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Most Important Survival Item?

wiggys-bivi-shelter

Q. In a survival situation, when you are all alone in the Northern Tundra with only a T-shirt and pants, what one thing would you want?
— Curious Koen, via email

A. I’d want a helicopter, so I could fly somewhere warm! Just kidding, Koen. This is a really tough question. The most important thing when you’re in a survival situation is finding shelter and staying warm. So for my one item, I’d pick a nice waterproof bivi sack like Wiggy’s Single Person Bivi Shelter ($290, wiggys.com).

Basically, a bivi (or bivy) is a lightweight, super-streamlined tent that goes over your sleeping bag to protect you from the weather. If my only piece of gear is the bivi (and I have no sleeping bag), I’m definitely not going to be cozy sleeping, but the protection from the weather is the key. I would probably try to use whatever sort of organic material I could find (moss, leaves, etc.) to help insulate me inside the bivi.


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5 Comments on Most Important Survival Item?

  1. a tent

  2. Knowledge. If you don’t agree, you have little.

  3. Knife Xpert 157(aka Chad 101) // December 12, 2014 at 2:48 pm // Reply

    Good, solid fixed blade will get you out of anything

  4. You will die from exposure before you die of hunger.

  5. I think the most importent survival item is a mulltitool
    id choose a gerber multitool because of all the toolls it has and its duribiity
    my reason being is if you have a knife/saw you can make your own shelter. You also need a way to catch food or cut food. So even though shelter is importent i believe a multitoo is the best survival tool

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