Survivor's Edge

We always did a lot of cooking and baking when I was a kid spending time at my grandmother’s house, and I’ll never forget that she kept a 20-pound sack of sugar in the back corner of her pantry. She never used it, and it was an old sack even then. When I asked her why she kept it, Grandma replied, “Because during the Depression in Missouri, we could never get any, so I always keep some just in case.” Just in case: Three words that define the emergency preparation industry. A competent person who is actively concerned about the safety and well-being of his family, neighbors and close friends will entertain contingency scenarios and maintain an adequately supplied cache of gear to support the successful mitigation of these circumstances.…

As the frigid temps begin to creep in for most of the country, it’s time for your gear to transition as well. Here, we bring you the latest equipment to add to your winter EDC gear and arsenal. From trail snacks to wood cutters, we’ve got what you need to take on Old Man Winter and prevail. 1. HYLAND’S Muscle Therapy A good addition to your arsenal should be Hyland’s Muscle Therapy cream. Perfect for topical relief of minor muscle aches, bruising and minor swelling, the quick-absorbing cream is made with natural ingredients that provide safe pain relief with no strong lasting scent. The gel contains Arnica and is made in the USA. MSRP: $10. (hylands.com) 2. IGNIK Gas Growler Deluxe Perfect for hunting, fishing, camping and so forth, the…

Midnight Snack MAN FACES OFF AGAINST 400-POUND BLACK BEAR ACROSS KITCHEN ISLAND! Dave Chernosky didn’t want to get out of bed. He had awoken in the early morning to the sound of doors slamming in the kitchen of his Aspen home. “I hope this isn’t a bear,” he thought. Getting up in the predawn darkness, he left his room and rounded the corner to see what was going on. There he was met with an unlikely scene: the white glow of the refrigerator illuminating pulled-out drawers and cabinets flung open—and a black bear rifling through them. “I jumped behind the counter,” Chernosky said. “The bear had already gotten into a bag of sugar and some blueberries.” With his 12-year-old twins asleep downstairs, Chernosky wanted to get the bear out of…

Donna Rodgers was enjoying a stroll through Eagleglen Fitness Park in Alaska’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson when her son, Brad, called to chat. While they talked, Briana, an Australian shepherd, and Ranger, a greyhound, trotted alongside Rodgers as she pushed a stroller holding her beloved chihuahua, Belle. She had just passed a large sign off of Glenn Highway, only a few minutes down the trail, when her dogs started barking. “The next thing I know, here comes this huge, angry mama moose flying out of the side of the road,” said Rodgers. Two calves were right behind her. “I heard the dogs run after them,” Brad recalled. “They were barking like crazy, so I had no idea what was going on. I was hearing these, you know, curdling screams.” With the…

Five divers had just finished touring the underwater hanging gardens of Komodo National Park in Bali. “After we surfaced, we just signaled the dive boat like we normally do,” Jim remembered. “It wasn’t far away.” It took a few minutes for the group to realize that they were drifting away from the boat, caught in a rip current. Then, they shouted to attract the crew’s attention. Nothing. Eventually, the boat left. The five divers were now alone in the open water. Over the ensuing hours, they tried to swim to one of the nearby islands, but each time the current pushed them away. Exhausted and losing daylight, the group rested on a floating log before making one final attempt to reach land—after this island, they would be swept into the…

For Brian McCarter, it had been an enjoyable day spent visiting neighbors on Callawassie Island in South Carolina alongside his 17-year-old son. But while driving a golf cart past a small pond next to their gated community, they saw a head just visible above the surface. Wasting no time, McCarter jumped out of the golf cart, yelled at his son to call 911, raced down the embankment toward the pond and jumped in. The woman was only 20 feet away, but just as McCarter reached her, she slipped under the surface. He started searching the murky water for signs of life, and the woman soon resurfaced. “I first grabbed her around her chest,” McCarter said. “I couldn’t pull her toward the shore—we both immediately went under.” Not knowing what she…