98.6 Degrees. The Art of Keeping Your *** Alive
I just completed 98.6 Degrees. The Art of Keeping Your *** Alive by Cody Lundin, I told Sarge I would provide a review so here it is.
As the title suggests, this book looks more at the physiology as well as the psychology of keeping you alive rather than the best type of shelter to build or the types of fire pits you can fabricate.
Mr. Lundin explains in detail the mechanics of how your body reacts to stressful situations, hypothermia for example, and what the impacts of those physical changes are on your chances and ability to survive. He also explains how you can counter many of those changes when an otherwise nice afternoon outing turns into a life and death struggle. Maintaining a core temperature of 98.6 degrees is, as I’m sure you’ve surmised, the fundamental law of the book and of nature.
Whether you have completed a Wilderness First Responder medical course or have trouble with the directions on how to open a band aid, his explanations are thorough enough for anyone to understand. As he suggests, “Don’t freak out on the big words; just understand the simple principles behind them.” And he does an admirable job explaining those principles.
He also spends time explaining the components of his survival kit and offers some innovative ideas with regard to a good many of the components. For example, “One of my (water) bottles has a short piece of parachute cord…(that) forms a loop that allows me to tie on cordage and lower the bottle into a crevice, wash, or windmill casing to retrieve water.”
Not a profound, earth shaking revelation but a simple addition that could provide you potable water in an otherwise dry situation. The loop and the windmill casing were both items I had never considered.
I found the book to be an informative compilation of the do’s and don’ts of outdoor survival as it relates to the human anatomy and allowed me to observe another dimension of outdoor survival. It’s yet another tool in my mental toolbox and an overall good read.
