Natural Shelters

[Dave L.]

Very cool man. This could turn into an interesting thread.
Thanks for posting it.

One question; if you had to spend another night in that shelter, would you change it (and how)?

[Dura Mater]

Far too much emphasis is placed on gear for survival. One of the most basic fundamental survival skills is the ability to provide shelter from the elements. I have made and slept in two different natural shelters and plan on trying another one later this year once the heat subsides a bit, I do much better in the cold.

Here is an example of one of the shelters I made (with help from friends) and slept in because no one else wanted to. Temperature was in the single digits and I had a military sleeping system available. We made a nice long fire in front of the shelter with a reflector wall and it was so hot I needed to sleep on top of the bag. There was a cattail insulation bed as well. Unfortunately I am having trouble locating the pics from that night but these are follow ups from about 6 weeks later and it held up really well (although it has been a bit weathered and I stole some of the reflector wall for other fires).

No tools were used to make this shelter and no cordage either, just what we found on the ground. Cattails, branches, bark shingles, etc...

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209/koabushcraft/IMG_1996-1.jpg

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209/koabushcraft/IMG_1995-1.jpg

I'm not saying this is the most efficient or the best shelter for the cold but it certainly did the job. When I locate the pictures of my other shelter I will post that also, it's an A frame design debris shelter with a dried grass insulation bed. Anyone else have some pictures of shelters they made and slept in?

[Dura Mater]

Very cool man. This could turn into an interesting thread.
Thanks for posting it.

One question; if you had to spend another night in that shelter, would you change it (and how)?

It worked just fine so technically I wouldn't have to change it but it can definitely be improved. One thing I would do is to close in a second wall on the other fallen tree to cut down on the wind. In all honesty this is a very large shelter better suited for multiple parties and would be somewhat inefficient for one person I think. This same shelter was closed in on 3 sides ten months later and three people slept around a large central fire (an excellent use for this setup). At the very least I would have added small side panels at the head and foot area to cut the wind.

Also as you can see from the pictures I have large pieces of split oak which obviously required tools and allowed me to get longer periods of sleep. If tools were not available I would have had to burn the ends of larger logs or even used smaller more manageable wood that would have required more attention to the fire. One could easily manage sub-zero temps without a sleeping bag with a decent fire but you're going to be waking up every hour or two stoking the fire. And I'm also not going to promise you will be comfortable but you WILL be alive when the sun comes up the next morning. Getting a huge coal bed is really important so start the fire well before you need to go to sleep.