Survival

Look around, not just at your map.

Don't scrimp on survival equpiment.

Ventilate your tent to avoid this danger.

Stay alert in canyon country.

What not to wear in a lightning storm.

Dangerously thirsty in the desert?

Do a T-rescue for a flipped sea kayak.

Hard-won-lessons and tips about medical emergencies from the front lines of survival.

Hard-won-lessons and tips about whitewater kayaking from the front lines of survival.

Play it safe against altitude sickness.

Use what you have at any given moment to alleviate a medical emergency in the backcountry.

Once you've stabilized a backcountry injury or illness, the next step is to prevent the patient from worsening. Here's some key steps to take.

Use these three assessment tools to examine every patient thoroughly after you've stopped any immediate threats to life. Trauma victims are more common in the backcountry; start your inspection with a head-to-toe exam. For ill patients, begin by asking about medical history and taking vitals.

When an emergency strikes, your mind can go blank. These easy clues and rhymes will help you remember what do to first.

Get ready for your summer adventure with these these essential on-trail skills.

With 1 million bears roaming North America, chances are pretty good that you'll cross paths with one of them at some point. To make every encounter safe, from grizzly bears to black bears, bone up on bruin identification and etiquette.

Every backpacker dreams of a glory job in the outdoors. Here's what it takes to make the grade for 8 of the toughest ones out there.

Every backpacker dreams of a glory job in the outdoors. Senior Editor Shannon Davis heads to Mt. Rainier--and a grueling tryout with premier guide operation RMI--to find out what it takes to make the grade.

Submit your video! Win a trip to Rainier and the title of America's Toughest Backpacker.

Keep the Wenger EvoWood S557 multitool handy to cut, clamp, screw or slice.

Learn to tie a basic, but essential knot, staunch a bleeder, and purify water.

It's the final push. Complete the final week's challenge and get ready for next week's call to submit your video.

Use these first aid techniques to control and treat a bleeding wound.

Learn to tie a figure-8 loop–one of the most common and useful knots.

George Dunn, co-owner of International Mountain Guides, recalls personal adventures and gives tips about climbing Mount Rainier.

Join the effort to make mobile phones safer for the trail.

Our resident bruin expert answers all your questions in our weekly feature, 'Ask A Bear.'

Build on week one's regimen by mastering even more survival and navigation skills and improving your overall fitness level.

Rev up for the first week of our plan to make you the ultimate tough guy, or gal.

You've done it now. Gone on a simple walk and gotten lost, or broken your ankle. It's cold. You didn't bring gear. Don't just curl up and wait. Get a fire going.

Lost and alone without your gear? Don't just sit there. Get a fire going.

Learn to make a handy survival bracelet with this step-by-step slideshow.

A lightweight, waterproof survival kit you can customize for your needs

Spot's new gadget adds satellite reception to smartphones anywhere.

Climb higher, live longer, and eat better, o.k. be better, with these skills.

Travel confidently across any type of landscape.

A bargain of a satellite phone.

A simple magnesium rod that's an easy fire starter.

Thinks it's difficult to build a fire on snow? Think again with these tried and true tips.

Find avalanche victims as quickly with this beacon.

Pack this unflappable tinder and tiny solid fuel stove in your emergency kit.

Rope caught up in a bad way. Here's what to do.

You're hiking. You slip. You're hurt. But the first-aid kit is back in the car--12 miles away. What should you do?

When the ground is drenched, look in your pack for dry, flammable fuel.

The click, click, crap of a dead battery is about as welcome as the rattle of a diamondback in the latrine. Here's what to do.

Now you've done it, fumblefingers: bobbled your belay/rappel device or dropped your harness, with one 5.8 pitch left before the summit and three pitches below you back to the ridge. What to do?

Drowning is the #2 cause of outdoor deaths (falls are #1), so avoid wading waist-deep or too-fast rivers (a tossed, fist-size rock shouldn't move downstream before sinking), but if no choice exists:

"Hello, this is 911. Please state your emergency." If you're calling for backcountry help on your cell phone, what you say--or sob incoherently--next could determine when you get rescued.

Ounce for ounce, few items can improve your survival chances more than a humble trash bag.

Lost your hiking partner? Here's what to do to make sure you both come home in one piece.

Doing more (fresh-baked pizza and rumaki hors d'oeuvres) with less (a canister stove and a frying pan) is the essence of backcountry cooking. But when you're stuck without pots, pans, or utensils for more than a week, knowing how to cook and boil water with these four stand-in containers can be a vital, calorie-providing skill.

Fording the river didn't seem risky until the moment your butt hit the water. Now you're soaked up to your pits as the evening mercury drops below 45-degrees F. Your goal: Prevent hypothermia.

Word up to Eric Schlosser and all you other health-food ninnies out there: A bag of greasy chips could save your triglyceride-loathing, carb-counting, GMO-bashing arses.

Few forms of hiking are more frustrating, exhausting, and potentially dead-ending than postholing (aka, flailing through thigh-deep snow). If a storm struck overnight or you forgot to pack snowshoes--but still have miles to go--save energy and stay drier by constructing your own Ojibwas.

Without any traction, you're not going anywhere. Here's how to cross an icefield with the stuff in your pack.

Put that hooch to good use with these tips for starting a fire, treating water, and even signaling for help.

Long before satellite beacons, humans thrived in the wild with the best technology available: a knife. And with that one tool and some basic knowledge, they fulfilled all life-sustaining needs.

What to do when the you-know-what hits the fan.

A soda can-sized emergency shelter!

Check out Katie Herrel's author page.

From the power cinch to the clove hitch, here are 6 knots every hiker should know.

Get found with this super loud whistle.

Light a fire fast, even in wet, cold, and windy conditions, with this waterproof lighter.

Everything you need in an emergency in one tiny little pack.

A tough knife and a fire starter all in one.

Keep bears away from your grub with this light and tough bear canister.

Does it work? Depends on which snake you ask.

Hate snakes? This product promises to send them running.

We tested bear canisters in three categories: best bargain, weekend size, and big trip size.

We air-dropped a blindfolded Jim Thornton into the middle of a 2-million-acre wilderness to find out.

This durable French knife has an odoriferous handle.

This light survival kit has all the essentials.

This multitool is tougher than any task it might face.

Our resident bruin expert answers all your questions in our weekly feature, 'Ask A Bear.'

Update your survival kit for 2010.

Real reader bear questions answered by Buck Tilton.

Bears, beers, and booze——our resident bruin expert tells all in our 'Ask A Bear' column.

This tiny multitool packs a big punch.

Check out BACKPACKER readers's author page.

Most common backcountry injuries.