It’s good to see more coverage of emergency preparedness and survival issues in the mainstream media. The New York Times Escapes section has a well-written article on setting out in the Arizona wilderness with only a knife and a survival kit. The author and two others went on a 24-hour course with an instructor from Ancient Pathways, an outdoor survival school.
The equipment they brought along included the Swedish Mora Knife, paracord, a firestarter and a signal mirror. The instructor shared some good techniques including building a shelter and building a fire. The only thing from the article that I would criticize is when the instructor told the participants to dig out wild onions with their knives. This could damage the knife — the better thing to do would have been to use the knives to make digging sticks, and to use the sticks to get the onions out instead.
Swedish Mora Knife
Emergency Signal Mirror
