Desert Survival 101

I get to do all sorts of crazy things for my work. Overnight laser tag, whitewater rafting, singing in front of 350 people on any given Sunday, and searching for a lost sheep with the pre-schoolers in our sanctuary are a few things that come to mind. This past week we had a staff retreat at a local university. The function of the retreat was to see how we worked in teams to solve a problem and come up with the best possible way to deal with the scenario we were given.

Now, first of all I was excited about this scenario. I've done a decent amount of hiking in the desert and know your survival basics because of all the outdoor education classes I've taken. Granted, I had been camping the desert in January and most of the survival skills I had learned were for cold environments (being from MN, that just made more sense). So, here's a couple things I've learned from this experience.

1. Stay with the plane!!! Wandering off looking for the road = death, even if you walk at night. My idea, send a couple of people searching after a few days of waiting and only have them walk at dusk and dawn. That wasn't a choice and I would have potentially sent someone, probably myself, to their death. Oops!

2. A little cosmetic mirror is the most important item to your survival (WHAT?). Apparently, using a mirror to reflect the sunlight can be seen even on the horizon and is incredibly powerful. Who would have thought a Covergirl compact could save your life in the desert?

3. Don't eat food!!! This completely went against every survival instinct. Granted, I know the whole you can live without air for 3 minutes, without water for 3 days, and without food for 30 days (all approximations) but it still didn't compute. Your body needs precious water to break food down so you end up dehydrating yourself even more if you eat. So, if you have food in the desert, just toss it.

4. Shelter = Good because of the shade it can provide and it helps cool you down. Use whatever you can to help make something to get you out of the direct sunlight.

5. Okay, somehow the great myth has come out that you need to eat salt in order to retain water. Yes, this is true of marathoners who are sweating profusely when they're running but they're also drinking large amounts of water which is flushing their system. There were a great many people convinced that eating salt in this situation was a good idea. Yeah, not so much!!! So don't ingest salt/sodium when you're in the desert.

6. The best thing to do with water is to just divvy it up among the people equally and let them drink it whenever they feel the need to although reminding everyone that this is all we have for the time being.

How did I score? Well, the food killed my score. Add in the fact that I was one of the few more qualified to go out in search of a road and our group decided to send a few people out to look. So, my preference for action would have killed me in the scenario. However, though desert survival is not my calling, I am still well qualified when it comes to survival in the mountains, cold, winter, and northwoods of MN. :)