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Fieldcraft AAR - Photos/Videos SoCal Emergency BackPack Meet

pascal

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
AAR Emergency/BOB meeting in Los Angeles - Feb 22, 2009
Location: Pasadena, California.

This morning we had our "Emergency/BOB Back Pack Meeting" in Pasadena, CA.

Several hide members attended.

Some of the participants included (Taken from their BIO on www.dirttime.com )

Christopher Nyerges is internationally known and recognized as a premiere survival skills instructor and has been teaching “the skills” since 1974 and has taught over thirty thousand students. He is the editor and a writer for "Wilderness Way" magazine and is enjoying the release of his 9th book, "How To Survive Anywhere". Christopher has had over 2500 articles, all related to the survival skills, published in his career. See: www.christophernyerges.com


Alan Halcon is a field editor, writer and photographer for "Wilderness Way" magazine. He is the author of the informative booklet, "The Hand Drill," a member of the City of Los Angeles's CERT Team, FEMA certified in incident command, a Survival Instructor, and a certified instructor/provider for The American Red Cross in Wilderness First-Aid, CPR and Basic First-Aid. Alan is also the record holder at getting a coal with the handdrill... 2 Seconds.


Dude McLean is a former United States Marine and his depth of knowledge of modern and primitive survival skills spans over 50 years. He is a field editor, writer and photographer for "Wilderness Way" magazine, A Los Angeles City CERT Member, and Survival Instructor


My own web site is: www.urbanoutdoorskills.com and I currently offer some classes related to outdoor/wilderness skills adapted to city life.


Around 20 people showed up, some with their emergency back pack and some just came to get ideas for theirs. We also had a few curious people interested by what we did who stopped and asked questions. Overall I think we had a great time!

The goal was simply to meet, share ideas and actually "SHOW" the content of our packs. I think everyone learned something by doing so. The variety of back pack was actually quite fascinating. We had some of the top survival experts in the Los Angeles, some had a more "primitive" approach to their emergency back pack and some had, what I call, a more "Urban" approach with usual gears bought at stores such as "Sport Chalet", etc... Nothing wrong with it (My bag is more Urban/Yuppy-like), just different approaches.

What I found truly interesting is the simplicity of the bags that some of the wilderness/outdoor/survival instructors had. It made me realize how the bulk of their "emergency backpack" was in their own knowledge. I was extremely interested by Christopher Nyerges and Dude McClean's bag. Both have the know-how and ability to survive anywhere and their bags are actually quite simple. Good lesson in itself. Your mind and knowledge is your greatest survival gear.

I learned quite a few things myself. What to add and what to subtract to my bag. I want to think more simple and think "efficiency".

It was also interesting to see what was important for people. Only 3 people, including myself, had a lot of various items related to hygiene (razor, soap, toothpaste, etc...) and I would not change that, for me "feeling clean" is an important factor in survival, even mentally (Feeling fresh/clean is a great feeling). Maybe I can make it a bit smaller.

Another thing I noticed is the fact that Dude, Alan and Christopher did not include food in their emergency back pack. Factually all 3 could easily feed themselves even in a urban environment. I'm actually at a point where I could probably do it as well so I will cut back on the food part but maybe keep some protein stuff.

Things I will add to my bag are: handsaw, compass (as pointed out, it can be useful in a wild fire situation where there is so much smoke that you loose your sense of direction), maybe a slingshot although I usually have a handgun in my bag (Glock 17) and ammo. None of the participant had firearms due to the fact that it was not really allowed in a public park so I don't know how many of the participants would have had firearms in an actual emergency back pack.

Other things I noticed:

I think I was the only one who had a radio (for news). Is it truly needed...I dunno. I'll still keep it, maybe just for entertainment
smile.gif


I had a sleeping bag, most participants were using blankets, one just had a "space blanket".

If you do search on BOB/Emergency back pack on the Internet, you often see posting with huge lists and a lot of postings of "what you need" in such a back pack. A lot of the participants at this meeting are highly trained in survival skills. Their back packs were much more simple than what you see often listed in forums. Food for thoughts. I don't think gears can replace know-how.

I could probably write much more but if I had to summarize what I learned from that meeting is: Think Simple, Think Efficient. Your mind/knowledge is your greatest resource/asset - Never stop learning and training.

Here are some photos of the meeting:

Some of the people attending and bags

BOB_Crowd.jpg


Christopher Nyerges and his bag pack

Bob_Christopher.jpg


Dude McClean and his bag pack:

Bob_DudePackwithDude.jpg
 
Re: AAR - Photos/Videos SoCal Emergency BackPack Meet

Dude explaining me the content of his backpack

BOB_FrogandDude.jpg


More of the people attending the meeting:

Participants.jpg


Dude and Alan sharing some funny survival stories with the participants:

BOB_DudeSmiling.jpg



Another pack content:

BOB_Participant.jpg
 
Re: AAR - Photos/Videos SoCal Emergency BackPack Meet

Some interesting videos:

Dude McClean explaining the content of his emergency back pack:

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Christopher Nyerges explaining the content of his emergency back pack:


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An impressive Ladies purse:

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Re: AAR - Photos/Videos SoCal Emergency BackPack Meet

Alan Halcon about plyers:

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Alen Halcon, interesting viewpoing about his emergency back pack.

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A cool coffee can stove bought for around $3.00 at Target

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Re: AAR - Photos/Videos SoCal Emergency BackPack Meet

Very informative, thanks for taking the time to post it all.

The thing that sticks out to me is the amount of cutlery the experts pack. For example, I count 3 fixed blade knives, 3 folders, a saw, a hatchet, and 2 multitools in sheaths in Dude's stuff. Seems like more weight that necessary. What was their reasoning? Simple redundancy or something else?
 
Re: AAR - Photos/Videos SoCal Emergency BackPack Meet

Although the minimalist survival gear would be great for walking long distances you will be doing nothing else but merely 'surviving'. If any of those guys got caught in a sudden snowstorm they would be seriously sucking. They might survive it in the end but they would be more worse for the wear than someone who took the time to add a couple ammenities to their kit. Adding a few things like your radio, sleeping bag, water filter etc. will allow you to spend more time 'living' and carrying out your mission whether it be search and recue or otherwise, rather than spending all day building yourself snares, a lean-to, and tanning deer hide for a warm coat. I'm all for simple and efficient, but that doesn't mean scrimping on valuable items just for simplicity sake. Make sure your gear is good quality, keep simplicity in sight (i.e. you probably don't need two GPS systems, a nalgene bottle french press, and a five piece titanium cookset), but think realistically at what is really helpful. The value of a good quality gore-tex jacket, lightweight sleeping bag, and other "luxury" survival items will easily outshine their extra weight. FWIW

Edited to add: So I see Dude has at least 8 cutting instruments, and Christopher has at least 5 or 6. I did not see one single map, compass, whistle, signal mirror, trauma first aid kit. In an emergency situation you will most likely need to navigate somewhere, and unless you are walking streets or roads, a compass is essential. Secondly in an emergency situation, you will probably need to communicate with other people either because you ar lost in the woods, or you are trying to contact other survivors etc. a simple whistle will beat yelling at the top of your lungs any day of the week and a signal mirror can be great for contacting aircraft, people out of hearing range, and for doing personal hygiene etc. And thirdly most first aid kits contain a a few band-aids, neosporin, and some tylenol; a little cut will probably not kill you. In an emergency situation you might need a few simple items that will save your life, like a tourniquet, field dressings, curlex, etc. Going back to simplicity and weight these few items weigh hardly anything, and as mentioned before their worth is much higher than their weight. You can offset the weight by leaving your kitchen cutlery block at home.
 
Re: AAR - Photos/Videos SoCal Emergency BackPack Meet

I asked Dude and Christopher and this was simply the bag they had with them, which they use for outing and wilderness survival.

Dude acknowledged that usually he has around 3-4 knifes with him. Trading is an option, BTW.

Snowstorm...This is SoCal. Not that many snowstorms around. If it was the case, the BOBs and bags would be different.

Compass... those guys teach orientation using star positions, telling time by sun position, orientation through nature observation in the wilderness (certain trees point to specific directions. I.E the top of willows usually points toward the south - tips of pines "Usually" toward the East, etc... there are signs in nature giving indications and if you know it you can take some conclusions. I think it just happened that they didn't have one that day.

Water filtration. Christopher teaches water filtration, from primitive to modern (and I know Dude knows all this stuff as well). I've done many classes on that subject with him and I would have no problem without a commercial water filtration system. In our AO, water coming from the mountain is pretty clean thus boiling would do the trick. But you can also create all kinds of primitive filters using sand, charcoal from fire, etc... that would be pretty good and then boil on top of it.

Personal hygiene...you can clean yourself, shampoo, etc... using plants such as Yucca and Soaproot if you know the plants. Yucca is all over the place in our AO.

They also can probably make their own whistle with a knife but the simplest way is to use an Acorn shell just as an example. Takes no work, pick up the shell and whistle away!
smile.gif


Dude did have a mirror if I recall. May not be visible on the photo but you can also make a mirror from a polished beer/coke can... or a large blade.

The bark of the willow tree is where aspirin comes from. You can make a tea from it and you basically get your aspirin. Some local plants can also be used to numb the pain.

Honey and Sugar can be used on cuts, some plants too. You can make twine with plants (Yucca, Nettle, etc...) and use that for tourniquet or even part of your clothing...

And the list goes on...

I'm just pointing out that there are natural/existing solutions that exist and if they exist, those guys would probably know it.

Do take note that Christopher explains that this is the bag he had with him and would de-facto be his BOB bag if something happened. But his bag was not not truly planned as a BOB but, knowing him, he would have no problem using the content to the max.

I don't disagree with u by the way, radio, sleeping bags, etc... are useful I have them in my BOB but I find it interesting that you could do well without it too. My viewpoint is to have the gear but have the knowledge and know how to do without it as well.