The Rule of Threes

   You can survive without certain important things in a survival situation.

You can survive 3 minutes without air
You can survive 3 hours without shelter
You can survive 3 days without water
You can survive 3 weeks without food

We at Kerry Bushcraft School have added two more categories:

You can survive 3 seconds without your sanity
You can survive 3 months without a community


   For some of you who have sat through our Basic Bushcraft course this will be old hat to you. There are some of you who will already have heard about the Rule of Threes. There is at least one student in each Bushcraft course who can rattle off at least some of the threes. We have added a couple more so there is always room to learn when you arrive at our campus.

   The four fundamental survival skills are: shelter, fire, water and food. We use the Rule of Threes to determine these four priorities. The odd one out is of course fire. The technological breakthrough when humans discovered how to create fire gave us an extra tool to address the other three skills. By the use of fire we can enhance our shelter, boil contaminated water and cook our food.

   The Rule of Threes also allows us to prioritise which of the four basic skills we need to focus on first in a survival situation. If you have been lost all day and the darkness is descending on you, there is on particular skills that you need to focus on. Can you guess it?

   Shelter. This skill is usually the first one of the Rule of Threes that you will need to focus on. Looking over the rule of threes you can quickly determine that you can go three weeks without food. Yes, it would be a tough day at the office if that happened but food is not the most important thing. You can go three days without water so we know that we are not focusing on that skill for the first day.
   You can go three hours without shelter. This is applicable here in Ireland as well as the Outback of Australia. You need shelter to keep you warm and you need shelter to keep you cool. The first day of survival you need to find and build yourself a shelter. We will discuss this in more detail next week.

   Water. Once you have spent a restful night in your shelter you can then continue on your Rule of Threes. Water collection can be easy enough especially here in Ireland. Collect enough to keep you going while you focus on the next rule.

   Food. Sure you can go three weeks without food but why would you? Start looking for wild edibles and easy to hunt ground game while you are looking for the first two Rule of Threes. Wild edibles can be consumed immediately but if you find some game you need to quickly transition into the next survival skill.

   Fire making. Creating fire without matches or any kit is quite difficult on a good day. Making fire by friction is an obtainable skill if you happen to be in the Arizona desert with plenty of dried Mullein stalks from the previous year just waiting to become hand drills. Here in Ireland fire by friction is a difficult and arduous task. Other fire making options can be a good day of sun and your reading glasses. Also a myth here in Ireland. It is a rare day indeed when we see enough sun for this trick.
   During our Basic Bushcraft course we challenge our students to make all of their fires with the firesteel. It is small enough that it should be in everyone's pocket and survival kit. Always have some sort of fire making option on you at all times: Even if you are just going for a quick walk around Killarney park.

   What about the last two Rules of Three?

You can survive 3 seconds without our sanity.
   Survival Philosophy is a passion of mine. What makes some people who get lost in the woods survive and others parish? While writing my master's degree on Wilderness Psychology, I was able to address this question. Deep within you is the drive and determination to survive and meet all of the challenges that would face you in a desperate situation. Would you shut down and quit or would you excel and survive? It is not about how buff you are or all of the outdoor schools you have attended. It is your own fortitude. There are plenty of stories of experienced outdoors people losing their three seconds of sanity and walking off a cliff face, or freaking out and running into a tree limb and knocking themselves out.
   There are also stories of young girls with breaks and sprains walking for weeks at a time out of remote areas. Survival of the fittest starts with what is between your ears. It is difficult to see who will make it and who will not. That is where training comes in. If you have training to rely on, or if you have put yourself in a simulated survival situation carefully monitored by professionals then you can have a better understanding on how you would react.


You can survive 3 months without community.
   This last one is more amorphous and difficult to discuss. With some of the circles that I have trained with in North America there was a push to go out alone and survive in the vast wilderness. To do so solitarily would be the best way to "test" yourself.
   We are a sociable species. There is a visceral need for contact with other humans. I have met some trappers and recluse types in Canada and America who spend the majority of their time in the deep woods alone. They are socially strange. I don't know if they start that way or if by their self appointed isolation they become that way. I don't mean to generalise.
   What I have noticed while spending time in British Columbia and Southeast Alaska is that people who spend the majority of their time alone are missing out on one of the most profound needs that we have as human beings: connection.
   Without this connection to other humans our psychology begins to fragment. There are enough studies out there for you to investigate this further if you wish.
   The bottom line is surround yourself with a community. During the film Castaway Tom Hanks created his community by calling his football "Wilson." Some psychologist could say that this was the beginning of his fragmentation. I disagree. The writers wanted to show this character addressing this particular Rule of Three with ingenuity and a bit of mirth.


More information about Bushcraft and the Rule of Threes can be found at ipna.ie.