SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge 02: Build a Natural Shelter

In the first challenge, you learned how to find North without using a compass. For Challenge 02, you’re going to put your shelter-building skills into practice.

A good outdoor shelter isn’t about building the biggest or most impressive structure you can. It’s about understanding what makes a shelter useful, choosing a sensible location and putting together something that gives you protection from the conditions around you.

Your challenge here is to build a simple natural shelter using materials that are already available in the area.

Your Challenge

Can you build a simple natural shelter?

Find a suitable outdoor location and build a small shelter using natural materials.

Your shelter should have a clear structure, provide some protection from the weather and be strong enough to stay standing when you step away from it.

You don’t need to build somewhere that you intend to sleep. This is a skills challenge, so concentrate on the construction and the decisions you make along the way.

Before You Start

If you’ve never built a natural shelter before, start by learning the basics first.

Think about:

• Choosing a suitable location
• Using the surrounding landscape to your advantage
• Creating a strong framework
• Adding a suitable covering
• Allowing enough space inside
• Avoiding unstable trees, branches and other hazards

Remember that a shelter should protect you from the environment, not put you in greater danger.

What You’ll Need

Try to keep this challenge as simple as possible.

You can use suitable natural materials that are already on the ground, such as fallen sticks, branches, leaves and other vegetation where permitted.

You may also use basic outdoor equipment such as:

• A knife or suitable cutting tool if required and appropriate
• Cordage
• Gloves
• A camera or phone for your challenge photograph

Don’t damage living trees or plants to complete the challenge. Work with what you can responsibly collect from the ground and always follow the rules of the land you’re using.

Take the Challenge

Start by choosing a safe location.

Look at the ground around you and consider which direction the weather is likely to come from. Look for natural features that could help protect your shelter, but avoid areas underneath dead branches, beside unstable trees, in hollows where water could collect or anywhere that could become hazardous.

Now decide what type of shelter you are going to build.

Keep your first attempt manageable. A simple lean-to or similar structure is more useful for learning than spending hours trying to construct something enormous and unneeded.

Build a strong framework first. Make sure the main supports are stable before adding the covering.

Once the framework is secure, add your natural materials. Work from the bottom upwards so that the covering overlaps and provides better protection from rain and wind.

When you think you’re finished, step back and look at the shelter properly.

Is it stable?

Would the covering stay in place?

Is there enough room underneath?

Would it give you some protection from wind or rain?

Most importantly, is it safe?

If something doesn’t look right, improve it before you finish.

Your Shelter Test

Before calling the challenge complete, give your shelter a simple test.

Step away from it and leave it standing for a few minutes.

If it collapses or parts of it start moving, work out why and improve the construction.

You aren’t trying to create a perfect survival shelter. You’re learning how to assess a location, choose materials and construct something that works.

Complete the Challenge

This is where you show what you’ve built.

Take a clear photograph of your completed shelter. Try to take the photograph from far enough away that the whole structure can be seen.

Then share your evidence through your SGUK member profile.

How to Submit Your Challenge

1. Go to your SGUK member profile.
2. Open your Social Activity area.
3. Upload your photograph to your activity wall.
4. Add #SGUKChallenge02 to your post.
5. Share your activity.

Your photograph should clearly show the shelter you built.

Challenge 02 Checklist

Before you submit your evidence, make sure you have:

Once you’ve shared your evidence and it has been verified, the SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge 02 is complete and the completed challenges figure will be updated on your profile.

Want to Push Yourself?

Build another shelter somewhere different.

This time, think carefully about how you position it in relation to the wind, the ground and the surrounding landscape.

You could also challenge yourself to build the shelter using fewer materials or in a shorter amount of time.

The more shelters you build, the more you’ll start to understand that good shelter building is as much about choosing the right place and using what is available as it is about construction.

What’s Next?

You’ve now put another practical outdoor skill to the test.

You don’t have to complete the challenges in numerical order. Look through the SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge collection and choose another challenge that interests you.

Learn the skill. Get outside. Have a go. Then show us what you’ve done.

Learn. Practise. Master.

That’s what the SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge is all about.