Forest survival for all

Outdoors, no one is immune to bad luck. All it takes is an injury, an unexpected storm, a misdirection or a car that won’t start for you to have to spend the night in the woods. Jean-Marc Lord and André Pelletier have just concocted a new edition of the Complete guide to life and survival in the forest.

“We are a bit different from the usual survival books where people expect to read something that comes from army commandos: how to kill a bear with a stake, how to protect yourself from sharks, explains Jean-Marc Lord in interview. We are rather in the context of someone who is outdoors and to whom a mishap happens that means that he has to spend the night in the forest. »

So there will be no sharks or polar bears.

“In Quebec, the only danger is the cold,” says Mr. Lord.

The first edition of the guide dates back to 2010. “We thought it might be good to update certain things,” says Mr. Lord. We threw ourselves into it then, finally, we got into the game. I don’t think there’s a sentence that we haven’t reworked. »

The two authors notably had a lot of exchanges with the Outdoor Expertise and Research Laboratory (LERPA) of the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi, created by André-François Bourbeau, an expert in forest survival. “They do just that, think about survival in the forest,” notes Mr. Lord.

New solutions

In particular, they have completely revised the way of building an emergency shelter. “Does what you find in survival books, what the army teaches its cadets, its soldiers and its pilots, effectively protect against bad weather? Does it keep the heat? »

The answer is no, and LERPA has proposed another model of shelter. “We did some tests on our side, thermometer in support, and this new shelter is quite effective, it holds the heat well, whereas what André and I did when we were in the cadets was totally ineffective. »

Another element that has evolved over time is how to make a fire in a survival situation.

It can be fun while camping to practice fire-lighting techniques without matches. “But the least we do outdoors and we’re serious, we’re going to drag three lighters that we place in three different places,” suggests the latter.

Acquire good reflexes

The authors also relativize the importance of a good, big, well-completed survival kit. Because if it’s too big, people will just leave it at home or in the car. “It takes basic equipment and for us, that includes what we call the three essentials: a whistle, a lighter and a knife,” notes Mr. Lord.

The old survival guides also put a lot of emphasis on finding food in the context of survival. “However, unless you fall in a plane in the Far North, a survival experience today is 24 to 48 hours,” says Mr. Lord. You can easily go two to three days without eating. We will be hungry, it will not be pleasant, but our life will not be in danger. It’s not worth practicing eating bats, earthworms or hare droppings! »

The guide places more emphasis on preparation, reflection (do we stop right away to build a shelter or do we continue to find our way?), orientation and various techniques that the authors have tested and approved.

“We want people to simply develop good prevention reflexes and to have the minimum amount of equipment with them to ensure that an experience that could possibly be dramatic turns out to be something a little unpleasant in the end. which did not endanger their lives,” says Lord.

The complete guide to life and survival in the forest

Jean-Marc Lord and André Pelletier

Broquet Editions

496 pages