Did anyone watch Dateline on tuesday? (April 18) They had a story about a father and son who were driving across the country and decided to get out of their car and do a day hike up the side of a mountain. They had gone some distance up the mountain, when the dad reached up to a rock for a handhold and caused a rockslide. They both went tumbling down the side of the mountain and ended up with broken bones. The dad also sustained a nasty head injury and was very disoriented.
This is where it starts to pertain to some of our threads. Plainsman recently started a thread about whether or not to bring your survival guide with you when you go into the woods. Two of the scenarios that took place in the Dateline story I mentioned in my reply to his question. (How convenient
) I said that you should always bring it in case you hit your head and become disoriented or have someone with you that is relying on YOUR survival knowledge. This story also pertains to another thread where we were talking about getting lost. A couple people said that they always make sure that they mentally note where landmarks are before they head out, so they don't think that they would ever get lost. The point I made was that you don't know what is going to happen to you when you head out and that it's a lot easier to get lost than most people think. Fortunately, the dad had one of the most important survival tools of all,(if it works) a cell phone. The boy called the sheriff and a search was started. The boy had no idea where they were, but could see the interstate. The sheriff had a fire engine and police car go up and down the interstate until the boy could see/hear them and pinpoint his position. This story had a happy ending, but what if they didn't have a cell phone or were out of range? It would have been nice to have a survival guide for the boy to follow. He was very mature for his age and stayed relatively calm throughout. The father eventually started to snap out of it as the searchers were already heading up the mountain. He also probably could have used a guide to help them survive if they had been further back in.
What do you think??
By the way, it's nice to have a real life story to back up your point.
Take care, (AND your survival guide)
Jim
