Forgot about flares!

[nctrees]

Saw some automotive flares sitting on the shelf at TrueValue.  Reminded me of watching the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kim#Snowbound Kati Kim story.  The husband, wife and child were stranded in their vehicle in the snow for ~8 days. At one point she said her husband removed the spare tire and planned to burn it to signal for help.

At some point they heard a helicopter or airplane close by.  He went to set the tire on fire using kindling (including his daughters stuffed animal) but couldn't get a good fire going good enough in the snow to get the tire to catch fire.  Needless to say the aircraft left and wasn't heard from again.  The story ends in the husband trying to walk to get help and dies.  Wife and child picked up about a day later when spotted by helicopters.  I think about 7 days after they tried to signal the first one.

Now from my dad letting me have ones that were old to play with as a kid, I know they burn really hot, very visible, and can melt through chain link fencing .  I already had large glowsticks in our vehicles for signaling, but no flares.  I picked up 3 for each vehicle.  Maybe if I ever need to get a fire/tire burning quickly, the flares will accomplish the job.

[endurance]

Just be sure to puncture the tire before igniting.  The alternative is having flaming chunks of tire hurled at hundreds of feet per second in all directions.  That'll mess up a guy's day.

[homeshow]

on the other hand that should be easy to see from a distance.

[nctrees]

Just be sure to puncture the tire before igniting.  The alternative is having flaming chunks of tire hurled at hundreds of feet per second in all directions.  That'll mess up a guy's day.

LOL.  Yeah, I took that into account when thinking about it

[Asclepius]

The mistakes made by the Kim family are great examples of everything you should not do. The situation they got themselves into is avoidable by just about everybody.

[endurance]

We had a similar incident happen on the Rampart Range about a decade ago.  Couple went to go camping in mid-to-late March, big snowstorm came in and dumped 3' of wet, heavy snow.  Road was impassable and they were 10-12 miles from the nearest human habitation of any kind.  The husband/boyfriend walked for help in jeans and died about 1.5 miles from the car.  Female was still in the vicinity of the car, died of exposure/hypothermia (can't recall if she was inside the car or not.  I'm pretty sure the car was out of gas when they found it).  Because of the time of year, the snow melted out in about a week and a half.  They clearly panicked and it cost them their lives.  Just the bare minimal in preps would have made a great adventure story to tell and they've be no worse for wear.  Even without 10 days of food, just the ability to create some heat and melt snow for warm water would have kept them going long enough.  Instead, they left a vague itinerary that didn't help search and rescue until it was too late.

[jimbrtxva]

Also, use the triangle reflectors to save on flares.  They provide constant reflection all day.  Save flares for night or when you hear a vehicle.

[TwoXForr]

A neat trick I learned recently with a glow stick for night signaling, tie a string to the end of the glow stick, then to signal twirl the glow stick in a circle, the speed in a circle makes a wonderful signal.  Give it a try.

[RPZ]

Alternative in daytime would be a signal mirror. Cheap, simple and works with a simple visual Morse SOS. One of these might work even to signal passing airliners at altitude.

Remember that any signal attempts with aircraft other than dedicated SAR there's a better chance of them seeing you the farther away they are, coming towards your direction or flying 90 degrees to your position as most passsenger planes have very limited view below and none behind.

A good investment too might be one of the marine type flare kits. An Orion flare pistol and a half dozen flares is not out of reach for most people, and unlike fires they can be put into action "right now".

There are also various strobe light to be had which are cheap to buy and can be left on at night if you need to sleep. Just place it on the most exposed open piece of ground nearby (or attach one to a stick in the ground if there is deep snow) so they can be seen from the greatest distance possible. Have spare batteries and maybe a redundant unit or two.

Where legal (and they are in most all places I know of) a blank firing pistol can be used to attract attention and in mountainous terrain in cold air sound travels a great distance. Have plenty of "ammo" and fire three shots about three seconds apart at half hour or hour intervals in daytime.

[doublehelix]

I always keep a 10 minute highway flare in my bob to start wet things on fire 

Just don't inhale the fumes.

[flippydidit]

Hand sanitizer and a Bic will get almost any fire started.

[nelson96]

I always keep a 10 minute highway flare in my bob to start wet things on fire 

I used to keep a 5 minute flare (smaller and easier to pack than a 10).  Discovered that if you don't rotate them regularly you'll find that the igniter won't work when you need it.  When they do light however, they work better than anything I have ever packed in my pack.

Hand sanitizer and a Bic will get almost any fire started.

I now pack this instead, works great.  Although I quit using actual "hand sanitizer" (some brands don't light as well as others) so I've played around with making my own using 99% isopropyl alcohol and dish soap.  Next I'm going to play around with fumed silica as a binding/thickening agent. . . .  You can also buy fire gel at any store that sells gelled fire starter for wood/pellet stoves and fireplaces.  It works MUCH better than hand sanitizer.