In autumn it gets dark early and is often wet and cold. None of these are good conditions for surviving in the wilderness. Well, even though we in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (MV) have the fewest people spread across the largest area in all of Germany, our state is not a wild place.
But it can’t hurt and can even be fun to practice in an emergency. After all, one or two mushroom hunters have gotten lost in the forest. When Hubert Rabl practices emergencies privately or with a group that he leads as a survival trainer, he carries a backpack with the most important survival tools.
The contents of the survival backpack target the seven basic needs of survival
Humans must satisfy seven basic needs in order to survive. These are, in order of urgency: shelter, fluids, warmth, rescue, integrity, orientation and food.
You can also practice this with one night. Rabl recently set off from the old brickworks in Brüel to Langer See with his son Tim for one night. “There was a full survival program,” he says, “when we set out it was raining, everything was wet and the next day we had full sun and heat.”
Tim Rabl has built a simple accommodation on Lake Langer using materials from the forest. (Photo: Hubert Rabl)
The most important thing for survival: accommodation
Hubert Rabl pulls on the zipper of his backpack and opens it. “The most important basic need is accommodation,” explains Rabl. “You need that in order to have the strength to meet all your other needs.” At best, shelter protects our bodies from wind and moisture and also keeps equipment and clothing dry. He keeps a few items ready in his survival backpack: tarpaulin, paracord rope and tent pegs.
There are many ways to build accommodation out of it. You can also use any aids in the forest such as branches, trees or sticks. The easiest way is to stretch a rope between two trees and lay the tarpaulin over it or attach it to the eyelets and the ground with pegs. This structure is called A-Frame Shelter. You should also have a hammock (stretched under the tarpaulin) and a sleeping bag with you for the night.
Hubert Rabl shows how to build a simple shelter with a tarpaulin. (Photo: Julia Hartkopf)
Fluid and warmth are essential for survival
For his second basic need, fluids, he has two water bladders with four liters of drinking water in his backpack. He advises: “Use every opportunity on the go to refill your drinking water.” In case of an emergency, there are also water treatment tablets that you can take with you in your backpack. These remove germs and bacteria from water and prepare it for drinking.
The third basic need is warmth. There are many options for making a fire. A lighter and matches should not be missing from any survival backpack. Survival professionals never go out without fire steel, so you can ignite sparks in any weather. He also packed a magnesium rod and a waterproof tinder box.
Chips are rubbed off a magnesium rod and brought together with the tinder. The tinder can then be lit using the integrated fire steel. Magnesium burns very hot, so even moist fuel can be ignited.
Hubert Rabl rubs magnesium shavings from the magnesium rod onto the tinder with a small knife. (Photo: Julia Hartkopf)
Tinder helps quickly for fire and warmth
Tinder refers to a highly combustible material that is used to hold sparks to ignite fires. There is Kienspan in Hubert Rabl’s tinder box. These are thinly split pieces of wood from the resin-rich pine tree. Resin and essential oils burn particularly well.
He also has two tips: Birch bark contains many essential oils and is therefore suitable as a lighting aid. Spruce trees have deadwood branches on the lower trunk that are dry inside and are therefore very suitable as firewood even when wet.
There is no survival without rescue, you need fire for that too
Fire is also important for the fourth basic need: rescue. If the cell phone doesn’t work, a signal fire helps. To do this, fresh wood is placed on the ignited fire to produce smoke.
Your own integrity as the fifth basic need
The fifth basic need is one’s own integrity with the treatment of injuries. In Hubert Rabl’s backpack you will find: bandage packs, liquid plasters, an insect spray, a triangular cloth and disinfection, for example iodine ointment. You can also pack some painkillers in your backpack. An additional tarpaulin for transporting injured people is useful; if necessary, the tent tarpaulin can also be used for this.
Using a tarpaulin and thin tree trunks, you can quickly roll up a stretcher for the injured. (Photo: Julia Hartkopf)
For your mental health, for example in the event of an escape, you should also take small personal items with you, such as a family photo.
The cell phone initially serves the basic need for orientation. If there is no reception, a compass is helpful. Otherwise you can also orient yourself based on the position of the sun and the starry sky if you know which constellation lights up in which direction. To better estimate distances, you should know your own stride length.
Cans of fish and nuts belong in the survival backpack
The last basic need is food. Hubert Rabl survived for three days in the Mecklenburg wilderness with a bag of nuts and three cans of fish. Having this with you is a good idea. Nuts and fish in oil are very nutritious and last a long time. If you still have space, you can also take a small fishing rod with you and catch your fresh fish.
You can easily survive with fish you’ve caught on the fire. (Photo: Hubert Rabl)
On the tour he took with a friend this Lord’s Day, he went from Waren an der Müritz back to Warin. Three days, 30 kilometers every day, setting up camp in the forest every day and a can of tuna and a handful of nuts per person every day. “That was enough. It was very warm, so having enough water was much more important,” explains Rabl.
If you know anything about wild plants, you can fill your stomach with them too. The superfood that everyone knows in our latitudes is the nettle. He has another important tip: “Insects should only be eaten cooked to avoid infection with diseases.”
Tools and a change of things complete the survival backpack
Other useful items in a survival backpack include: a small hand saw, a small axe, multi-tool, small inflatable air mattress, aluminum cookware and a small mini oven. There are many providers who produce this for the survival sector.
Hubert Rabl has now almost cleared out his entire backpack. There are small items in the small bag, such as a compass and the multitool. (Photo: Julia Hartkopf)
A knife also belongs in every survival backpack. Here Hubert Rabl recommends a fixed knife. These are knives in which the blade is firmly anchored in the handle and cannot be folded or folded. This means they don’t break even after long periods of use and you can use them with a lot of force.
And what else is in the backpack besides the cookware? Rabl smiles and points to the bottle of olive oil and a mini spice rack: “You can treat yourself to a little luxury while surviving.”
Now his backpack is almost sixteen kilos. Three things are still missing: fresh wool socks, a change of panties and a thin down jacket.
Overview: What belongs in a survival backpack
Here we have summarized the items again as an overview:
- Basic need for accommodation: Waterproof tent tarpaulin with eyelets, paracord rope, tent pegs, hammock, sleeping bag, air mattress
- Basic need for liquid: Water bladders (2 pieces, 2 liters each), water treatment tablets
- Basic need for heat: Lighter, magnesium rod, tinder box
- Basic need for integrity: Bandage material, liquid plaster, triangular cloth, disinfection (iodine ointment), insect spray, possibly painkillers, family photo
- Basic need for orientation: Compass
- Basic need for food: Nuts, nutritious canned goods (for example canned fish), cooking utensils, possibly a small mini oven
- Tools: Hand saw, axe, fixed knife, multi-tool
- Clothing: Wool socks, a change of panties, a thin down jacket
