Outdoors: skills checklist

Outdoors: 11 skills, each with steps, a quiz and a printable checklist, covering campfires, five knots, map and compass, tents, safe water, getting lost, lightning and cold.

The outdoors rewards a little preparation and punishes overconfidence. Most trips go wrong in ordinary ways: a campfire that was not fully out, a tent pitched in a hollow that floods, a hiker who kept walking after losing the trail, a storm that arrived faster than expected, or cold and wet that crept up on a mild day.

This category covers the everyday outdoor skills: building a campfire and putting it out cold, five knots that handle most jobs, using a map and compass, pitching a tent in the right spot, making stream water safe, the leave-no-trace habits that keep places open, and tying a load onto a car roof or truck. It also covers the moments that turn serious: what to do when you are lost, how to act in a lightning storm, and how to spot and treat hypothermia.

Survival stunts are not here. There is nothing on eating wild plants, wildlife encounters or river crossings, because advice in those areas depends on seeing the situation and a wrong step can kill. The pages point you to rangers, guides and classes instead.