Build a Simple Shelter

Alright, your stuck in the woods with no shelter, no compass, no cell phone, all you have is the clothes on your back, a c.amp saw, and your knife. It's almost 5:00 in the afternoon, nobody is going to find you before morning, and it's getting dark fast It's the middle of February and it gets pretty dang cold where you are. This instructable will tell you how to build an easy-to-build shelter out of pine trees. It is fairly simple, as shown below.

Step 1 Find the Trees

The best trees are medium sized, so that you can carry them by yourself, and has as many branches as possible. You need atleast 3, but I personally would go for 5. They all need to be pine, except for one, which can be another, harder tree.(This will go in the middle of the other 2 or 4 trees) You need one tree to set all of your other trees on. I recommend a forked tree, but as you can see, I didn't use one.

Comments

[FubarFrank]

Honestly, this instructable has gotten a little bit of a bad rap but what some may not realize is, what may not work for you in a survival situation may work for someone else. The shelter is not perfect, seems to have taken a lot of time to construct, is not so weather proof and at 5:00pm in February would take longer than the sun would be giving light, but...... Just one person that may have read this, remembered and actually used it to there advantage is one person that survived because they saw something somewhere once by someone about how to make a lean-to shelter. All it takes is one life to make ANY bit of survival advice, no matter how it was learned, important and respected.

[punkhead58]

Now, the next step would be to cover it with those dead leaves. The point of a debris shelter is to have multiple layers of material to ensure both water run-off and thermal insulation.

[kterr]

Well, before you make anything else, you should actually finish the shelter. If you can see sunlight through the cieling of your shelter, and it rains (or snows, since it's February in this scenario), you're screwed. royally.

[KittyF]

actually, if you know much about snow, you know how it usually goes. it will fill in the small holes, and then make the bigger ones small enough to fill them too, and pretty soon you have to worry about ventilation. LOL

[sammel]

with that little support, snow that would cover those holes would make the ceiling collapse.. just sayin'

[KittyF]

I don't know, it'd be interesting to try. maybe wet show would collapse it... maybe powder show wouldn't.

[killer wasp]

what if you live in hawaii with NO pine trees

[gmyers2112]

then it's unlikely that you will get stuck in a forest with pine trees.  Great survival tactic for Hawaii, go down hill.  You'll probably find a beach and if you find a beach you find a tourist and then probably a hotel.

Beside, and not to pick to fine a point here, but Hawaii has conifers.  They're of a more ancient type than the kind you're used to but they are there and you can build a shelter with them.

[sharlston]

make something with coconut shells

[a_traceur]

Honestly, this would suck to sleep an hour in, let alone a night. For a suitable, not necessarily warm but it will last you, shelter to be built you need a few things. 1. You want a small shelter, a little larger than yourself on the inside. 2. You want to pile on layers of debris. LAYERS! 2-3 feet of it at Least. 3. Put layers of debris on the ground of the shelter to sleep on. You lose a ton of body heat through the ground. 4.Be smart, dress warm and follow the procedures to staying and you might survive a night.

[batman96]

That roof is not going to keep out rain or cold. Also how do you have instructables so you can build this if you are lost?

[geekazoid]

yea good 'ible.

[A good name]

I shall have to try this sometime...

[Wafflicious]

i made one of these we call it the "bunker" cause we always say were going to play paint ball with it............... but the demensions are 20' by 10' by 5' high

[chicks dig me]

dont think thatll hold up to paintballs

[Wafflicious]

You'd be surprised.

[chicks dig me]

wat ever man.

[Wafflicious]

We used big sticks for cover not the pine things.

[hungry munchies]

if you had to you could just dig a hole inside and build a fire in that. if it's raining or cold a fire outside wouldn't do you any good.

[chicks dig me]

it would set the roof on fire. if u could even call it a roof. i gess u could be carfull but still

[bylerfamily]

""COOL"".

[smn368]

i made something like this about 3 years ago
http://i517.photobucket.com/albums/u332/wrx22b/PHOT0240.jpg
http://i517.photobucket.com/albums/u332/wrx22b/PHOT0241.jpg
http://i517.photobucket.com/albums/u332/wrx22b/PHOT0242.jpg

[lukeyj15]

I always carry a tarp in the car for emergencys I'm working on the matches in the glove box

[so_simple98]

If you have a car you won't be lost in the woods and you wouldn't need a shelter, you could just sleep in it.

[Notbob]

where did you take the pictures? the area looks like one I've seen before.

[so_simple98]

My Backyard, near asheville, North Carolina

[Notbob]

It looks like one of the local scout camps in my area.

[Scrubsfan1234]

what scout camp? I think i recognize it too, but in the woods, they all look the same.

[Eccles2003]

It's a good start but it isn't waterproof. To help with this you need to pile leaves on the top. I see there are plenty lying around. The thicker the layer of leaves the warmer the shelter and the more waterproof. I'm talking really thick at east a foot but preferably more.

[WilderLust]

good idea... i would strip the branches only on one side of the trees thereby leaving the outer side fully branched. this should help hold the additional branches on and keep it from sliding. as you mention, it is better to use more trees to cover all sides but one. also try to gauge the wind direction and ensure your opening is not facing it! i would make it a bit taller so you can have fire inside and i would take more branches to cover the walls denser. also if there are fibrous plants around, you can make some string to tie things together. i have built semi permanent shelters out of living trees. just go to a patch of the forest with young trees, cut trees to desired radius say... 10 ft, shave inner limbs from the trees, tie them together on top, add cut trees and limbs to the outer wall. then your shelter cannot collapse even in windy conditions, and if you stay there... your shelter keeps growing! cheers :-) wl

[Gjdj3]

Awesome instructable! I'm surprised more people haven't seen it.