Wilderness Survival For Dummies

People just can't get enough of extreme reality. Whether they're stepping away from Wall Street or Main Street to don a neoprene dry suit and brave the glacial rapids of Alaska's mighty Matanuska River, slathering on the Deep Woods Off and loading their pack for an off-the-grid solo hike, or conjuring up their inner Magellan to chart the open waters at sea, people are looking for adventure!

This summer, the trusty yellow-and-black reference series published a one-stop shop for advice on how to survive and enjoy "the great outdoors.” In Wilderness Survival For Dummies® (Wiley, 978-0-470-45306-3, July 2009), field experts John F. Haslett and Cameron M. Smith, PhD, teach readers how to navigate using both a compass and the sky, forage for food, create and use a solar still, and much more. From building a campfire to signaling for help and identifying edible plants and insects, readers can find loads of practical information on living in the wild.

Veteran expedition leader and adventure writer John Haslett has spent decades catching unpleasant tropical diseases, explaining himself to local authorities, and fleeing from various misguided animals. In the 1990s, with the help of an isolated community of Ecuadorian mariners, John built four 30,000-pound wooden rafts and then voyaged on the Pacific Ocean for hundreds of days!

Coauthor Cameron M. Smith’s mountaineering, sailing, archaeological, and icecap expeditions have taken him to Africa, South America, arctic Alaska, Canada, and Iceland. In 2004, he made the first solo winter ski crossing of Iceland’s storm-lashed Vatnajokull icecap, an expedition televised on the National Geographic Channel. He is currently documenting arctic Alaska by trekking on, piloting a paraglider over, and scuba diving beneath the sea ice. A Life Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Explorers Club, and a member of the Society for Human Performance in Extreme Environments, Cameron is currently writing a narrative of his Iceland expeditions and preparing for balloon exploration of the stratosphere as well as another Pacific expedition with John Haslett. You can track his expedition at www.cameronmsmith.com.

About For Dummies^®

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