also heard the opinion that these kits are tailored more for escape and evasion situations. Whatever your view on them, mine is that they can be in whatever container you want to put them in, as long as the container is waterproof. They can be scaled up or down depending on what you want them for, they can be modular so that one kit can fit inside another larger kit that carries with it, its own additional capabilities. Go with the best items in the kit that you can afford, afterall, what price do you put on your life? Lets take a look at my own kit
How the PSK is carried:
I have tried all manner of different containers for my kits over the years. Tobacco tins, 'clip-lock' boxes, different sized mint tins, cigar tubes, roll top dry bags, loads of different combinations. This is the version I have been carrying for the last 2 years. Some people will say that its a mistake to carry it in a camo pouch, I have never had a problem with it, it stays in my pocket, its small enough to carry so that I wont be tempted to leave it at home or in the car. it has both horizontal and vertical belt carry options. Inside the outer pouch are two Altoids Tins (if you have not guessed already I am a big fan of these!) amongst a few other items that are threaded in on top for easy access.
The picture above shows all the items that I fit into this kit together. There is very very little room for anything else to fit in here, and one thing that I completely recognise is the shortfall on shelter options, which is why I have also made up an additional modular kit purely for shelter requirements. Naturally my shelter kit is a bigger unit so with a daily, trip by trip emphasis on being prepared for the environmental challenges with the right clothing, the shelter kit doesnt always come along, but its there if I want it or if I have any uncertainty over the weather forecasts. Shelter kit is shown below with all items laid out.
First Aid:
One of the major components that I wanted covered in my PSK was around First Aid. You are limited in terms of space when you consider some First Aid items like compression pads and dressings etc, but I did want to include things like plasters/bandaids, medication>>> to be able to at least deal with some of the more niggly incidents that came come up, that could potentially be a distraction. For example, blisters, while very rarely life threatening in themselves, can be a distraction that causes someone to alter the weight distribution through their legs onto their feet, this unnatural action has the potential to cause someone to lose their balance, slip on wet rocks, lose footing over tree stumps or sprain an ankle. remember what I have said before about survival situations developing through lots of small incidents coming together in a chain of eventualities that have not been prepared for? well, maybe a broken ankle wont develop into a life threatening situation, but for the weight of a few plasters, is it worth taking the chance? its not for me, you can make up your own mind. Of course in my EDC I have a bandana, and in my PSK I have duct tape, any fairly deep lacerations can be compressed and dealt with...
98.6 Degrees:
One of the fastest ways to die outdoors, short of a rock falling on your head, is exposure to the elements. In England, the main thing I will need to be concerned about, is getting wet, wind chill and Hypothermia. So my kit is based around the essential element of regulating my body's core temperature. Yes hydration is important, no doubt about it, but I could die within hours of getting wet and cold, so I want to generally avoid that happening first