When I first started getting serious about my survival knowledge, I found that there were a few learning tools common to the industry. These learning tools help us remember specifics on survival when your life is on the line. Often when panic sets in, these learning tools will be the only ideas you can think of to create a plan of action.
The Rule of Threes is similar to an acronym or an easy-to-remember phrase such as SING for self-defense or Stop, Drop, and Roll for fire safety. These examples were all specifically created to help you through emergency situations when the adrenaline is pumping.
Dozens of people get lost in the wilderness every year and require rescue. Just imagine you are hiking along and realize you have left or lost the trail. You try to retrace your steps, but everything just looks the same. You check your cell phone and have no service or GPS. There are just a few hours of daylight left, and you are officially lost.
There is no way to hike out before dark, so you will be spending at least one night in the wilderness. As this realization hits you, you will likely start to panic. What if you freeze to death? What if you run out of water? What if predators attack you? What if they never find you? These are the kind of thoughts you may be facing.
At this point, it is vital that you sit down and take a breath. Clear your head for a minute and analyze your situation. There is no point in hiking any further until you have a plan of action. You will need to decide how to spend your time to give you the best chance of survival. The rule of threes was created specifically for that purpose. In this article, we will discuss this rule in detail to show how it could save your life.
What is the Rule of Threes?
The rule of threes states that you can live three minutes without air, three hours without warmth from fire or shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food. You must keep in mind that these figures are accurate assuming you are in a normal physical condition and are not in an extreme environment. Every person and every scenario is going to be different. The rule is just a guide to help you decide how to spend your time and energy in the wild.
Part of the reason this rule is so important is because of the misconceptions about what wilderness survival is really like. People watch survival on television and in movies and think it is all about hunting deer, cool building projects, and hiding from bears. This is far from the case. It is not uncommon for someone without survival experience to focus on food and weapons for protection. These are actually two of your smallest concerns. If you follow the rule of threes, it will tell you how to avoid these common mistakes.
Three Minutes Without Air
Often the discussion about lack of air is breezed over because it is rarely an issue, but it should still always be part of your thought process. If you are in a fire, smoke can prevent you from getting oxygen. If you fall through the ice, you have about three minutes before permanent brain damage can begin. If you are attacked and suffocated, you have about three minutes to break free. If you are choking, you have three minutes for someone to clear your airway. If you have an allergic reaction and your throat closes up, you have three minutes to be treated.
Depending on how quickly you respond, you could fully recover, you could come back with permanent brain damage, or you could perish. By the time you hit the five-minute mark, permanent damage has occurred. As soon as you know that your oxygen supply has been cut off, that should become your top priority. Every second and every ounce of energy you have should go towards getting oxygen to your brain.
Three Hours Without Warmth
For most survival scenarios, keeping warm is going to be your top priority. If you know you have an air supply, it is time to evaluate your ability to stay warm. Is it warm and sunny outside, or is it rainy or cold? Are you wearing clothing that will keep you warm? What can you do to stay warm through the night?
Hypothermia is the top reason for deaths in wilderness survival situations. Even in the desert or the jungle, people die from nighttime temperatures. When the skin is wet it drops in temperature 25 times faster than when it is dry. This means you can become hypothermic with temperatures as high as 60F. These temperatures are common across most of the planet. If it rains or if you sweat through your clothes, you will have some serious issues.
Hypothermia occurs when your internal body temperature drops beyond 95F. As your core body temperature drops, your internal organs begin to shut down. Eventually, your heart and lungs cannot keep functioning and death is possible. It is vital that you take steps to keep your body temperature within a safe range.
The rule of threes states you can make it three hours without warmth from fire or shelter. This is just an estimate based on an average person on a normal day. When you are in colder weather or you are wet, it can reduce that window. For example, if you fall through the ice into freezing water and have no way to heat up, you will be hypothermic in just minutes and dead shortly afterward.
You have two primary options to get warm in the wilderness. The fastest option is typically building a fire. If you are good at building fires and have the needed materials, you could be warming up in just a few minutes. The key is finding dry materials to build your fire.
Any survivalist will tell you that you should always have a firestarter with you. This could be any type of firestarter, but I typically carry a ferro rod and a lighter. I like both disposable lighters and Zippo-style lighters as the disposable ones are cheap and the Zippo can be refueled with any flammable liquid.
Tinder is the most important material to collect. Fine, fluffy dry tinder can take a spark or flame and get the rest of your fire started easily. However, damp or woody materials may make it impossible to get a flame. Always look for natural waterproof tinder such as bird nests, cattail fluff, birch bark, and pine resin. If I am planning a trip into the wilderness, I like to keep waterproof tinder such as Wetfire Cubes and Firestix in my pack. Wetfire cubes will take a spark and maintain a waterproof and windproof flame for a few minutes. Firestix require a flame to light, but they will stay going for 20 plus minutes in any conditions.
You can also get warm and stay dry if you take the time to build a shelter. Building a shelter typically takes longer than building a fire, but you can build a shelter even if fire-building materials are wet. Any protection from the elements or insulation to keep in heat will help you survive. In addition, shelters have a cumulative effect. You can add to your shelter every day making it a bit better as you go. Fires are done the next morning and then you must collect all of the materials and start over again.
If you have a tent, tarp, or emergency blanket with you then these will be the most waterproof options for a shelter. You simply use cordage to attach it to trees and stakes in a way that it will block rain, sun, and wind. If you do not have these resources, then a lean-to or a debris hut are typically your best options.
A lean-to consists of a ridge pole stretched between two trees and then support poles resting against it at a 45-degree angle. Then insulation is piled on top and inside. This option is best if you have a fire as the shelter will reflect the heat back onto you.
If you do not have a fire, a debris hut is best. Attach a long ridge pole to two frame poles so you have an ‘A’ for an opening. Lean support poles on both sides and then pile at least four feet of insulation on top. This will act like a natural sleeping bag to hold in body heat.
Three Days Without Water
In most survival situations, water is going to be another major priority. The rule states that you can make it three days without water. This assumes normal circumstances, but most wilderness survival scenarios are not normal. You will likely be working hard in the sun all day which will dehydrate you faster.
I recall that I became drastically dehydrated on my very first wilderness survival challenge. I worked on my shelter in the sun all day while stopping to drink water every few hours. By late afternoon, my forearms and hands cramped up into useless nubs. I had to stop and rest in the shade while I hydrated until I could use my hands again. I also completed a long-distance challenge on which I drank three gallons of water per day and was still dehydrated because of all of the hiking.
Factors that will increase water consumption are exposure to the sun or to high winds, physical activity, and extreme hot or cold temperatures. If you are shivering in the cold, that is still considered physical activity. If you are sick, hurt, or overly exhausted you will need to drink more water as well.
Signs of dehydration are weakness, dizziness, cold flashes, rapid or irregular heartbeat, a pale face, and eventually a lack of perspiration. You should never wait until you are thirsty to start hydrating. By that point, it may already be too late. On average you need at least a gallon of water per day, but that does not factor in the other stressers we discussed.
To find water, just keep heading to lower elevations. Water flows downstream, so eventually small streams run into rivers and lakes. Rivers run into the ocean. If you follow water downstream, it should lead to bigger bodies of water. You can also follow dry creek beds until you get to active ones. These are often good places to dig a well.
Water found in the wilderness needs to typically be purified to remove waterborne pathogens. Without purification, tainted water can cause vomiting and diarrhea that will lead to further hydration. Unless the water came from a spring, a plant like water vines, a rain catchment system, or from ice then it needs to be purified. Your best options for purification are filters, boiling, and iodine tablets.
Three Weeks Without Food
Sure, it is true that you can survive three weeks without food. We have seen plenty of instances when people made it longer than that under the right circumstances. However, hunger will start to mess with your ability to complete other tasks long before it kills you. You are burning a ton of calories on these tasks and burning two to three times as many calories as you would on a normal day. If you do not replace those calories, you are going to drop.
As you go day after day at a caloric deficit, you will become weak and clumsy. There are often lots of body aches and migraines that go with starvation. You can become confused and severely depressed as well. All of these side effects of starvation start after just a few days. This makes collecting water and firewood more dangerous and difficult. When you are weak from starvation, it is easy to slip and fall or cut yourself while splitting wood. At times, you may not have the strength to get up and do anything.
Foraging wild edibles is a good way to get some food in your belly. However, most of the plants we collect in the wild provide just a few calories with no fats or proteins. You would need to eat quite a bit to make a difference, but it is easy to go for a walk and collect edible plants if you know how to identify them.
Primitive hunting is incredibly difficult, so I typically suggest avoiding it. Using a hand-crafted bow or spear to kill animals in the wild is tough. Your odds of success are low, and the energy expended hunting is high. If you have access to modern weapons, this makes life much easier.
Trapping is a better option but is still tough. It is a passive way to collect food, so you can set your traps and then just check them once or twice a day. This allows you to spend your time on other survival tasks. For primitive traps to bring in daily food, you need a trap line of about 20-30 traps. The good news is that you can set up a few each day until you get the whole line done. This will improve your odds of catching a meal every day. The two easiest traps to set up are snare traps and deadfall traps. I like to use a mix of both.
Fishing is one of the better options for getting fats and proteins in your diet. If you find a good body of water, you can catch fish with or without the right gear if you know how to build trotlines, float setups, or fish traps. These fishing methods are also passive, so you set them up and then come back to check them later. Your odds of success are greater for fishing than for primitive hunting or trapping, and the fish give you lots of healthy oils and fats.
There is obviously lots to think about when prioritizing survival tasks. In addition to reading and knowing the rule of threes, you need to practice it on a regular basis. When you go camping or hiking, try organizing your tasks with the rule of threes. Any time you find yourself in the wilderness, stop for a minute and think about what you would do first. If you maintain this kind of mindset, it will ensure that you are prepared when your life is on the line.
Charles D
This is a great article!
Carol W
Great articles! Never been hiding your fishing or camping so I’m learning a great deal of information on how to prepare now I look forward to actually going and doing it thank you.
Prepper Bob
Awesome Carol! Good Luck on your future adventures.. life is too short to sit at home and watch others have their adventures… make your own!