Alone - mindset: lessons learned and random musings

[VaughnT]

I used to go through this with the guys I once worked with. You can plink at the square range and shoot bottles in your back yard, but don't mistake that for building the skills necessary to win a gunfight.

Training to win means training under the worst possible conditions. You never know what it's going to be like when you need to survive, but there's a pretty good chance that it won't be a warm summer's evening.

The cast of Alone spent an inordinate amount of time talking themselves out of staying. You could see it in the words they chose. They wanted to quit so they came up with a lot of reasons to justify quitting. And they wanted to be sure that the viewer understood their 'logic' and agreed with them. They didn't want to come off as 'giving up' simply because they were cold, tired, hungry, lonely, etc. They didn't want to be perceived as wimps.

 

[upnorth]

My first thought? God dammit that 1/4 thick honking sharpened prybar was friggin heavy and hard to use! (It wasn't, when I used it to practice for fun, without fatigue before).

When you're alone, you only have you. And you have to deal with your exhaustion, slower judgment skills, inability to do grand endeavors that worked fine in your backyard practice. You will probably devolve to being able to use only gross motor movements. So, train using those movements.

Train for exhaustion. Train to know how you will operate when you're miserable, and when laying down to die starts to seem like the more desired alternative.

Know exactly how your mind and your heart will perform when things are at their worst.

Then work backwards from there.

So much truth here. I basically followed the same mind set instinctively, with certain tools, under the crappiest conditions that I could find around here. You learn things from extremes. Like even using something as easy as a lighter doesn't quite work so well with fingers that have 50% function. I was even in such cold once that the lighter and grass barely lit. North shore of Lake Athabasca mid winter. It spooked me a bit and made me take some of this stuff much more seriously. Later on with help and knowledge from this forum, I learned not to wait until I was in such a poor situation physically, to initiate a fire etc. Live and learn.

 

[flipe8]

One of the other challenging things about being alone is dealing with your own irrational thoughts during the solitude. When every sound is louder and every shadow is scarier, you have to steady yourself in a way that just doesn't happen when you're with others. At times, you've got to acknowledge you're making choices due to those thoughts(fears). While on a solo paddling trip along the coast of New Brunswick earlier this summer, I ended up changing one of my campsites due to the fact I stumbled up on the remains of some sort of big cat on the beach. I knew that as the darkness fell, those remains would play with my head despite all rational thoughts.

 

[leghog]

Few people will train under the circumstances you describe. That is mostly a military thing where it can be essentially forced. I suspect that you are exactly right when it came to the participants (especially the last four) on Alone. The weight loss still amazes me if it is correct.

You really cannot train that way without a real safety net else it isn't training but real world. While the training is dangerous, properly planned and executed military training provides that safety net. See the swim analogy used earlier in the thread. That analogy touches on it. You might be in the water learning to swim, but the instructor ensures the "safety net" is there to get you out of the situation if needed vs. letting you die in the water.

 

[Rick Marchand]

My skills mentor promoted the necessity to train beyond your comfort zone, even more so than mastering the techniques themselves. Every contestant in Alone, who tapped out early did so for mental/emotional reasons. Whether it is fear of a predator or the perceived hopelessness of losing a vital piece of kit... these are all decisions based on "what if" not "what is". Learning to recognize and respond to "what is" cannot be stressed enough. The contestants who stayed on all showed a strong ability to stay in the present and deal with things as they manifested in real-time. It is good to be mindful of the future and the consequences of your actions but NOW is the only true reality.

During my highschool and college years, we held many a "bush party" where you would find yourself out for a weekend with a case of beer and a bag of potato chips. Folks would crash where they fell. Sometimes it rained... sometimes it was a scorcher. Very few of us had any equipment to speak of. We didn't "survive", we partied and enjoyed ourselves. Nobody died or got hypothermia... if you did, you probably would have been pants'd and drawn on with magic markers.

It is a head game. Keep your head on straight and play the game.

 

[XPac]

On Dual Survival Cody Lundine would so say over and over and over again that Survival was 90% psychology.

That Alone show certainly hammered that point home.

 

[mtwarden]

I posted a thread a couple of years ago "what can we learn from ultra runners" amongst many the importance of hydration, nutrition, obviously fitness, but probably most important was mindset- to run 50, 100 (or more) miles up, around, over and repeat woods numerous times- takes an incredible will and mindset. The "boogie man" is often ourselves; coping with extremely difficult situations and not giving makes one so much stronger in all aspects of one's life

I wholeheartedly agree w/ Woods Walker- get out as much as can, life is short!

 

[Herlock]

Very interesting thread. Enjoyed very much the whole reading . I don’t know so much about the TV show and don’t watch much TV anyway . The only real experience I have about something similar, it dates back more than 20 years ago, during my compulsory (at that time) military service. I was serving in Alpine Troops, as a rifleman. The most feared mandatory training for recruits was this “Winter Camp”. It was nick-named “la settimana bianca” (winter ski holidays) but it was quite the opposite of a Club Med vacation . The platoon was out for one week in the Alps woods in January. Average temperatures ranged from -15°C to +5°C. The whole training was about marching for kilometers in deep snow with snowshoes and the military version of cross country skis , setting down the machine-guns and mortars, taking posts, shooting targets, dig kind of trenches in the snow, take up machine guns and mortars, marching, setting up shelters for the night, waking up from explosions, etc. Eating only MRE with no possibility to light up proper fires. Basically it was sleeping privation and exhaustion training. Clothing soon got wet with no possibility to proper dry them and we were shivering most of the day, unless moving. The backpack was weighting like a truck on my shoulders. Even pissing was a chore, specially during the nights . Several guys had to withdrawn due to principles of hypothermia and principles of trench foot and frostbites. At that time, the gear for the non-professional Army was rather low-quality. Some guys injured themselves (not seriously), some just broke down emotionally. In the mornings, if we were not woken up by “mock” explosions (and therefore jump ready to respond sham enemy fire) there was the exercise to field strip, clean and re-assemble the AR Beretta 70/90. I can tell you, in the cold wind raging, with half frozen hands, with no sleep, little food, exhaustion and fatigue, even this rather simple operation it was a chore. Of course we were 19-21 years old bunch and medical staff was always around . Never experienced anything that extreme afterwards, in my civilian life.

I don’t know… In principle I recognize the good of trainings like this, on the other hand I ask myself why (besides the 500.000 $ prize going to the competition winner in TV show ). I mean, one thing is to keep fit (I run three times per week, MTB when I can, do some cross-fit training, etc.), to practice some skills (I try to be out in the woods or at sea when I can) but seriously… why shall I put myself in such chores and dangers? Why, at this point of my life I’d need to “train for exhaustion. Train to know how you will operate when you're miserable, and when laying down to die starts to seem like the more desired alternative”? I know already I will operate miserably . For me hiking and camping out it’s just a relaxing activity and a sound and healthy way to spend time with my family. In my areas also, the possibility of getting lost in the woods, mountains, etc. is very, very little. There’s no “real” wilderness. Mountains are populated by villagers, hikers, ranchers, fishermen, campers, skiers, etc. We go travelled tracks, marked trails. Cell phones are always working and now, out of five members in the family, at least four have their own one . Mountains huts and bivouacs are mostly always manned. Unless one really want to play it extreme and climb glaciers or do some crazy off-piste skiing you are rarely in real danger situations.

About being alone, I don’t know. Most of the times I appreciate being out alone. Maybe because it happens to me very rarely now. Alone in the woods, on a mountain peak, by myself. I think few things in life are more rewarding. I am just by myself, into the nature. It’s a sort of prayer, I come to think about the mighty and the beauty of the world and the meaning of my hike on Earth and the sound of my footsteps on the dry leaves or on the rocks it’s a kind of melody . As I said somewhere else, I always have a positive feeling, a feeling of benign presences in nature. Sure I have to behave, not taking unnecessary risks, be prudent and careful but that’s it. I don’t feel I have any “challenge” with nature, rather, sometimes, a challenge with myself and my limits. But surely not to the extent of running routinely such training exercises .

 

[Chignecto Woodsman]

Good points. I would really like to see how people make out in winter. Hopefully one of the seasons will focus on it. Psychologically and physically it separates the men from the boys, while also giving unique opportunities to hunt food.

 

[gadgetgeek]

For a winter situation I'd like to see a show where they say had two weeks and unlimited food to build a shelter, then were supplied with four weeks of adequate rations, enough to live on for that time, longer if stretched, or shorter if they trade food for fire. Then they sort of have a running start for hunting, getting a routine going, more along the lines of what the old trappers and gold miners might have started off with. That gives enough time for the psychological factors to set in, but a larger calorie buffer which would make it much more survivable. running out of food in the winter would put guys in danger very fast. If I was doing that sort of thing, one of my 10 items would be an airtight style wood stove.

 

[Chignecto Woodsman]

Yeah, that's a few issues with winter. It basically dictates the use of a stove, top sleeping bag, and/or an excellent shelter. One of the best things about winter though is that you can take a sled and thus a lot more gear if you need it. Giving them a chance to build their own shelter would show a very specific skillset, although maybe skew it in certain individuals favour.

That's one good thing about some amount of supplies, it gives a chance to see other skills. But it also relieves some of the stress of having to find food. You're right though in that the situation can be very dangerous without winter experience.