If you haven’t already, check out “Survive in a Winter Wonderland Part 1”

Even though your lost in the woods you can still survive if your pack is filled with the necessary items to survive in a winter wonderland that is about to turn into a winter nightmare! Your pack is already filled with food, extra water, purifiers, cordage, knives, combination tool which includes an ax and shovel, and even a spare thermal blanket. Unfortunately, you forgot to bring your tent, so you are going to have to make one out of what you find in the area. And to make everything worse, the temperature is only 10 degrees and it has begun to snow.

There are many ways to make a survival bug-out home, but we want one that is fast, easy, and warm. Close bye, we should dig a hearth for a fireplace as we might need to cook something, boil snow for water, or dry ourselves.

Your new temporary home will greatly depend on where you find yourself. Are you lost in a hardwood forest (sugar maple, white pine, white ash, yellow birch)? A Temperate forest (oaks, birch, maple, sweet gum, pine, juniper)? Or maybe you happened to get lost in a field with snow everywhere and no place to go (how you get lost in a field, I don’t know)? Today I will explain how you can build a small shelter for each of these probabilities. Read each one as you never know which disaster will get to you first when you finally decide to brave the world and step out into the woods and follow that corrupt little butterfly.

Okay, we’ll first begin by building a small hut with one of the easiest places to do it; a Temperate Forest. As I mentioned above, in a Temperate forest you can find plenty of oaks, birch, maple, black cherry, sweet gum, pines, juniper and even the Sugarberry trees. Each of these trees are quite useful, in fact some of them are edible. Click each tree for a separate article on how you can use and consume them. Now that we know what kind of trees are here, we can concentrate on how to use them. The best hut to build with these kinds of trees will be a lean-to hut. Simple but steady. The lean-to hut has three main posts to support the whole thing. Make sure these three posts are extremely strong, as the rest of the hut will go on top of it. Check out the resources links for more videos on how to create huts like these.

Next, the hardwood forest will be harder to cut down, but more reliable. You can build a longer lasting fort out of these trees. One of the best ways is to build walls. Something important to mention is never build your shelter next to a river, creek, pond, or water source. Animals such as boar, and deer probably regularly visit a free-flowing stream to get water. And if an animal like a boar visits it and finds you, you’re toast. I will have video links in the resources below on how to build a hardwood shelter. Hardwood shelters will protect you from larger animals, but they take longer to build and leave you in a dangerous position. Don’t forget to check the videos out! 

Finally, the field. This one will be harder, as you will need to gather the snow you find and create an igloo, or some sort of wind breaker. The wind will be the real killer, so getting out of it will be the first objective. To build an igloo you will need to pack as much snow to create a large mound. This will take roughly two hours, and will be exhausting. Be careful, getting wet during the winter while it’s only 10 degrees outside will cause you to enter the hypothermia stage; another deadly bush crafter killer! Once you pack the snow as much as you can, use your shovel and dig a small entrance in the front. As you near the center, create a hollow bubble inside so you can sit up and put your gear inside with you.

We have gone over some of the best ways to build a home. Next time, remember to bring a tent!

Look for our next article: “Winter Wild Edibles” to find out the best plants to find during the cold snowy winter months!

If you haven’t already, check out “Survive in a Winter Wonderland pt 1”

Resources:

What Is Bushcraft: Survival Skills, Tools, & How To Learn

https://bushcraftuk.com/category/articles/make/

Build a winter shelter:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/584693964094181702/

Build a hardwood super shelter with walls:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/55169164165236522/

Learn how to build an Lean-to shelter:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/584693964094181404/