Tag: Allegheny National Forest

In this episode of Epic Survival Secrets, David McCullough and his Father Maximus go along with Expert Survivalist Rory Summers, Jeffrey Snyder and his son Isaac to tackle a cold winter night in the Allegheny National Forest.

The key to epic survival in the winter is to stay warm, dry and well hydrated. Watch and learn as these epic survival experts show you how to have a great time in the middle of winter. The crew looks for an ideal camping spot that has flat ground and resources. The crew picks a spot with plenty of fallen down hickory trees that are dried and ready for fire. There are some pine trees about 25 yards away.

Pine trees have many attributes that a survivalist can take advantage of, pine bows can help you build a shelter and squaw wood that lays at the base of pine trees are great fire starters. The sap from pine trees are medicinal and antibiotic. If you get a cut in the woods use pine sap to keep the wound clean.

As soon as the team finds a place, David begins to build a fire. He uses a fire steel for this process. Fire steels are used by survivalists because they are waterproof and last longer than lighters or matches. As you can see David is using dry grass to get the flame started. This fire will keep the team warm and cook their food when the time is ready.

Rory, David & Max opted to bring tents while Jeff and Isaac opted for Hammocks with a reflective wall barrier. They will be using pine bows tonight to help build this barrier. They will be using tarps & plastic for their wall as well. Their goal is to stay warm with a fire that they will build inside their structure, let’s watch as Jeff and Isaac prepare their spot for the night.

David and Maximus are camping more traditionally. You can have an awesome time in the middle of winter camping if you bring the right stuff. Let’s listen as David explains what they brought to make their camping survival trip EPIC!

Rory opted for more a military style camping. Hes sporting many wool products which is a great choice for winter survival. Wool is better than cotton because it will let your skin breath even if it gets wet, wool also dries faster than cotton and other materials.

As evening falls upon the men, their spirits pick up as they drink some refreshments. They prepare a grill to cook meat on. Rory surprises the group with Delmonico steaks and Pork chops.

The steaks were delicious and the guys had a great time. In hindsight there are a few things that we may have done differently, but that is how it is when camping and hiking. You are always testing out new gear and trying something different; You learn how you can adapt to different environments and try to perfect your gear each trip out. For our crew here the winter camping was a success even though we ended up with one flat air mattress and could not keep the fire going to the guys in the hammocks.

Everyone woke up the next morning and had breakfast then headed out of the woods.