Survival "Tips" that Will Actually Kill You 

I always thought that the idea to jump in a falling elevator (or crashing airplane) was intended as a joke

I met a guy who ended up stranded in the snow for days because of a broken leg with mountaineering equipment but no means to light a fire (ie, no wood). He ended up putting the snow in a plastic, watertight bag and putting the bag inside his sleeping bag, where it would melt based on the radiant heat he lost to the interior of the sleeping bag. Wasn’t a lot of water, but it was enough to survive until help arrived.

In 1974 I survived a 5 story industrial elevator freefall, I have never heard anyone even close to understanding what really happens, your suddenly weightless, you lose perception, no time to react

No, I saw it in a cartoon once. When you’re in a falling house, wait until the last second, then step out the front door on to the ground as the house smashes behind you.

You should really prioritize food last. So: Water, Shelter, Food. Unless you're in an extreme environment (freezing cold etc.) .. then Shelter moves to the number 1 spot. The average human can survive 3 weeks w/o food (3 days without water) so while of course it's important and needed for survival .. it's not as important as shelter from the elements and whatever critters are out there.

Tampons aren't good for bullet wounds, but they *are* great firestarters, especially if you can coat them in candle wax or a bit of cooking oil before lighting them. You can also use them as a stage 1 filter for purifying water (it will remove particulate matter, like sand and gravel, but NOT microbes or bacteria, so the water will still need to be boiled to make it safe to drink). If you fluff them up a bit, they can fit pretty snugly in the opening of a plastic water bottle. Tampons have a place in survival kits, but their best uses aren't first aid.

One thing to note. If you're stuck in the desert and you have water such as a jug or canteen, drink it. Don't save it for later. Your body needs that water inside you not inside a container. And you're actively dehydrating. It's not going to help you later if you're dead. And plenty of people have died of dehydration with water in a container.

In a falling elevator, anyone who lights a fire to melt snow will live to regret it.

As a Canadian I was definitely taught that eating snow will hasten hypothermia. I was also taught that if you are in an avalanche to blow on the snow so it melts a bit and you can then use the direction the water droplet travels to indicate which way is down (so moving in the opposite direction is up and therefore out of the snow). You can also do the opposite with bubbles if you get stuck under the ice. Though, as disorienting as being plunged under the ice would be, knowing which way is up is the least of your worries. The shock is almost as bad as the hypothermia and a lot of people die from involuntarily breathing in water. Being Canadian is fun I swear. I love living in a country that hurts my face for 5 months. 😅 🇨🇦☃️

Another one i heard growing up: hiding under an overpass if a tornado hits is worse than just being in a field because of the wind tunnel effect. Best thing to do is get out of the car and lie down flat in a ditch.

"Snow is cold". Thanks Simon, those are the sort of facts I stick around for.

You can usually tell if a large colony of bats live in a cave because they often leave a deep layer of guano on the cave floor, which is definitely not a place I wanted to seek shelter in.

"observe how other animals eat" Now that you have found another animal, eat it. thanks for the videos, this one has all good points

Another famous myth is drinking from cacti in the desert. *Some* cacti are safe, but others contain oxalic acid (including some of the famous barrel cacti that are supposedly safe), and you can badly burn your mouth and esophagus trying to drink from them.

My grandfather (born 1907) worked in a grocery store as a teenager. He was unpacking boxes of menstrual pads and asked his boss what they were for. His boss told him they were for polishing cars. So Grandpa took home a box and did just that. Obviously, tampons are for areas of the car that are harder to reach or need a little more scrubbing power. My great-grandfather had to explain what pads were really for so grandpa wouldn’t use them on the car again.

I had an ex girlfriend whoos dad was an elevator repair man. His pay rate was very surprising when i found out. He had an unbelievable amount of knowledge in regard to his field..and for this and due to the importance of saftey and having good people in his position, he was very well compensated. He took his job very seriously. Trust that your elevator has been maintained by someone who had thier shit together, and is beyond safe. They make $100 an hour.. and they earn that because theres a lot to know to keep people safe, and they ensure that everything is in proper working order. He was a very smart guy (and a giant at 6-8). Knowing that people like him are responsible for elevator safety and how seriously they take thier job alleviates any worry i once had.

Canadian here, 100% was taught IN SCHOOL like 25 years ago (early grade school) never to eat snow for hydration because of the exact same reasons listed here. Ill still take a bite once in a while just for joy though.

One recommendation for the falling elevator is actually bend your knees rather than lie down completely. Firstly if the lift is falling from a height that gives you enough time to lie down then you are probably dead anyway. Secondly, as long as your knees are loose, you will crumple achieve the lying down without the delay. Locked knees - the panic reaction - will break your legs, but loose knees will crumple. The sudden sitdown will hurt your backside, but that is, for most people, well padded and so you'll be alive. Trust me on this one - I've personally done it. I know it is NOT impossible for a lift to fall down a lift shaft. The various things reduce the odds a lot, but it is not 0%. And I'm not talking a theme park ride either. However, I'd not recommend it - still hurts, just not as much as broken legs or dying.

As someone who has been in these survival situations: its all down to luck, my example will be water. I live in Canada and especially in the spring certain areas get the purest glacial meltwater. But that doesn't mean much if there's a dead moose a few hundred meter upstream. It's one tip for high temps, like desert or just a brutal summer, do not conserve you're water. It is so easy to get dehydrated without realizing it cause your all like I'll just take a sip here and there. NO, if you are thirsty drink. People have been found dead in the desert with water in their canteen. In the end it loops back to luck. You either find water or don't, the water is good or it isn't. Though I have heard of a good story about a guy found by search and rescue next to a river with dehydration so bad it damaged his kidneys. When they asked him why he didn't just drink the river water he said "it might have given me parasites." Sooo I mean it really is all situational.

With that food thing- there's also plenty of things humans can only eat after processing properly, but animals can eat raw- like acorns. And, there are several things humans can eat that most other animals can't too- like onions/ garlic & most species of mint.

If I ever find myself in a falling elevator, I'm going to stand on my head. To see how far I will be driven into the ground.

Everyone knows that if you are in a falling elevator you just have to yell “I think we are going to die Louis lane “ and wait for Superman to show up

Actually the newest research suggests that lighting a fire in the back of the cage is more favorable than in the front because it creates a circular air motion drawing fresh air in.

Actually, putting the fire at the entrance of the cave is extremely fangerous because the air from outside pushes the smoke back in. Cou terintuivel, you should build the fire at the back of the cave as the smoke will travel along the ceiling, and go out.

Also with tampons, the cotton can become loose and small pieces can become trapped in the wound and cause massive infections. The only thing you’d want less than a massive wound is a massive wound that’s infected and hurting even more because of it

Cave shelter pro-tip: if seeking shelter in a cave or under an overhang during a lightning storm, DO NOT sit directly in the mouth of the cave; a lightning strike on the rock face could arc and jump across the space from the roof of the opening to the floor. You don't want to be sitting there.

i’ve been on the street homeless in the winter and when we ran out of water i’d store some in bottles and use the heat that would accumulate in our tent (shocking it got extremely HOT in there) to melt it before drinking. i’m so thankful that i had a decent grasp on common sense and enough of what i had previously considered “trivia” - it definitely saved me and the both of us many times.

Like quicksand, I was told falling elevators would be a much more common hazard.

06:38 That one is only toxic when the ibotenic acid has not been decarboxylated, cooking will make it non-toxic. You will however discover why we have depictions of flying reindeer.

4:36 smoke inhalation is probably obvious, me immediately flashes back to Clarkson's "revolutionary" camp fire in Top Gear's Australia special where he built the camp fire around their campsite. 🤣

Leaving the tampon in the wrapper and using it together with a bandage to provide additional pressure on the wound is the only way I can really see a tampon being useful in first aid, doing the same thing as a rolled-up bandage. Or, like, keep proper pressure bandages in your first aid kit. My first aid instructors have always been very insistent that you never put anything in or take anything out of the patient. That will almost always make things worse. Your job is to buy the patient time for the paramedics to arrive, not cure them.

As a former athletic trainer I can say that tampons can work to control nose bleeds. I wouldn’t use it for bullet wounds precisely because it just becomes soggy. In a nose the nostril would limit how much it expands but that’s about it. Don’t use them for actual wounds.

I was really hoping to see Simon test out these survival tips himself. Of course, it wouldn't be a fair test as Simon is invincible.

Maybe part of why the guy survived since he still had a car available. Having the ability to go into shelter that can maintain some heat for a period of time (although the internal temperature will level out with ambient at night, that said a car can become a green house trapping heat if it is sunny) you may be able to heat the snow enough to melt it.

I love the fact that the thumbnail for this video, about jumping in an elevator, is also at the beginning of the video. Soooo many others would place it at the end. Thank you! Now, I'll watch the entire video from start to finish because I highly respect that ❤

3:12. First concern is shelter. Hypothermia can kill in hours. Then water. You can survive 3 days without water. Food is actually relatively minimal concern. You can last about 3 months without food. Itll suck, but you'll live.

More of this kind of video, maybe a sequal about undderated effective survival tips, like using sos pads and the square batteries can be extremely effective at lighting even damp wood, or how covering your head with a hat hood etc is actually better than leaving it exposed in a hot desert environment despite it seeming like wearing nothing or as little as possible would be better for staying cool (i don't remember how this works )

Although tampons aren't good for a first aid kit, maxi pads are. I was in the Nordic Ski Patrol back in the late 70's and I was told to buy maxi pads to fill out my kit instead of standard gauze bandages. You could get a box of the former for the same price of one of the latter. Back then they didn't have "wings" or any other things so they were basically just sterile gauze and worked quite well as a bandage. And with regards to melting snow, you're better off keeping a small amount of water unfrozen put it in a pot and drop the snow in the pot. I did a bit of winter mountaineering back then as well, and I kept a bota with water under my clothes to keep if liquid. If you try to melt just snow in a pot, it takes a lot of fuel, assuming you have a camping stove, because as Simon noted, it's mostly air. Melting it in the water first, means you use a lot less fuel. And keep your boots at the bottom of your sleeping bag when you go to bed. That way, they don't freeze.

I always figured surviving a freefalling elevator would be similar to just free falling. While standing cage your head with your arms, make sure every joint in the legs, arms, and back are at least slightly bent so they don't lock out or bend the wrong way. Click your feet together so they more precisely impact at the same time, stand on the balls of your feet so the heels don't impact first, and lean forward and slightly off to one side. The lean is so that when you do impact you don't land backwards and increase the cances of a spinal injury or head injury as only your hands are back there to shield your head, and the leaning to the side prevents falling directly forward where the elbows will hit the ground and get pushed out of the way exposing your face to a high impact. Landing to the side instead presses the lean side arm into the head allowing it to act as a cushion. Your arm and jaw might break, but your chances of a fatal head injury are less

On the topic of eating snow: *never* do this. Even if you were to assume (as Simon did for the sake of his excellent explanation) that the snow is uncontaminated by animal droppings or man-made chemicals, well, the problem is that you would really have no way of knowing for sure. Even snow that looks pristine and perfectly white could be contaminated in some way. Unless this is extremely deep snow, it would be difficult to gather any appreciable amount without also inadvertently scraping up some of the soil and dirt under the snow as well... and we all know that soil is chock-full of various types of bacteria, most of whom aren't pathogenic, but some of which are, and in some cases, lethally pathogenic like clostridium botulinum. In the absolute worst case scenario, if you have no choice, try to at least boil the water you get from melting snow before drinking it. This won't save you from chemical contaminants, but it may help protect you somewhat against the risk of contracting typhoid fever from bacteria in the snow. Ideally, though, if you must forage for drinking water far from civilisation, you would start doing so _before_ your current supply of water runs out entirely. Of course, there's the problem (as Simon mentioned) that snow is mostly air, so trying to obtain drinking water from snow is a _very_ inefficient process which is further compounded by the fact you'll have to do this whilst trying to avoid freezing to death along the way. Hopefully you have a buddy or two to help divide the labour a bit. So what's the best way to survive one of these extreme situations? Don't get into an extreme survival situation in the first place. Check the weather before you go out, and if you have any reason to doubt your safety, don't go. Above all, prepare accordingly whenever you venture out far beyond civilisation, and make sure that your friends and family know where you are going, so that if you don't return at the expected time, they'll be able to notify the authorities to send someone to find and rescue you if you get into trouble. Stay safe out there!

As an ultimate Fail Safe, elevator shafts have rails that taper inward for one-story+ (min 15 ft). as they descend below the first floor.

I think the mistake of using tampons for bullet wounds is also in part people forgetting that certain words in one language don't mean the same in another. Tampon is a french word for buffer and if the label of a medical gauze package includes French it will also include the word tampon. Likely American soldiers heard and say the word a lot around the French in WW1 then when they got back to the USA and heard the word used to describe feminine hygiene products they where like "did you know those are used for wounds in battle?"

One more thing to add to the elevator part. There are buffers in the pit for that reason (hydraulic, spring or polyurethane, depending on the nominal speed of the elevator, which is kinda tied to the travel height of it). Not sure if this was meant by the "crumple zones" as thats not really a thing at least on elevators i work on. Falling on buffers isn't going to be a pleasant thing, don't get me wrong, but its also not gonna be like dropping on solid concrete either. Air working as a buffer is also kinda debatable as in elevator shafts that can have problems with piston effect, they tend to add air relief holes to negate that. I guess technically you might have some air cushioning the fall but not really enough to make a difference.

A note on snow. It takes more than twice a much energy to melt snow as it does to raise it to body temperature. Plus what it takes to raise the temperature of the snow to the melting point. Let's say the snow is at 0 F (-18 C). Per gram it takes - 9 cal to heat the ice to 0 C - 80 cal to melt the ice - 36 cal to heat the water to body temperature Total: 125 cal Vs: Just 36 cal to heat water from 0 C.

Drinking pee in a desert, or at all. Pee is very salty and actually dehydrates you quicker.

First priority in a survival situation if you are able to breathe and are not bleeding profusely is to maintain your core body temperature. That means finding a way to stay warm in cold environments and cool in hot environments. Hypothermia or Hyperthermia will end you within minutes to hours in extreme conditions unless you can insulate yourself from them somehow. Get out of the wind and into the sun if possible in cold environments, then find a way to insulate yourself from the ground. Leaves and branches work well if you find yourself below tree line. Make a mat with them first. Do not exert yourself to the point you sweat. If you must exert yourself heavily, remove clothing so it doesnt get wet, and don it again as soon as the task is complete. Build a fire if possible. Dry out any wet clothing. Make a lean-too or dig a snow cave if possible. Find a hollow tree or a V between some rocks. Squat on your feet and huddle for warmth if you cant insulate your butt from the ground. Minimize contact with cold things. Desert survival is similar. Avoid hot things like direct sunlight and the ground or rocks that have been heated by it. Find or make shade, and only exert yourself between dusk and dawn. In either case, stay put unless you know exactly where you are, and how to to navigate back to civilization, and have the strength and equipment and supplies necessary to do so. Carry an EPIRB or a phone with satellite distress calling capabilities like the Iphone 14 and later models. Most of all, don not enter the wilderness unless you are prepared to spend at least a couple of days sleeping rough, and can summon help if you get hurt or lost. Carry a map and compass and know how to use them.

Most elevators nowadays aren't even cable lifts, They're hydraulic columns.(think an old car antenna) Even if there was a failure and the elevator started to "fall", the hydraulic column would fall so slowly that nothing would happen. They've been phasing out cable lifts for quite a few years now I think.

In around 1981 I was on a school field trip to Grand Coulee Dam. We were in the dam in an elevator going up. This was back when you could still go inside the dam on tours. The elevator stopped and dropped maybe about 10 feet, then went up again, then stopped and dropped 10 feet or so again, then started going up and then stopped and the door wouldn't open. We were stuck in that elevator for 45 minutes or so. One kid was saying he would just jump right before the elevator hit the bottom. The rest of us told him it doesn't work that way. The elevator was stuck at the top of the dam, so it would have been a long fall. Later on a fireman told me about the safety backups in an elevator and that were were safer than it seemed. But I think about that day every time I'm in an elevator.

The elevator trick has Bugs Bunny written all over it.

Never use river or beach rocks to build a fireplace, they explode

If you have an environment where you can keep warm, such as the buried car of the man who was trapped for two months, you can put the snow into a vessel to naturally melt. Once you have enough, that would be safe. However, remember opening your "igloo" to get the snow will lose you some of the built up heat and the snow itself will cool the environment as it melts. Life is a balance. 🙂

Thank you so much for bringing up these myths. One I didn’t know personally is the eating snow one. One I’ve been trying to dispel is the tampon one. I’m an avid shooter and trained in field trauma, and this is so pervasive.

7:07 they are often included in survival kits as they contain a lot of cotton wool in a small package and so are good for starting fires.

4:10 I saw a video saying it’s actually worse to build the campfire at the entrance. Best to have it in the end as it will create a less toxic air flow. Still a terrible idea without a hole in the roof however

Elevator horror stories are pretty rare nowadays, for the reasons you cite, but if you want to be freaked out read old newspapers from a hundred years or so ago about early elevator technology and it's like mass carnage. Scary stuff.

There was one relatively recent case of a true elevator freefall where the safety mechanism failed. It happened on 9/11 the passengers survived the fall but were burned to death by jet fuel theres a firefighter that tells a story about trying to rescue them

I was told surgeons hate dealing with quick clot. It is certainly better than not using it when your buddy has a gaping bloody hole, though.

I remember when in Boy Scouts, some younger scouts from a different patrol group grabbed rocks from the river to make a fire ring. No one realized their stupidity until a rock fractured and sent shards flying. Luckily, no one got hurt, but damn! The Scout Master was pissed!!!

As a first responder, the breakdown of stopping life-threatening bleeds is extremely thorough and well-explained. And I loved the emphasis on identifying what will kill someone faster, bleeding or infection from unsterile packing material. People overestimate how much blood is in the human body. An average sized human being can bleed out from a severe bleed within minutes, and even if the bleeding is stopped, it’s likely the person has already gone into shock, which in its own right is maybe one of the biggest medical concepts that is misunderstood and needs its own debunking video.

I thought the elevators that were hoisted by a cable (the other type has a hydraulic post that is below the enclosure) lifted the thing by a leaf spring. If the cable is separated or sheared, and there's no tension pulling up on the spring, it relaxes and the ends protrude (extend) past the car and catch in the rails. Therefore, the elevator cannot freefall. You stay there and wait for the car to be lowered, or they get you out through the door in the top/ceiling of the car.

I remember learning in medic training to pack a wound with gauze then wrapping it, and taking a timed test to do that under a certain amount of time. honestly, one of the most fun tests in medic training.

*Regarding eating snow:* Surely, there's a break-even point... There's a considerable difference between the energy required to melt solid water near 0°C and -273°C.

I was a cadet for red cross in my school and I learnt a hack but I am not sure whether this is true or not. The other effective way to stop bleeding is to put some granular sugar into the wound. The sugar will temporary turn into "scab" when in contact with blood to stop the bleeding. Finally, you can rinse off the sugar with water when want to treat the wound.

There should be a disclaimer for the don’t eat snow… You shouldn’t eat snow if you’re stationary and trying to stay warm, then you should be drinking water, preferably boiled and still relatively hot…. That’s a super important distinction. But if you’re active and staying warm through movement and work, eat as much snow as you’d like, BECAUSE it’ll cool your body down and the goal is to avoid sweating at all cost when you’re working or being active out in the cold.

In any of these videos you are going to have a laugh out loud moment and the slide with the putting a tampon in a bullet wound did it for me.

You really shouldn't have to pack a wound (Chapter 4) unless it's in the crotch area or armpits. The best thing you could learn to do is how to apply a tourniquet or fashion one from a shirt, belt or bandana and a stick. In the case of gut wounds use a clean dry pressure dressing and do not try to stuff intestines back inside a abdominal cavity. Chest wounds you would like to have a seal dressing (can make one with a ziploc bag and tape) while monitoring for pneumothorax. I could go on and on about battlefield care

After bingeing on Simon's older vids, I came here to present day and realized his glasses coordinate perfectly with his beard. Naturally. Much love.

Food tip. Rub the juice or the thing on your skin. A patch test to check for allergies keeps it there for two days. If you know you gonna be stuck for a longer time, start early and start with rubbing it on, if you have no responce, keep it there for an hour, if the next day you still have no responce take it a step further. Also not fullproof but it is a bit safer then ingesting immediately.

0:32 don't jump in a falling elevator 3:04 dont light a fire inside a cave 5:27 do not rely on animals to tell you what you can eat 7:05 do not put tampons in bullet wounds 10:08 do not eat snow for hydration

Ive survived an elevator fall. The air bag thing is real and i felt it. Happened so fast i barely had time to think. I was a kid playing around with an elevator having a game with friends racing each other to the bottom and after like the 4th time it happened and i just remember feeling butterflies in my tummy and then a feeling like standing on an inflatable matress after you let the air out. The doors opened and the floor was a good few feet misaligned with the ground floor. I had to jump down. And i looked up at my friend who was coming down the stairs (we where racing) and he has like "How did you get so fast?". I hate elevators to this day.

Nice introduction and wonderful explanation. Thanks for sharing

I just watched a similar video a few days ago that said not to build the fire next to the cave entrance, because the wind/airflow will push the smoke into the cave. They said cavemen always built their fires in the back or middle of the cave, so that the air would come in and wrap around taking the smoke out with it. I'm no expert though, so idk which video is correct.

For years I've argued that lying flat in a falling elevator was your best bet, glad to hear the experts (there are experts in elevator fall physics?!) back me up.

2 months trapped in a snow-covered car… The stench inside the vehicle must have been absolutely insane.

Don’t put quick clot in a gunshot wound if you can avoid it, it has to be cut out once it sits. Use gauze to stuff the wound.

Great video, definitely love to see more on the subject

If you jump in a lift that isn’t falling, it triggers the lifts emergency brake. Trapping you in the lift. Use this knowledge with care.

Remember, you don't have to outrun the bear, just the person next to you. Joking aside, another common survival myth is the use of bear spray to repel an attacking bear. Although it's basically the same pepper spray used by police you're going to have to be dangerously close to the bear to use it, and pray you're accurate enough to get it in the eyes. That said you're only going to make the bear angrier. For most smaller bear species you're better off backing away slowly in a non threatening manner. *Supposedly* playing dead will reduce the animals interest in you but in truth this is very hit and miss. And remember, NEVER INTENTIONALLY APPROACH WILD ANIMALS. I have seen more tourists in and around Banff and Jasper National Parks trying to get the perfect picture of everything from bighorn sheep to moose. Even if it looks docile it is still a wild animal and will become scared and unpredictable when you get too close.

I knew all of these already except for the tampon one. I'm surprised to think that people have thought of using them for such a thing. Great video with good information, wish it was longer with more scenarios.

In critical emergencies involving gunshot wounds, the pressure really is the critical element. The pressure against the wound is what triggers the body's natural clotting response. There's a lot of complex mechanisms involved, but the punchline is this: if you can maintain constant pressure for long enough the wound will close itself up, albeit in a weak manner initially and is extremely vulnerable to reopening. But if you are in an extreme situation and you have to move the wounded person in question, it's much more survivable if you're able to maintain pressure on the wound. The longer you can maintain pressure, the better.

Regards to the elevator I don't think everybody knows that fact that they are traveling at the same exact speed that the elevator is dropping. So the elevator and the human are traveling at the same rate accelerating at the same time prior to that. Ergo lay flat just like gravitron carnival rides

On the don't eat snow for hydration bit, that really depends. So long as the snow is clean , eating small amounts while exerting yourself can be good for hydration and to keep from sweating. Being sweaty in the cold or dehydrated is usually a hell of a lot more dangerous.

There's a word for 'something that appears true, appears to make sense initially, but the more you think about it, the more you examine it, the more ridiculous it seems and the quicker it all crumbles.' That word is "Specious." You would use it, by saying- for example- "Theological reasoning tends to be very specious."

Idk where I learned this (probably on tv) but if you have 2 plastic bags (water tight) and you need to drink snow, you can pee in one of the bags and use the other to collect snow. The warmth from the pee will melt the snow and you can drink.

I live in very clean environment with not much pollutants. Don't eat snow. If you throw a snowball, made from freshly fallen snow on to a hot sauna fireplace, it'll smell bad. You can instantly tell there is something iffy. I've teached my kids to not eat snow by this, and by melting a bucketful of snow. It has all sorts of.... Stuff in it. Little particles of different colors etc.

7:05 Don't tell the Russians.

simon thank you for this video!! i hope you make more like this👏👏👏

Recently subscribed to this channel and started binge watching it!!! Some twisted , dark, morbid but yet lightly sweetened and add a touch of history..... You have a masterpiece of history and enjoyable entertainment!! Btw bullet wound on the battle field, if it is a bodyshot, your pretty much a goner !!

I'm struggling with a few of the conclusions: First the advice to better not eat anything other animals eat and just stick to drinking water. I know from personal experience that indeed you can survive on water only but it has a significant impact on your energy and wellbeing. Considering that you're lost in the wilderness this is far from ideal and can create a life threatening situation. I have also observed monkeys eating certain legumes and followed suit which turned out to be fine. In a survival situation this could potentially save your life. I'd argue it would be worth trying a small amount first and determine how your body responds. Being able to find something to eat seems crucial to me for survival. Second is the advice to not eat snow for hydration. Although I understand the risks involved, it seems clear to me that the example given of the man who survived two months while eating snow proofs that it can be a life saver. Without water a human cannot survive much longer than a week, so him surviving two months on snow proofs that he got hydrated while overcoming the downsides. Because of this I doubt the conclusion that the energy expenditure caused severe dehydration. I suspect that taking small amounts at a time would allow your body to recover without serious complications. it seems a risk worth taking over not surviving from dehydration.

The whole snow thing isn't without precedence. I read a book about the Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. He said when they were holed up in their tents in minus 50 degree temperatures, what they did was to pack snow as tightly as they could into their drinking flasks/canteens. Then they would put them in the bottom of their sleeping bags, the radiant heat from their bodies was enough to melt the snow but not enough for them to suffer hypothermia. This was just enough for them to keep going. 'Endurance' if your interested, a very good read.

Oh man, if you don't have more of these videos, please make more!!! This was so interesting especially about the snow, had no idea that would be so detrimental. You might just save lives with this video lol

Survival tip: get an audio book with advice from your grandmother. Play it constantly and follow the instructions... yes including such things as "Don't trust men with moustaches"

Trees can give shelter, but *light no fire* close to one - without checking for snow load on branches above. Collapsing half-slushy, warmed snow will snuff a fire, wet the burnables, AND cool you off.

The shadow line technique for finding north is commonly useful when calibrating a compass. If you want your compass to point true north (and account for magnetic drift) then the shortest shadow of the day, cast by a vertical object, points north along a horizontal surface in the northern hemisphere and south in the southern hemisphere. I've used this on more than one occasion and it's also solidly reliable for determining midday, local time (as opposed to the time of the local timezone) if you're using sunsights for navigation. In the absence of functional safety systems, jumping in a falling elevator has zero effect on outcome. Even at the moment of impact, you assume the elevator's speed - the speed imparted by the jump, then, by the time you hit the deck, gravity has undone the speed change you gained from your jump and you hit the stationary floor of the elevator at the same speed as the elevator was travelling at on impact - which is exactly the same as if you'd just stood there. Caves are not the healthiest place to seek shelter. Never light a fire inside a cave. You'll burn up the oxygen - assuming that something flammable hasn't been gathering there for the past 20000 years and, well, that's one way to go out with a bang! Cave-ins are a feature of mudstone caves, generally not sandstone. If you hear a hiss or see a ghost, leave. A hiss indicates a sediment trickle which, in turn, indicates something's broken and you may not want to be around when the chickens come home to roost. Ghosts, and other locality-specific visual hallucinations, are a visual response to infrasound and infrasound, in any structure (including buildings as well as caves), is indicative of gradual structural collapse and typical of metastable structures which might hold together for years then collapse without warning. In short, if you're not a geologist, don't go deep enough into a cave to need a torch, lamp, or flame. Dehydration by snow consumption makes no sense. Snow cools you down. You don't sweat unless you reach a certain internal temperature no matter how much energy you burn. So, unless snow can elevate your body temperature it can't kill you by dehydration. Hypothermia? Yes. Definitely. Dehydration? Not in this species! Otherwise, eating icy-poles would not be a thing in the summer because it wouldn't feel refreshing or drop your core temperature - which is something that can be a problem in the cold. So, your biggest problem in a cold environment is lack of heat and if it's that cold and you can't find warmth, it won't matter either way.

Very nice Simon as always no matter how intelligent one is you can always learn . Which I did during the use of tampons for injuries . I had heard this and thought it makes sense till I watched this . I am curious and will ask a Doctor friend if the same applies to sanitary napkins for surface pressure dressings . Thanks again for a useful and entertaining show !

If you get urinated on by a jellyfish you must sting the affected area. A stinger is a cooking device commonly used by prisoners to cook food in the prison sink. They often make jellyfish urine stew followed by stinging themself.

The fact that the elevator jump was ever proposed makes me feel good about my understanding of physics.

Ditching an airplane in the ocean is actually extremely difficult (due to waves acting as obstacles and surface tension) and so it’s usually safer to try to crash land on a clear patch of land (e’g’ a field) so the plane can slide to dissipate energy. When I was younger I always assumed you could just ‘land’ on the water but the speed makes it really difficult.

The amount of lost goods inside of collapsed caves from fires is probably crazy

As a lift engineer myself they are very safe the brake can only lift if there is power to it, in a power cut the brake wont be able to pull the relay in that tells the control panel to lift the brake in the first place so dont fear, and 1 of those steel cables is strong enough to hold the lift on its own plus the device under or on top of the lift that is also a brake will pull in if the lift travels fast then the speed it is set to. Lifts are safer than driving a car