Ophidiophobia or more commonly the fear of snakes is one of the most panic-inducing phobias there is. Even the mention of a snake to some can cause a visceral reaction. Whether you love them or hate them, they slither through our daily lives. To ...
Survive
Freedive Safe Hawaii: Saving Kids and Changing Lives
In Hawaii and many other ocean-centered cultures, freediving is a way of life. Learning to become one with the water and rely on it for sustenance — both physical and spiritual — is very much a rite of passage. But it’s also dangerous to the ...
Left for Dead: Dan Bigley Recounts Horrendous Bear Mauling Details
Among apex predators, there’s a fairly clear hierarchy. In Alaska, brown bears sit at the top of that wild social structure — above even humans. But for Dan Bigley, a seasoned outdoorsman, guide, and adventurer, enduring a brutal bear mauling brought ...
3-Year-Old Boy Found After 2 Days Lost in Montana Wilderness
Spending a single night alone and lost in the Montana wilderness wearing just pajamas would be a harrowing experience for most adults. A 3-year-old surviving in those circumstances for two full days is simply unfathomable. That’s exactly the ...
How to Identify Wild Medicinal, Useful, and Edible Plants
In my opinion, one of the most impressive survival skills one can possess is knowledge of wild edible plants. I know I know, a picture of a leaf or bark on Instagram isn’t going to garner as many likes as a shiny new knife, a “one, reload, one” ...
Stonehenge Dig Reveals 400 Ancient Deer and Boar Hunting Pits
Stonehenge has long been known as the site of burial rites from the mysterious days of prehistory, but it turns out that this famed location on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, still has secrets to reveal about its deep past. About 5,000 years ...
5 Tips for Surviving a Dog Attack From a Secret Service K-9 Handler
Marshall Mirarchi knows a thing or two about surviving a dog attack. He’s a former US Secret Service Special Operations Officer and the handler of Hurricane, a Distinguished Service Medal recipient. He recently told Free Range American that he’s ...
9 Solid Ways to Recycle Used Coffee Grounds
Every time we finish a pot of coffee, an existential problem arises. No, it’s not whether we make another pot — that’s a given. The bigger question is what do we do with the coffee grounds? In the United States, 64% of adults currently consume ...
Take The 72-Hour Power Outage Challenge, Home Edition
One of my favorite books is “One Second After” by William Forstchen. The short novel tells the tale of a small-town family dealing with the effects of the power grid going down, most likely from an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) blast over the ...
7 Bear Attacks So Far in 2022: Two Attacks Since Fatal Army Base Mauling
When a freak bear attack claimed the life of a paratrooper stationed at Alaska’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) and injured another on May 10, it became the seventh bear attack reported in the US in 2022 so far, and the first to be reported ...
Army Chinooks, USAF PJs, Park Rangers Rescue Hikers on Mount Rainier
He was trapped in an ice crevasse knifed into the side of Mount Rainier, his arm and leg busted, his buddy nearly eight stories above him getting whipped by winds blasting the snowy ridge at 50 knots. But he had excellent cell phone service. And ...
The Molotov Cocktail: How They’re Made and Defending Against Them
Throwing a Molotov cocktail against a buttoned-up tank means that somebody might eventually repaint the tank. Throwing one against an unarmored civilian vehicle — if you don’t break a window — means the owner is going to be incredibly annoyed and the ...
The Fallacy of the ‘If You Had Only One Survival Tool’ Debate
I’ve been a professional survival instructor since 2007. Before that, I worked as a canoeing and kayaking outfitter from 1998 to 2006. I’ve seen the booming interest in survival television shows, the popularity of survival gear surge in retail ...
Sleep or Die: Survival Shows Don’t Stress the Importance of Getting Rest
In 2012, I asked a friend to help me assemble a demo reel to show executives in Hollywood after being signed by WME in the reality unscripted genre. I was instructed to show as much movement as possible to attract the interest of these production ...
Clint Emerson Teaches Readers to Live ‘The Rugged Life’ With New Book
In today’s society, someone can tap the screen of a smartphone, and moments later, food or supplies arrive on the doorstep. Modern technology and the convenience it brings have made the average American lazy and complacent — so much so that they ...
Camping on the Fly: How to Choose the Best Emergency Bivy
When I was 15 years old, I met up with one of my high-school buddies, Jim, to do an overnight hiking and camping trip just on the outskirts of my hometown. I didn't have a driver's license, meaning mom dropped me off. Like a lot of teenage boys, we ...
‘Jesus, There It Is’ — Inside a Daring High Country Rescue
“Jesus, there it is.” It was 4:46 p.m. on Aug. 28, and Brent Kallem — a flight paramedic on board St. Luke’s Health System’s Bell 429 GlobalRanger high country rescue helicopter — gazed along the east side of a granite peak in ...
5 Rare Survival Rifles Designed for Air Force Crews
On Dec. 21, 1943, Lt. Leon Crane was conducting a flyover of the Alaska interior when one of the engines of his B-24 Liberator malfunctioned and caused the aircraft to spiral out of control. Crane grabbed a parachute and dove from the open bomb ...
Climbing Documentary Chronicles Family, Mountains, Death, and Reconciliation
The climbing documentary genre has steadily grown into a larger-than-life, reality-defying experience for those of us who keep our feet on terra firma's lesser elevations. Alex Honold’s Free Solo, Jimmy Chin, Renan Ozturk, and Conrad Anker’s ...
Raise Them Right: Emergency Preparedness for Kids
The word pedagogy is used in the realm of education to distinguish various teaching styles and theories of learning. As the primary educator of my children in our chosen realm of home education, I make it a practice to continually study the ways in ...
Sinking an F-150 in the Arctic, and Other Stupid Shit Rich Dudes Do
Every once in a while, a bunch of rich dudes get what they think is a helluva damn good idea over a few country club bourbons. One hundred percent of the time it's an idea better left on the bar with the tip. But when one of the guys gets a bit ...
5 of the Deadliest Insects You’ll Find in the Field
Once accepted, trained and later deployed as a military service member, you should be ready to operate in the world’s most remote areas. It is common to have the military deployed in the driest parts of the world or tropical rainforests. In such ...
Traveling Prepared: Building a Proper Vehicle Emergency Kit
Since a significant percentage of the average American family’s waking hours are spent behind the wheel, it’s paramount that we take the necessary steps to ensure that we are trained and traveling with a vehicle emergency kit to address the most ...
Top Burners: How to Choose the Best Firewood
Understanding how different wood burns is essential to getting the most out of your fire, whether building one in a hearth or in a fire ring for grilling, smoking, or drying. Master these simple tips to choose the best firewood and get the most out ...
Disaster Prep: The Importance of Everyday Readiness
Unless you’ve been half asleep, you probably have noticed that 2020 was remarkable. COVID-19, double — correction — quintuplet hurricanes, murder hornets, threats to public health, and civil unrest. We couldn’t get a break. The fabric of our ...
Faint Screaming, Mounted Agents: Border Patrol Rescue of a Lost Hiker
Sixteen hours into a search inside Big Bend National Park’s remote backcountry for a lost hiker, US Border Patrol agents on horseback heard what they called “faint screaming.” About 20 miles north of the Rio Grande River on Tuesday afternoon, ...
Is Your Bug-Out Vehicle Go-Ready for When Shit Hits the Fan?
I spent most of my years in the military operating in the Recon genre of Special Operations — a job that had me go-ready, living out of a rucksack for days, if not weeks, at a time. I learned very quickly in combat what optimization and efficiency ...
Desert Nomad: Overlanding Lessons From Afghanistan
Wilfred Thesiger, a British Military Officer, writer, and explorer, once said, “No man can live this life and emerge unchanged. He will carry the imprint of the desert, the nomad, and he will have a yearning to return for this cruel land can cast a ...
Why a Trauma Kit Should Be Part of Your Everyday Mobility
I’ve spent the majority of my adult life Overlanding. I started with my Jeep Wrangler Sahara, which to this day is the only vehicle I’ve never sold and will never part with. I frequented Uwharrie National Forest every weekend and spent my free time ...
‘River Dave’ Skips Court, Potentially Saves Camp From Another Fire
David Lidstone, a famous hermit who lives on the Merrimack River in New Hampshire, where he’s better known as River Dave, was arrested in December 2021 for trespassing in an ongoing dispute with the owner of the land where he’s been living for ...
