Snowmobile Safety and tips snowmobiling winter survival guide

When snowmobiling, your chances of finding someone in trouble or having trouble yourself is an ever present danger. Survival often depends on three things; your state of mind, the equipment in your survival pack, and your knowledge of how to use that equipment.

Build your own survival kit to insure that you are carrying quality equipment that will be the most helpful to your specific outdoor activity. Store bought kits can be full of cheap equipment that offer little help.

The following is a list of necessary equipment that you should carry with you on every outing to increase your chances of survival should something unexpected happen:

WATERPROOF MATCHES

CANDLE

2 or 3 SPACE BLANKETS

SURVIVAL PAPER (KLEENEX OR TOILET PAPER)

DRY GLOVES

BASIC FIRST-AID KIT

2 OR 3 BUTANE LIGHTERS ( CLEAR WITH AN
ADJUSTABLE FLAME)

50 FT NYLON PARACHUTE CORD ( FOR BUILDING A
SHELTER)

PLASTIC WHISTLE.

SMALL FLASHLIGHT WITH SPARE BATTERIES

WATER

FOOD

60 X 90 INCH SHEET OF 2 MIL PLASTIC

SHARP KNIFE

SMALL FOLDING WOOD SAW

CANDY BARS AND HARD CANDY

PAIN RELIEVERS

DRY SOCKS

SIGNAL MIRROR

BLAZE ORANGE CLOTH

COMPASS

KNIFE

CELL PHONE

STATE OF MIND:
If you become lost, stuck, or broke down, don't panic. Stay calm and be confident that you can safely spend the night outdoors until help arrives. By morning you may be able to solve your problem on your own. If you left home prepared with the right clothing and equipment your situation could become just a spur-of-the-moment camp out. If you allow panic to set in you can make some bad decisions that will greatly reduce your chances of survival. If you start to feel that panic set in, force yourself and others to sit where you are for at least 30 minutes and think your situation through before making any decisions.

All decisions should be based on several factors such as your current location, distance to your vehicle, weather conditions, time of day, condition and health of your group, availability of wood and shelter, chances of being found, the nature of your difficulty, and snow conditions.

Your mind is your greatest asset. Be creative and resourceful in using the equipment you have and what nature has provided to solve your problems.

Try to stay with your snowmobiles if possible, otherwise go to the nearest sheltered area with a good supply of wood at the edge of a meadow where your chances of being found are good. Don't try to travel too far in deep snow before making camp as you may find yourself too exhausted to make a fire and shelter. Use your snowmobile track to walk on as much as possible to avoid the deep snow.

Don't use all of your energy trying to get unstuck or make repairs. Admit to yourself that you may be in trouble and put your remaining energy into making a shelter and fire.

Do not try to walk to your vehicle in the dark unless it is close. You could soon find yourself in worse trouble. Dig in for the night and work on increasing your chances for rescue the next morning.

Do not continue riding in a white-out or blizzard conditions where visibility is less than 50 yards. You can easily make a wrong turn and find yourself lost or stuck in a steep draw. Find shelter in the nearest group of trees and wait for visibility to improve before you continue.

HELPFUL TIPS:
Never wrap yourself up in a space blanket or plastic "tube tent". This will cause condensation of moisture to soak your clothes. Use the space blankets to sit or lay on, or as a reflective heat shield. Space blankets reflect back approximately 80% of the heat that hits it. Be sure to place the shiny silver side towards you. Reinforce space blankets when necessary using the sheet of plastic.

Avoid getting wet from snow melt or from overheating and perspiring, as this can cause hypothermia to set in.

Take more food and water than you will use in a day so you will have some extra in case you have to spend the night out in the cold.

Always let someone know where you are going to ride and when you expect to return. This will ensure that someone will be looking for you if you don't return on time.

If you carry a cell phone, try it out in various locations so you know where it will work. You usually have to be able to see down into the valley where the cell sights are located in order to get a signal.

Avalanche shovels are a very helpful tool to carry. They work well to dig out a snowmobile when you get stuck, dig a snow cave, snow pit, or to dig someone out of an avalanche. Helmets do not make very good digging tools.

On those cold, windy days, when you stop for repairs or lunch, place your gloves on top of the engine, (not on the muffler) and close the hood. When you are ready to go your gloves will be warm.

There are three sizes of fuel needed to start and maintain a fire, they are as follows:

TINDER:
Anything that will flame from a spark i.e., newspaper, Kleenex, inner shredded bark from a tree, fibers from a bird nest, dried grass, fine wood shavings, etc. All tinder must be DRY. The dead pine needles from a fir tree work well to place on top of the tinder as they catch fire quickly

KINDLING:
Small sticks used to feed the flames from the tinder, from match stick size to the size of your finger. Use kindling until you get a bed of coals before you start adding larger or wet fuel. Soft woods such as aspen will burn fast to get a good bed of coals

FUEL:
Larger sticks which take longer to burn through. Hardwoods such as oak will burn the longest and give more heat than softwoods, however any dry fuel will do. With a good bed of coals, wet fuel can be dried enough to catch fire

How To Make A Fire:
* Collect all three sizes of wood before you light your fire.
   Once you have a good bed of coals you can leave your
   fire for a short time to collect more fuel. Keeping your fire
   small will conserve wood and your energy, and enables
   you to use wood of a manageable size to break up.

* If you have to build a fire on top of the snow, cut some
   green logs and stack them side by side to resemble a
   raft for a fire platform. Build your fire on top of the
   platform to keep it from melting down to the ground.

* Practice building a fire often when you go snowmobiling,
   so you learn what works best in different weather
   conditions. When you are freezing is not a good time to
   learn how to build a fire. You should be able to get a fire
   going quickly even during a storm; your life could
   depend on this skill.

There are four basic types of shelter, they are as follows:

LEAN-TO:
Use your saw, cord, and space blankets to construct a lean-to type shelter with logs and pine branches. Use pine boughs to thatch the roof and make a bed. Do not sit or lay on the snow as you will get wet and lose too much heat through conduction. Put one space blanket on the under side of the roof to reflect heat back to you. Use the other space blanket on or under the pine boughs for a bed. Face the opening of the lean-to away from the wind. Build your fire in front of the lean-to but far enough away so your shelter doesn't catch fire. (Keep the fire small) You can use a space blanket alone for a roof although it may not hold up in a strong wind without reinforcing it with the sheet of plastic.

SNOW CAVE:
It is not advised to build a snow cave if you soak your clothes in the process. The temperature in a snow cave is between 26 and 28 degrees F., and will raise a couple of degrees from body heat in several hours. If you have good waterproof clothes and the weather is extreme, a snow cave is a good shelter. Start digging into a snowdrift, (away from avalanche danger), in a slightly upward direction for 2- 3 ft., then make a sharp right or left hand turn and continue for another 18 in or so. The upward direction and turn will help keep the cold air and wind out. Start making the cave, just large enough to sit or lay in comfortably without touching the sides. Keep the roof domed so that any moisture will run down the sides rather than dripping on you. Make a vent hole out the side of the cave and in a downward direction for fresh air. A candle may be used for light and heat but any more heat than 1 or 2 candles starts melting too much snow. If you start seeing blue-green snow on the roof when you are digging, this means you are 8-12 inches from the surface and should not take any more snow from the roof. If you are hoping to be found by a search party, leave some kind of signal outside the cave that clearly indicates you are there, since the snow insulates all sound from immediately outside the cave.

SNOW TRENCH OR PIT:
Using your avalanche shovel, dig a pit clear to the ground saving the snow from the pit for later use on the roof. Cut some poles and lay them across the pit or trench about 1 ft apart leaving one end open for a door. Cover the poles with a space blanket and then thatch with pine boughs and cover the pine boughs with the snow from the pit. Make a seat or bed in the back of the trench using another space blanket and pine boughs. A small fire can be built in the open end of the pit.

NATURAL SHELTERS:
The fastest type of shelter is to improve upon natural shelters such as fallen trees, a group of close growing pines, or the tree well formed under a large pine tree. Use some of the methods listed above to improve upon these natural shelters using the least amount of energy for the best shelter against current conditions.

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