The Importance of Shelter

All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space. -Philip Johnson

Unless you're an expert breath holder, most people have no problem accepting the 1st Survival Rule of Three - find air within 3 minutes. However I've seen lots of misunderstanding over the second Rule of Three - find shelter within 3 hours. One commenter on a different blog pointed out that he frequently spends more than 3 hours at the beach with no difficulty.

However, the beach goer did have shelter - if the sun became too hot he could retire to his car or his house. When far from civilization, you should establish a shelter within the first few hours to keep dry or become dry, to stay out of the wind, and to find warmth or shade BEFORE weather conditions turn fatal. For hikers, shelter may be a tent they carry on their backs. It could be your car, a cave, a cabin, etc. Here are some links on creating your own emergency shelter:

http://www.abc-of-hiking.com/hiking-tents/outdoor-shelters.asp
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Outdoor_Survival/Shelter
http://www.essortment.com/all/howdoyoumake_rkdt.htm
http://outdoorsurvival.org/quick-emergency-shelter

Bottom Line

Provide a shelter BEFORE you need it. While a shelter may be a place to keep "your stuff" (George Carlin) its real value is to maintain your body temperature under adverse conditions - too much heat leads to heat stroke, too little heat causes hypothermia.

Tomorrow's topic will cover hypothermia.