Ok so my wife works at a dentist office, they did a team building exercise and had to rank a list of items from 1 to 11 as to how important they were for your survival. They also had an expert ranking (I was told he was in the Marines so that made him the expert). The scenario was you were involved in a plane crash in the snow, you will stay in place and wait for rescue, here are your items Ball of steel wool Newspapers (one per person) Compass Hand Axe Cigarette Lighter (without fluid) Extra shirt & pants for each survivor 20 x 20 piece of heavy duty canvas One quart of 100-proof whiskey Loaded .45 caliber pistol Family sized chocolate bar (one per person) Can of Crisco shortening The misses did say they were told there was dry wood around, I am curious to see what y'all rank them
Based on that scenario I might break with conventional ideas. Some items are multi-use while others not as much. Since I would have all 11 items and staying in place, my goals would be warm, dry and fed. Crisco... Love & hate that item. 1 tbsp about 110 calories, fire extender, some first aid applications (cuts, chapped skin etc). 3. Ball of steel wool 2. Newspapers (one per person) 10. Compass 4. Hand Axe 1. Cigarette Lighter (without fluid) 7. Extra shirt & pants for each survivor 5. 20 x 20 piece of heavy duty canvas 11. One quart of 100-proof whiskey 8. Loaded .45 caliber pistol 9. Family sized chocolate bar (one per person) 6. Can of Crisco shortening I keep looking at this list and wanting to swap an item here and there. But I'll leave it. My scenario would be to use items 1-4 to start a fire and gather fuel for it. 5-7 help stay dry and warm plus the Crisco a wild card.... 8-11 are items I imagine either using once or not at all. I could dump the whiskey and have a container. That bottle might get higher priority. This was a fun and insightful idea! Once I realized the second post was the experts ranking, I stopped reading cause I wanted an honest uninfluenced list. Now Im gonna post and compare mine. Really enjoyed this.
4. Ball of steel wool 8. Newspapers (one per person) 11. Compass 1. Hand Axe 3. Cigarette Lighter (without fluid) 6. Extra shirt & pants for each survivor 2. 20 x 20 piece of heavy duty canvas 10. One quart of 100-proof whiskey 9. Loaded .45 caliber pistol 7. Family sized chocolate bar (one per person) 5. Can of Crisco shortening I would normally have a different list, but he flat out says that you're sitting and waiting for rescue. Very fun exercise!
ya'll need to re-evaluate your ratings for crisco. A can of Crisco burns HOT and for a LONG time. It is an effective moisturizer, burn treatment, chafing lubricant, lubricant, bearing grease, candle material, heat source, "food" usage etc it was never intended as a food substance......it started out as a soap and candle company...... The story of Crisco begins innocently enough in pre-Civil War America when candle maker William Proctor and his brother-in-law, soap-maker James Gamble, joined forces to compete with fourteen other soap and candle makers in Cincinnati, Ohio. P&G entered the shortening business out of necessity. In the 1890s, the meat packing monopoly controlled the price of lard and tallow needed to make candles and soap.1 P&G took steps to gain control of the cottonseed oil business from farm to factory. By 1905, they owned eight cottonseed mills in Mississippi. In 1907, with the help of German chemist E. C. Kayser, P&G developed the science of hydrogenation. By adding hydrogen atoms to the fatty acid chain, this revolutionary industrial process transformed liquid cottonseed oil into a solid that resembled lard.1 Not content with using hardened cottonseed oil for soaps, and mindful that electrification was forcing the candle business into decline, P&G looked for other markets for their new product. Since hydrogenated cottonseed oil resembled lard, why not sell it as a food?
That seems like a silly exercise, in that if you have all of these items and are sheltering in place there is no reason to rank them. With those items and the plane wreckage you could set up a pretty nice camp. If a section of the plane was on fire that would be even better. I think the axe and tarp would be at the top of my list. Followed by the whisky and crisco. I would use the tarp to haul firewood and the axe to beat a piece of wreckage into a frying pan. Then cut up some meat and fry it in the crisco and wash it down with whisky.
based on the criteria presented: " The scenario was you were involved in a plane crash in the snow, you will stay in place and wait for rescue" 20 x 20 piece of heavy duty canvas (Shelter/windblock) Extra shirt & pants for each survivor (one per person) (shelter/insulation) Can of Crisco shortening (heat, candle, light, dry skin treatment etc) Cigarette Lighter (without fluid) (firestarter) Family sized chocolate bar (one per person) (food energy/internal heat) Newspapers (one per person) (insulation, firestarter, boredom relief) Loaded .45 caliber pistol (firestarter, protection from wild animals, signaling, mercy killing) One quart of 100-proof whiskey (Firestarter, antiseptic, anesthesia, signal fire accelerator ) Ball of steel wool (firestarter, wound debridement tool) Compass (not needed for STAYING IN PLACE)
Hand Axe One quart of 100-proof whiskey 20 x 20 piece of heavy duty canvas Ball of steel wool Cigarette Lighter (without fluid) Newspapers (one per person) Loaded .45 caliber pistol Can of Crisco shortening Family sized chocolate bar (one per person) Extra shirt & pants for each survivor Compass this was a fun exercise. I'd enjoy knowing why the "expert" ranked them the way he did. I'm going to make assumptions: the plane eventually burned up or whatever and wasn't a resource to be used the whiskey is in a glass bottle, if so, i'm disappointed with the expert's ranking because... water. I'd use the glass bottle to purify water and, if necessary, melt snow to water. With clean water and protection from the elements, the group should be able to last more than long enough for rescue. How did the expert plan for water? After shelter, creating some kind of larger water container would be a very important step for clean water storage. I put the steel wool at #4 thinking I could use it as cordage. I've never tried using whiskey as a fire starter, because I always drank it, but I bet I could get some sparks off of the empty lighter to get it the whiskey soaked newspaper going. If not, I'm looking at the axe to make a bow drill. I've never tried using steel wool as cordage, so I hope it works, but that would make the bow drill construction easier.
".....The scenario was you were involved in a plane crash in the snow, you will stay in place and wait for rescue, here are your items..." Ok, assuming these are the only relevant parameters (+ there's dry wood in the area), then it's all about hunkering in place - build a big fire to keep everyone warm and to use as a locator beacon (using the obvious items on the list), and pass around the whiskey and chocolate. Oh, and I'll hang on the the .45, since I trust myself with it a lot more than a bunch of random strangers. Way different story if you have no idea that a rescue is guaranteed.
