Life on the Edge

I spend 11 months of each year either on expeditions or on training trips. I’m away so much that I’ve recently sold my house in the Alps. Now, if I’m back in the UK seeing family – I’m one of four siblings – I live out of the back of an old van, or stay with my parents. I suppose to some people this way of life might not seem worth the danger or discomfort; I’ve broken bones and torn ligaments, I’ve dislocated my knee in a mountain boarding accident, and in 2007 nearly died after contracting Lyme disease from a tick bite. But I can’t imagine a way of life that is more exciting or fulfilling; or one that lets you experience every emotion and environment so viscerally. You might call it an addiction; after spending so much of my life pushing myself to my mental and physical limits I now thrive on high-adrenaline situations.

This does have its downsides; I find it hard to transition back into ‘normal’ life. When I return from a trip I have a couple of days where I enjoy being in a familiar environment surrounded by unlimited food and water on tap but I quickly become restless. And the stresses of everyday life often seem so mundane in comparison to the myriad dangers that I’ve just endured. I’ve never had a career goal beyond experiencing as much as possible and I’m lucky that my partner Stani is also a survival expert, so we often work together on expeditions. Home is where he is, whether that is under the stars in Africa or living in a snow hole in the Arctic.

Ultimately, preparation is the key to survival. It’s why, even when I’m not on an expedition I’m constantly training in places like the Alps. It worries me to think that if humanity ever encountered a situation where our infrastructures failed, there would be so few of us who could find food, shelter and purify water without Google. Humans might be smart, but they’re also fragile. And as I’ve learned first-hand, take away someone’s capacity to start a fire and they might quickly become prey to bigger hunters.”

Find out more at meganhine.com

Survival: the basics

Megan’s essential tips for staying alive if you find yourself lost in the wild

Make a plan

“The first 24-36 hours of a survival situation are the hours in which you will have the most energy to find resources such as food, water and shelter. Use this energy wisely. Have a clear objective: a point to get to or a way to raise an alarm. These are also the hours that any search and rescue will be most active: establish a way to make yourself visible from the air – if it’s safe, with a fire or writing a large sign in sand, while gathering as much food and water as possible.”

Make fire

“In the wilderness, techniques involving fire by friction may be the only option. Rub a stick against a soft-wood base with enough friction and it will create enough heat to ignite dry materials – leaves, bark, grass. To check whether the base-wood is soft enough, run your fingernail down it, if it leaves an indentation, it is soft wood.”

Purify water

“Most bacteria and viruses are rendered harmless at 69°C so boiling water is an almost fail-safe method of making water drinkable; 69°C is about the temperature you start seeing steam rising. A rolling boil, when you’ve reached around 100°C, is a good visual indicator to know the water will be safe to drink. Once it has hit boiling it can be taken off the heat and left to cool down. At higher altitudes water boils at lower temperatures due to pressure. On the summit of Everest water boils at 72°C therefore you should be able to make water safe at any altitude with this method.”

Find Shelter

“Try not to expend energy on building a shelter unless you plan on staying there for a long time. Use materials found in the location – forked logs are useful for structure, but where possible use natural shelters such as depressions in the ground, overhanging trees or caves.”

Photography: Mark Harrison / As told to: Alexandra Jones

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