Beyond The Fall / Field Reference
Pull the card.
Work the card.
Fifty-two large format cards, printed front and back for 104 pages of reference. One subject per card, gloss coated to hold up outdoors, and sized to read at arm's length in bad light.
52Cards
104Printed faces
7 x 5 in178 x 127 mm
GlossWeather resistant
Section 01
Built forAmerican ground
The United States holds nearly every climate band on the planet inside its own borders. Six terrain zones, and the deck is written for the conditions in each one rather than for a single generic outdoors.
01
ARID SOUTHWEST
AZ / NM / NV / W. TEXAS
Ground that pulls water out of you faster than you can put it back, on a surface that swings 40 F (22 C) between noon and dawn.
- Sparse water
- Wide daily swing
- Open sightlines
02
CONTINENTAL HEARTLAND
MIDWEST / GREAT PLAINS
Open country with nothing standing between you and the weather, holding the widest annual temperature range in the country.
- Fast moving storms
- Open exposure
- Deep frost line
03
HIGHLAND ROCKIES
CO / MT / WY / ID / UT
Thin air and steep ground, where conditions turn over with every 1,000 ft (300 m) you climb.
- Thin air
- Steep grade
- Unstable slope
04
SUBTROPICAL SOUTH
FL / GULF COAST / LOWER SE
Heat and humidity that never break, where water sits everywhere and most of it is a problem rather than a resource.
- High humidity
- Storm season
- Rapid decay
05
TEMPERATE WOODLANDS
NEW ENGLAND / APPALACHIA / PNW
The deepest natural larder in the country, under cover so dense that sightlines close to 30 ft (9 m).
- Dense cover
- Four seasons
- Rich ground
06
POLAR ALASKA
ALASKA / FAR NORTH
Cold that turns fatal in hours rather than days, with short working light and ground frozen most of the year.
- Sustained cold
- Short daylight
- Frozen ground
Section 02
When it hits
Every disaster card is built the same way. Warning signs, immediate actions, cover and movement decisions, and the hazards that arrive after the event has passed.
Select a card
Section 03
What heals you. What hunts you.
Identification is the whole job. Photographs on every card, with the marks that separate a remedy from a poison, and a warning sign from a fatal one.
The Ground Pharmacy
Plants and Natural Medicine
Plant profiles with identification marks, habitat, preparation, and the toxic look-alikes that put people in hospital.
- What the plant treats and what it will not
- Where it grows and in which season
- Which part to take and how to prepare it
- The dangerous look-alike and how to tell them apart
20 plant profiles
What Walks Into Camp
Dangerous Wildlife
Wildlife profiles covering behaviour, tracks and signs, avoidance, and what to do once avoidance has already failed.
- Active hours and feeding patterns
- Tracks, scat, and territorial marks
- How to avoid an encounter entirely
- What to do when one is already happening
12 wildlife profiles
Section 04
Feeding yourself
Eight game and fish groups, each carried from the first sign in the dirt through to food that keeps. Deer, squirrels, rabbits and hares, game birds, waterfowl, freshwater fish, saltwater fish, shellfish.
01
TRACK
Sign, prints, scat, and feeding windows that tell you what is moving and when.
02
TAKE
Trap placement, approach, and tools you can build from what is around you.
03
PROCESS
Field dressing and butchery sequence with a single blade and no table.
04
HOLD
Smoking, drying, salting, and cool storage before spoilage takes the work back.
Also in the deck
The rest of what we cover
Four more groups sit behind the four sections above. Same format, same density, same one subject per card.
CAMP AND SHELTER
Setting up
- Campsite selection
- Shelter types by terrain
- Emergency signalling
- Fire placement
TOOLS AND FIELDCRAFT
Making things work
- Axe use and maintenance
- Load bearing knots
- Spear and slingshot
- Cordage and lashing
- Raft building and water crossing
FIELD MEDICINE
When it goes wrong
- First aid priorities
- Fractures and splinting
- Infection control
- Heat and cold injury
- Hygiene and waste
NAVIGATION
Knowing where you are
- Map and terrain reading
- Celestial navigation
- Timekeeping without a clock
- Measurements and conversions
Camp
Tools
Terrain
Weather
Plants
Wildlife
Medicine
Built to get wet
Paper does not need a signal
No battery. No tower. Readable in low light, survives a pack and a glovebox, and you can hand one card to someone else while you keep working.
Establish The Protocols