So you’ve embarked across the unknown to reach Alaska!—the land of mystery and intrigue. Your mind is racing full of Jack London adventure novels and various wildlife scenes from the dozens of National Geographic episodes you consumed months leading up to the trip. You find yourself looking out the window of a small, yet reliable Cessna 127 as it soars delicately through the wild blue sky. Below a thin layer of misty cloud, you’re able to see a bit of lush Alaskan tundra—truly a modern day Eden. If all goes well you’ll catch a glimpse of a pack of majestic grey wolves in search of their next prey; or perhaps a herd of the noble Bull Moose standing confidently in a field of indigo wild flowers.
Everyone on the plane is ecstatic, conjuring a bit of that excited nervousness one feels just before touching down in a new and strange land. Little do these passengers know that in ten minutes time this very plane will be nothing more than scraps of bloody metal littering the landscape. The beauty and destruction posing as complete paradox. The Bull Moose with their grand antlers will look on indifferently…
You are the only survivor.
You find yourself a little bruised, having received only a few cuts, but to your surprise, relatively unharmed. After the shock, you experience sheer panic, then an unusual sort of level headedness. One question permeates your thoughts: “What now?”
There’s nothing left. Everything is charred and burned beyond recognition, all except the cellphone in your pocket. The screen is cracked and it won’t turn on. It’s broken, yet not useless. It simply needs to be pried open…
Here’s how you can turn your cellphone into a survival tool.
Note: In this demonstration an Android phone is used, however, I've also done the exact same experiment with the T-Mobile Blackberry 10 phone. The parts may vary from phone to phone, but the core concepts remain the same.
Useful Parts
-Speaker
-LCD Screen
-Metal Divider
-Wire
-Circuit Board
-Battery
Everyone on the plane is ecstatic, conjuring a bit of that excited nervousness one feels just before touching down in a new and strange land. Little do these passengers know that in ten minutes time this very plane will be nothing more than scraps of bloody metal littering the landscape. The beauty and destruction posing as complete paradox. The Bull Moose with their grand antlers will look on indifferently…
You are the only survivor.
You find yourself a little bruised, having received only a few cuts, but to your surprise, relatively unharmed. After the shock, you experience sheer panic, then an unusual sort of level headedness. One question permeates your thoughts: “What now?”
There’s nothing left. Everything is charred and burned beyond recognition, all except the cellphone in your pocket. The screen is cracked and it won’t turn on. It’s broken, yet not useless. It simply needs to be pried open…
Here’s how you can turn your cellphone into a survival tool.
Note: In this demonstration an Android phone is used, however, I've also done the exact same experiment with the T-Mobile Blackberry 10 phone. The parts may vary from phone to phone, but the core concepts remain the same.
Useful Parts
-Speaker
-LCD Screen
-Metal Divider
-Wire
-Circuit Board
-Battery
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Signing UpStep 1: Fire Starting
Items Needed:
-Battery
-Wires (See arrows)
-Kindling from environment
Process
This process is quick so have all components close at hand. First, touch the wire to the positive and negative nodes on the battery. Almost instantly, the wire will become hot. This is when you’ll add the kindling. By touching these materials together the kindling should ignite. However, you should be warned, the wire is likely to disintegrate in only a matter of seconds so you will only have one shot per wire (a Brillo pad works really well too, so keep one in your backpack). Watch this video for addition instruction.
-Battery
-Wires (See arrows)
-Kindling from environment
Process
This process is quick so have all components close at hand. First, touch the wire to the positive and negative nodes on the battery. Almost instantly, the wire will become hot. This is when you’ll add the kindling. By touching these materials together the kindling should ignite. However, you should be warned, the wire is likely to disintegrate in only a matter of seconds so you will only have one shot per wire (a Brillo pad works really well too, so keep one in your backpack). Watch this video for addition instruction.
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In any case, if you're still worried about wolves, then here's the solution. If the phone has a smashed screen, but is still somewhat operable, then do NOT disassemble it.
Wolves have sensitive hearing, and will run away howling when exposed to painfully awful noises. Do your best to navigate to your music selection and have one of the following ready to play:
- Justin Bieber, Michael Bolton, Miley Cyrus, Celine Dion, Ashlee Simpson, Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne... or any similarly awful 'music'. I can think of at least a hundred 'artists' that would be suitable.
Actually, my filmmaking is documentary stuff, not reality shows ... but there are a few reality shows that I think ARE worth watching. Ever seen "The Colony" ... about surviving after a viral outbreak. It's pretty interesting. Not sure how much of it is impromptu and how much is acting ... but the skills the show teaches are worthwhile. It's on The Discovery Channel I believe, if it's still being produced.
Anyway, thank for the info, I'll look for it.
Biggest mistake is once you've lit your fire you don't have anything to put on it. Make sure you've got 10x the wood you think you'll need to get it going and do your best to make sure as much of it as possible is dry. Stuff hanging in the trees is much drier than that on the ground.
Cold wet wood takes much longer to dry before catching light, it's wasted energy. Keep wood as dry as possible.
Practice firelighting before you get in a survival situation. Experience is light and easily carried.
Remember, stay by your plane, don't try and walk out of the disaster zone :)
Don't eat snow, melt it first. Never eat the yellow snow...
A small screwdriver from a glass repair kit would be ideal, however.
However, the other tips are nice ideas.
Great ideas, though. Amazing the things you can do with the simplest of objects in a survival situation.
And as well as some of that would do you would be best off trying as hard as you could to get it to turn on to be used as a locator beacon sure macguver would have repaired the phone enough to make a phone call the GPS tracking in there phone would be better than nothing.
in the backcountry a precision tool is called a rock. I thought this was great