Best Survival Blankets To Survive The Bitter Cold

Emergency Survival Blankets Save Lives – Get Some…

Call them what you will – survival blanket, mylar blanket, space blanket, or emergency blanket.

You should own one.

Winters, where I come from, is harsh.

The Rocky Mountains are not gentile – especially if sheltering in snow and ice.

Becoming trapped in freezing temperatures is a recipe for disaster.

In Colorado, keeping a blanket inside your trunk or glove box is standard practice.

It’s a smart insurance policy if you happen to get stuck overnight in frigid conditions.

Imagine driving on a rural mountain road in the dead of night. All of a sudden, your car discovers some black ice.

Your wheels lose traction, and you lose control. You helplessly slide sideways into a massive snowdrift.

You hit the gas, but your wheels spin freely – you’re stuck.

There’s little hope of traffic at this late hour, so you quickly dial a tow truck company.

Phew, you reach them, but “sorry, you’ll have to wait until morning.”

You have no choice; you must take refuge from the freezing winter conditions.

It’s time to huddle inside your vehicle, and thankfully you’re protected from the wind.

But the freezing cold temps begin seeping in, little by little, hour by hour.

↓ Scary…Trapped In A Blizzard ↓

But luckily, you’ve prepared for this.

Instead of nearly freezing to death, you grab your mylar blanket from a winter survival kit you keep in your car.

It’s small, light, and takes up nearly no space, and it will keep you warm tonight – possibly saving your life.

Staying warm is a key factor in surviving such a perilous situation. Hypothermia is no joke.

Exposure kills about 1300 people in the US every year. Sadly most of those deaths could have been prevented with a survival blanket.

The problem is that many options claim to use high-tech, fancy materials to keep you warm. Some of those claims are accurate, and others, well, less so.

So buyer, beware!

Trusting a mylar blanket that won’t keep you warm when you need it most is a terrible survival technique.

You absolutely must make sure the survival blanket you buy works as advertised.

Otherwise, you might be up an icy creek without a paddle.

That’s precisely why I wrote this guide. It’s meant to cut through the static and false advertising floating around out there.

So today, we’ll be covering the following topics:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Best Survival Blankets For Sale

Types of Survival Blankets

How To Properly Use One

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Best Survival Blankets For Sale Today

Here are some of the most popular ones available on the market:

↓ Bug Out Bag Shelter – TACT Bivvy Review ↓

↓ SOL Escape Bivvy: Bug Out Bag Option ↓

↓ Arcturus Military Wool Blanket Review ↓

↓ Get Out Gear Down Puffy Blanket Review ↓

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Ultimate Survival Gear Checklist. Click Here To Get Your FREE Copy Of It.

Different Types Of Survival Blankets

Like anything as useful as emergency blankets, there are different materials used.

Over the years, as survival technology has changed, so too have blankets.

Some of these have stuck around through the years and are still widely used today.

Others have faded with the ages.

Animal Pelts

Originally, blankets were animal pelts.

Way back in the day, our ancestors used mammoth hides for their tents and blankets. But pelts (especially those of mammoths) are thick and heavy, and bulky.

While useful, they make for extremely heavy blankets.

Wool Blanket

One of history’s favorite materials for survival blankets has been wool. Why wool?

Compared to leather hides, wool is much lighter.

It’s also very warm, insulates well to trap heat and it’s water-resistant.

Wool blankets are notoriously warm and available in various styles, sizes, and prices.

Some come from boutiques and can get expensive. Others are cheap and easy to find at army surplus stores.

Polar Fleece

But even wool is bulky compared to modern blankets, like polar fleece.

Made from synthetic material, polyester, polar fleece is extremely lightweight.

It also compresses easily into a pack or a tight space.

It’s easy to wash and stretches more than most other fabric materials.

Down and Synthetic Down

Down and synthetic down are my personal favorite sleeping bags for backpacking and wilderness adventures.

They generate tons of heat and trap most of your body heat, keeping it from dissipating.

Down is one of the warmest materials known to man, which is why the best modern sleeping bags use it.

The advantage of synthetic down is that it can get wet and keep you warm – while real down loses its heat-generating abilities as soon as it gets damp.

These make excellent survival blankets. You can pack them into small stuff sacks for portable storage.

Space Blanket

But even down and polar fleece is bulky compared to space blanket technology.

Originally designed by NASA, BoPET (Biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate) is a hyper-light material that looks sort of like tin foil.

It’s more commonly known as Mylar.

Mylar blankets are a highly durable material that folds into the size of an un-popped package of popcorn.

This stuff has saved countless lives in backcountry and wilderness situations.

In fact, many medical teams carry mylar space blankets in their first aid survival kits.

It’s insanely light, it packs down into almost nothing, and it’s ideal for trapping body heat.

Tips For Using An Emergency Blanket Properly

Alright, so you’ve bought a mylar blanket, and the time has come to use it.

But when you’re thrown into an emergency, and it is freaking cold outside – now what?

Using an emergency blanket is not as straightforward as most people think – it requires some explanation or directions for proper use.

This is not the case.

Mylar technology requires a little bit of know-how to use effectively. Here are some facts and tips that might help:

↓ How An Emergency Blanket Almost Killed Me! ↓

1. Be CAREFUL when you pull your emergency blanket out.

Yes, they’re advertised as “extremely durable.” But Mylar won’t stand up to contact with sharp objects – like a large fixed-blade knife.

There are instances of survival blankets tearing when pulled out of their container.

So be gentle!

Don’t panic, even if you’re cold and afraid. Remove your Mylar blanket from its pouch slowly and tenderly.

If you tear it, you’re in trouble.

2. Mylar does NOT generate heat.

Unfortunately, while Mylar is incredible, it doesn’t overcome the law of thermodynamics. It will contain your body heat, block wind, and help maintain your temperature.

But it’s not going to increase your body temperature.

3. “One is none.”

We highly recommend that you always keep at least two Mylar blankets handy.

Think rationally: these blankets are ultra-thin and weigh next to nothing. You can layer them up and double your heat retention capabilities if you have two.

Or, if you’re with another person when a frigid disaster strikes, you’ll have an extra to share.

4. Never pull a Mylar blanket over your head.

Tempting as it may be to wrap yourself up entirely like a mummy, face and all, DO NOT DO IT!

Mylar doesn’t breathe.

So when your face is inside, your breath will create condensation on the inside. This condensation will drop your body temperature like a rock.

The drier the inside of your Mylar blanket stays, the better off you will be.

You’ll also be traping in your exhaled breath or CO2. So over time, you could pass out due to the increased CO2 air mixture build-up trapped in the mylar blanket.

5. The Bigger, the Better.

When it comes to Mylar blankets, go big or go home.

Some of them are sized for children or young adults. If you unknowingly get one of those, you might find it too small to cover you up completely.

So pay close attention to the dimensions of the Mylar blankets you decide to invest in.

Final Thoughts

When people prepare for emergencies, they usually think of survival food and emergency water storage first – which is natural (and practical) preparation.

But many forget the need to preserve your body heat in an emergency or survival situation.

Exposure can kill a person in mere minutes.

So, it won’t matter how many dehydrated meals you stash or how much water you’ve stored without a way to protect yourself from extreme exposure.

You’re fatally vulnerable without a survival blanket.

Luckily, emergency blankets are easy to come by and cheap.

There is no good reason NOT to add one to your bug-out bag, survival kits, and survival vehicle.

I like to think of these blankets as one of the most affordable, one-time fee insurance policies you can buy.

Will Brendza

Will earned his Bachelor of Arts, University of Colorado at Boulder

Member of The 10th Mountain Division Hut Association

Certifications: Avalanche 1, WFR (expired), CPR (expired)

Spent 8+ years researching, writing, and teaching Survival and Preparedness

Awards from Society of Professional Journalists

Winner of Camp Cold’s “Happy Camper” award in 2020

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