Bushcraft – taking control of your own life

Bushcraft encompasses everything you need to be able to survive outdoors. Philippe is an expert and shares an insight into surviving in the wilderness.

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What is bushcraft – and what isn’t it?

Philippe, what does ‘bushcraft’ mean to you?
What we call ‘bushcraft’ nowadays is a watered-down version of survival, which was actually part of day-to-day life for most people until the Second World War. Bushcraft is a mixture of nature and skills: it’s life when humans aren’t in charge of everything. It’s about our ability to accept our limits. Bushcraft requires you to adapt, observe, stay alert and make do. Bushcraft is about living in our natural environment. We sometimes need to tap into these skills quicker than we’d like – if there’s a landslide, electricity outage or the like, for instance.

Conversely, bushcraft isn’t about building wooden forts in the woods, leaving remnants of shelters behind and so on. And if the weather’s dry, fire is a no-no: it doesn’t make sense to light a fire then, and it’s dangerous, to boot. I think we should pass by like shadows. For me, ultimately, bushcraft is about taking control of your own life. I take charge of what I can and adapt to everything else. It’s total responsibility.

Bushbox, flint and shelter

How can I learn to make a fire without a lighter?
You need lots of patience and lots of material if you want to be successful. The worse the conditions (or, in this instance, the damper the weather), the more material you’ll need. The sparks you generate with a fire steel or fire drill have a comparatively small amount of energy, so you need to carefully capture this and increase it. To do so, we need materials with a large surface area. Resinous wood is good, because the resin vaporises instantly and is easy to set aflame. The same goes for birch bark. You need to have enough material to hand: if the first little flame has to dry additional material, it needs to be able to burn for long enough. There’s no short cut.

Do you prefer to use a bushbox or a stove?
No question about it: I prefer the bushbox because I love fire and having the smell of smoke on my clothes. As a child, I was fascinated by a fire that a friend of my parents had conjured up on the snow. We were sitting on a metre and a half of snow and heating our meal on the fire. I’ve never forgotten it! I like the visible ramifications associated with the bushbox and the fact you can see its impact in the here and now: I’ve collected the wood from around me, so the resources the fire uses are visible. But stoves have their benefits and I’m happy to use them. Their efficiency and small size are unbeatable and, if you’re careful, you can use them in a car or inside a tent.

Where can I find the right spot for a tarp?
This needs practice. There’s no definitive answer, as it always depends on the conditions at play. In summer, a light breeze is welcome because it keeps you cool and banishes insects. In chillier months, though, it’s the opposite: we want to be sheltered. Hanging a tarp from a tree is a logical choice. If you’ve got a bit of practice, you can also use pieces of your equipment, like trekking poles or paddles, to hang it from.

Of course, it also depends what you need the tarp for. Is it to protect a group while they take a break, or will one or two people be sleeping under it? Different purposes require different locations.

Your outdoor adventure: making the right preparations

What are common, easy-to-avoid rookie mistakes?
Taking what you think are short-cuts. By that, I’m talking about how people sometimes tend to be quite lazy. If we can, we’ll just go for the easiest option. Often, we use excuses like ‘it’s good enough’, ‘it won’t rain’ or ‘the weather forecast looks good’. The more experience you have, the less of a buffer you need. But to start with, it’s important to do it all by the book. What direction is the weather coming from? Could there be accidents with trees or rockfall? Will we come across any wildlife – from ticks to tigers? If you ask these questions in advance, that’s half the job done.

Switzerland is small and densely populated. Does it still make sense to practice survival skills?
True, we’re all packed into Switzerland like sardines. But for me, that makes bushcraft even more appealing: it requires us to stay alert, which I hope will give me a greater understanding of the relationships that govern our world. Everyone loves nature, but when this nature takes the form of a wolf, it gets shot. I think we can’t just value our world in line with economic principles: temporary, unpleasant situations are part and parcel of it, too.

Do you opt for sophisticated equipment, or do you take a minimalistic approach?
I’m really not fussed about my material. My Exped poncho is almost 20 years old: something that’s good will stay good in the long run. I’m a little sceptical of ultra-light equipment. This would break too quickly for me, but there’s a place for it on particular projects. When used long-term, however, the material reaches its limits.

Tales from the outdoors: a flood in a canyon

Have you ever been in a situation where you had no option but to use your survival skills?
This question brings to mind the six Ps: proper planning and practice prevent poor performance! I’m always happy to have a bit of a buffer. Once, a flood trapped me in a river bend for a night. A friend and I wanted to hike towards a group as part of a survival course, but there was a storm upstream. The canyon forced us to cross the river at every bend – until the flood suddenly blocked our way. It also blocked our way back, and then massive tree trunks began floating downstream. So, we spent the night there. I had some back-up items with me, a blanket and my poncho. We never wanted things to happen that way, but it was cosy nonetheless. The flood had abated by the morning and we reached the group. They’d spent the night in front of the canyon and hadn’t seen the flood at all.

What fascinates you about being outside in winter?
The chillier months ask a lot of you and you can feel your mistakes straight away. Winter also calls for more of a buffer, as the cold magnifies any issues.