The 7 Most Important Survival Skills You Need To Know

Survival skills are the skills that you need to be able to survive in a disaster, or in the wild. Here are our seven most important survival skills. Learn these skills and regularly practice them so that you are always ready.

Survival Skill 1: Building A Shelter

In a harsh environment, a person may only survive for around 3 hours without shelter. In the UK, we have a relatively mild climate, but even here you won’t survive long on a cold, wet night without shelter. That is why we have building a shelter as number 1 of our most important survival skills.

A shelter can be pretty basic, but it needs to be able to protect you from the worst of the weather. Keeping dry and preserving your own body heat will allow you to survive. A debris hut shelter can be made from basic materials found in any wooded area. It will keep you dry, protect you from the elements and keep you warm. See our guide on How To Build A Debris Hut Shelter.

Survival Skill 2: Finding And Purifying Water

Safe drinking water is absolutely vital for survival. Humans can’t survive more than 3 days without water, but drinking dirty water can make you seriously ill. The ability to find a water source and purify the water is therefore one of the most important survival skills you can learn.

Finding water sources is one of the 5 useful things we think you should know about your local area.

Water that you collect from any natural source may contain bacteria or other contamination. That is why it is very important to understand and be able to use different water purification methods. Our article on water purification methods includes several different ways to purify water.

Survival Skill 3: Starting a fire

A fire can keep you warm, cook your food, purify water, signal for help and many other things. The ability to start a fire is very important in a survival situation. Therefore, it is number 3 on our list of the most important survival skills, after shelter and water.

There are many different ways to start a fire, depending on what equipment you have with you. Take a look at our article on How To Make Your Own Fire Starting Kit. This fire starting kit gives you loads of options when you need to start a fire.

Survival Skill 4: Finding Food

Finding food is an important skill, but not as important as shelter, water and fire. Humans can survive for around 3 weeks without food, although of course you don’t want to wait anywhere near that long to find food.

Food can be found in many different places and seasons, you just have to know what you can and can’t eat. The best way to learn is to get a good book that will help you identify edible plants. Go out for walks with the book and look at the plants around you. With some practice, you will start being able to spot and identify edible plants everywhere you go.

To add some protein to your diet, learn to fish with basic equipment. Survival tool cards are an easy way to keep some fishing hooks in your kit.

Survival Skill 5: Tying Knots

Knots have so many uses, not just in survival situations. Learning how to tie a few different knots will help with many other survival skills, for example setting up a shelter and first aid can both require knots.

You don’t need to learn hundreds of different knots, but learn a small number well instead. You should know how to tie a knot to make a loop, a knot to attach a line to an object, and a knot to attach two lines together. Here are The 6 Most Useful Knots Every Prepper Should Know.

Survival Skill 6: Navigating

Navigation using a map and compass is an incredibly useful skill. We have come to rely on technology for navigating, but in a disaster scenario that may not be available.

Practice using a map and compass to navigate. This survival skill will allow you to find your way if lost, or to navigate new routes that you might need in an emergency.

Survival Skill 7: First Aid

Accidents happen, and when medical help isn’t available, first aid skills could save your life.

Prepare your own first aid kit, and learn how to use it to deal with common injuries. In a survival situation, it will be very important to deal with any injuries as quickly as possible. Learning the skills now will mean you’re able to do that when needed.