How to Build a Lean-to
This easy-to-build shelter will help you stay warm and dry in the wilderness.
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Easy
Instructions
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1
Select a good spot to build your lean-to. Build in a fringe area, neither in the center of a field nor a dense thicket, but somewhere between these areas. Choose an area at least 50 yards from a body of water, as evaporating water tends to add extra chill to the air.
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2
Find a fallen tree or a large, long rock to build your lean-to against. You can also tie a branch horizontally between two trees a few feet off the ground. There are hundreds of variables to making a lean-to; the important thing is that you have a sturdy brace to lean your structure against.
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3
Lean stout sticks along the horizontal brace of your lean-to. Crawl beneath them to make sure there is enough room to sleep under. There shouldn't be too much extra room, but it should be long enough to cover you completely.
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4
Pile smaller branches and twigs on top of your stout branches, leaving only an opening at either end exposed.
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5
Pile all manner of debris - moss, leaves, pine needles, dried fern or whatever nature makes available - on top of your structure.
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1
Tips & Warnings
The more brush and debris you pile on your lean-to, the more insulated it will be inside.
Obviously you want to be very careful with fire around your lean-to. Dry brush is very flammable.
Make your lean-to recognizable from the outside, so someone looking for you will not pass it by. Lean-tos tend to blend in with surroundings.
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Comments
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Build a camp fire. It will keep you warm and rescuers will see that at night. Use a bow drill method of a stick rotated into a dry piece of wood by a shoelace and another stick going back and forth like playing the violin. The sawdust created will catch fire from the friction created. Then put that into some dry leaves. Fire. The Boy Scouts should be mandatory training for all citizens.
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pancakes
Dec 12, 2006
I like Cheese
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pancakes
Dec 12, 2006
I like Cheese
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Jun 30, 2006
The tallest point of your lean-to should never be higher than your hips. I built a lean-to on a survival trip in the Alberta Rockies in February 2003. I'd never been warmer winter camping, and it snowed about 4 feet that night. The key is to make it small enough to keep your body heat circulating, but big enough to let air flow and allow for movement. Just stay high, dry, and warm.
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Jun 30, 2006
The tallest point of your lean-to should never be higher than your hips. I built a lean-to on a survival trip in the Alberta Rockies in February 2003. I'd never been warmer winter camping, and it snowed about 4 feet that night. The key is to make it small enough to keep your body heat circulating, but big enough to let air flow and allow for movement. Just stay high, dry, and warm.
