We run a nice clean website here at NatureOutside. So you may be surprised to hear me talk about condoms. But condoms had a place in wilderness survival for ages. What do condoms have to do with wilderness survival?
Read on and find out…
Personal Survival Kits (PSK)
My personal survival kit (PSK). I whipped 11 feet of cordage (paracord) around the outside of the tin. I usually tie it more neatly than pictured.
We have a duty of care to ourselves to be safe in the wilderness. In fact, bushcraft contains elements of self-reliance often missing from our modern life. There is an implicit understanding that if you venture into the wilderness, you should have the skills and equipment to look after yourself.
The Personal Survival Kit (PSK) feeds into this philosophy. The PSK is a small tin or pouch that contains miniaturized equipment that can help provide shelter, fire, food, and water. You carry it on your person when you’re in the backcountry. If you become separated from your backpack, you have these tools to fall back on.
You may ask, “How can I get separated from my backpack?”
It turns out there are myriad ways this can happen. Here are five:
5 Ways to Lose Your Pack
1. You tumble down a hillside and your pack flies off.
2. You slip into a rushing stream and shed your pack before it pulls you under.
3. You reach the end of your day’s hiking and set up camp. You stroll into the forest to relieve yourself and become disoriented. Now you’re lost without your pack (surprisingly common scenario).
4. You are caught in a sudden lightening storm. Your friends panic. They drop their packs and run. So do you.
5. You drop your pack to take some pictures. When you return, there is a dangerous animal on top of it. (For me it was two rattlesnakes!)
If you read the literature on wilderness survival, you’ll discover a shocking variety of circumstances that separate people from their packs.
But PSK’s have their detractors, too. They argue that the equipment is too flimsy to be of use in a real survival situation. So whether you carry a PSK or not is a personal choice.
Condoms as Water Carriers
It’s important to have a water container in your PSK . A container allows you to purify drinking water using iodine or chlorine tablets. And you can carry water with you when traveling between water sources.
For many years, conventional wisdom recommended you use an (unlubricated) condom as a compact water container for your PSK.
But conventional wisdom is often wrong! Sometimes research shows that the belief underlying the “wisdom” is false. Other times the information becomes outdated as new technologies appear. The latter is the case with condoms. Today this advice is not only outdated, but it can put you at needless risk!
Did you know that a latex condom can hold up to a gallon of water? When filled carefully, condoms expand. They are over-engineered for their intended use, and their strength enables this amazing feat. Even today, wilderness survival manuals still recommend condoms as compact emergency water carriers.
But when bloated with water, condoms are fragile. The same wilderness survival manuals often recommend cradling a filled condom in a bandana for structural support. In various classes, instructors cautioned me again and again not to rupture the condom.
Do you really want to trust your life to something that fragile?
Q: Why did the condom fly across the room?
A: Because it was pissed off! 😀
Use a Chicken Bag!
If you are building a PSK, the ability to purify and store water should be high on your list of priorities. But don’t trust your life to something as precarious as a bloated condom. Instead, put technology to work for you. Use a “Chicken Bag” instead!
This is a smaller (up to 8 lbs.) oven bag. You can find it in most supermarkets in the United States.
This is a small oven bag like the ones used to cook turkeys. But it is smaller and less expensive. It’s made of thin, resilient plastic. You can fold it easily to fit in your PSK. But it is strong enough to hold a liter of water without external support.
Here is a link to the bags I use. You must prepare the bag before putting it in your PSK. The first step is to mark the bag so you know how much water to put in it for your water purification method. I use chlorine dioxide purification tablets that operate on 1 quart of water. So I fill a one-liter (quart) water bottle and pour the water into the Chicken Bag. I hold it level in the air and use a sharpie marker to place a small dot on either edge to mark the water level (meniscus). I join the dots with a straight line and I have my fill level.
Unfolded bag. You can see the fill line.
This bag can hold the contents of a 1-liter water bottle. I trimmed excess material but left enough for me to tie the top.
After letting the bag dry, you can fold it into a compact square and place it into your PSK. When the time comes, you can fill it with a liter of water to purify.
Folded bag with PSK. Also visible is match-striker material, a button compass, and commercial tinder.
The oven bag filled with a liter of water. It is much more robust than a condom.
Of course, no solution is perfect. A Chicken Bag does not rupture as easily as a condom. But it does have a drawback. The bag is not dual use — you cannot use it in a romantic situation. 🙂
Examine Conventional Wisdom
The condom is one of many instances where conventional wisdom is wrong. Whenever you hear such “wisdom” it’s important that you recognize it, examine it, and make your own decision on its worth. After all, your life may depend on it!
Related Articles on NatureOutside
Don’t be a Fool, Carry this Tool – A Store Discount Card and Duct Tape!
Wilderness First Aid and the Duty of Care to Yourself
How to Choose a Wilderness Survival Class
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HI Steve
My scouts love their survival kit, thank you so much for your tips.
I’m glad I could help out, Sergio!
That’s a good idea. I have ziplock bags in my bag; use for water, to keep stuff dry, etc.
That’s a good idea, Theora!
In Bob Coopers bush survival book, he challenged a group of students to carry water in a condom. The best any of them achieved was 2km. Really not very far when trying to walk out.
That’s very interesting, Mark. Two kilometers really isn’t far at all. It shows how imperfect the old method was.
My concern is size. In some PSK even a condom is too big. In military issued Parachute Survival Kits there is a condom and I’d estimate the size to be around 1.5”x0.5”x0.25”. Will the bag you mentioned fold/roll up into this volume or smaller? If not, then the condom has it’s place in tiny kits. We’re talking the smallest of the small emergency last ditch options here for a PSK. If size wasn’t the driving concern there are a myriad of more suitable containers. I think many people just aren’t trained in the proper method to store water in a condom. The condom itself needs to be supported and protected say by putting it inside a helmet/pouch/sock. The condom also can’t be overfilled. In my experience even 3/4 of a liter is pushing its capacity.
James, thank you for your comment. You make an astute observation. Even trimmed, folded, and compressed, a chicken bag is larger than a packaged condom. So it depends on how large (or small) you want your PSK to be.
Some of the smaller kits I’ve seen are so small they’re not practical. They contain gear so fragile that you can’t rely on them when you need. I consider robustness so important that I would trade size to have it. If I’m using my PSK, the situation is dire and I may not be functioning at full capacity. I don’t want to rely on fragile or temperamental equipment. So I am willing to carry a larger tin.