gear and skills........

Interesting bit of news. Thanks for the post.

I have to say, I like to try and learn what I can to improvise necessities. But, to be dead honest I'd rather anticipate needs and pack properly in the first place. Why make shelter when you can pack a tarp and a bag. Extra weight, yep. A warm cozy feeling if things go wrong, yep.

God bless,
Adam
 
cuphead said:
All I have to say is he was very lucky to have a sleeping bag with him. It's probably what saved his ass.
Click to expand...

That wasn't luck, that was good planning. Luck and skills may save your life in a survival situation, but good planning can allow you to not get into a survival situation at all.

I carry gear every day that I don't use most days, but the days I do need to use some of that are days when I'm not frustrated at needing to do something and not having the gear to do it with. I'd rather carry the extra weight of my SAK then leave the house without it - today might be the day that I need to use it (as a knife to open clamshell packaging or as a screwdriver to open a computer case or whatever) and the same goes for my flashlight & LM Wave & various other bits of useful gear.

If I was travelling by snowmobile in Labrador or anywhere else that cold then I'd sure as hell make sure I was prepared for a breakdown - mechanical failures are not impossible for any piece of machinery!

I ride a 400cc motor scooter and if I had a breakdown in a rural area in the middle of winter late at night with no one around then what would I do? I would probably be glad I keep a survival blanket under the seat (as well as spare fuel, puncture repair kit, tool kit, flashlight, FAK, paracord & rain gear) so that I could huddle up and hopefully not die of hypothermia before morning.

The trick is to plan ahead well and have the right gear with you + have the skills to use that gear + have the skills to improvise if you need something that you don't have.
 
SouthernCross said:
G'day Bushman.

Seems to me to more like an inconvenience, rather than a Survival situation. :thumbdn:

I really think that that there is a difference between an inconvenience & a "survival situation" :D

Bear in mind that the media will always talk up anything :eek:

This comes from the link:

" As he was prepared for his trip by carrying material to light a fire, had food and extra gas as well as a sleeping bag, he survived with little trouble," Sgt. Boyd Merrill said in a statement.

I repeat, he had little trouble.

Come on guys, does this really suggest the guy was in any real trouble?

I've also got to ask questions about how much fuel did he have available?

He has been commended for "carrying material to light a fire". Does this suggest that there was combustible material available for him to have maintained a fire past kindling phase for the warmth?

Or does it mean that he did nothing more than "checked a box for survival", even though it was totally useless because he didn't have access to combustible material to take the fire past tinder/kindling phase to be able to provide enough warmth for the night?
Click to expand...

I don't understand your point. The point of survival practices is that you're never in "a survival situation". If your in a survival situation you've messed up more than a skilled and prepared person ever should have. The fact that he had "Little trouble" is not something to scoff at. He's an example of preparedness. The alternative examples are either dead, or had it much rougher then they should have. Do you only praise those who get in way over there head, and turn something like this non-event into disaster? In every "survival situation" you can point to mistakes made that could have been prevented.

To some of your questions, its mostly dependent on the environment. Labrador can be extremely chaotic. In his case it was -25 overnight, and he should be considered lucky. It could have just as easily been -40 in a blizzard, and he would have survived that to because he was prepared. I think the only time Les Stroud has bugged out was in Labrador. Les Stroud is an example of a highly skilled person, who even then knew to disregard his minimalist "oops" theme and go fully equipped. Even he didn't make it.

"carried material to light a fire" likely meant a source of ignition, and a quantity of kindling required ignite and burn lower quality frozen softwoods. being that he knew he would not be able to find quality firewood in quick order, and would need significant kindling to start a fire quickly.
 
Last edited:
skills vs gear really depends on the environment, if your in a completly snow covered region and your exposed, theres no trees, and its freezing your stuffed regardless of how good your skills are. over here we have tussock plains where temperatures drop below freezing and theres only rocks and tussock to improvse tools with, if you dont have gear your dead.

if your in say the bush tho you can improvise pretty much everything you need to survive from the environment.
 
Some very good points and interesting discussion.
He would have had to been adequately clothed to ride that sled and the expected outside temparatures.Given that a person could easily survive a night with nothing other than what he had on.More than a few days or nights then your going to start to need things for survival water food and a place to rest out of the weather.Much can be done with little and what you carry in your head.
Snow machines and other forms of wilderness travel have compressed our world.A friends trapline can be travelled in one day.He passes 6 line cabins that took the previous owner 6 days to travel to the end on snowshoes.Even my own line I pass by two All in one day.
Huge distances can be travelled taking you far away and a break down can leave you a long way from anything.Having said that its a foolhardy person that doesnt take adaquate preparation with them when venturing.
I learned my lesson early on breaking down and having to walk for 3 days to get back to the cabin.No one was expecting to see me for another week so I was on my own hook.
I had everything except enough food did have a gun but never saw a living thing in that time.
So I guess what my take on this is.Proper equipment,some food,little experience and decent planning will bring you out.
Goose Bay, Happy Valley Is in Labrador?? -thought it was just down the road from Fort McMurray AB lol
Dan'l
 
Seems as though the definition of "gear" comes into play.
Skills required to gather and use the gear??
 
G'day Munky


Munky88 said:
I don't understand your point.
Click to expand...
My point is really very simple.

I can't for the life of me understand how this can be honestly classified as a "survival situation".

Do you reckon it would have made it here if the media had originally reported it as "A man demonstrated nothing more than what used to be called common sense, so his snowmobile malfunction caused a minor inconvenience." :yawn:

I don't think so :D





Kind regards
Mick
 
SouthernCross said:
I can't for the life of me understand how this can be honestly classified as a "survival situation".

Do you reckon it would have made it here if the media had originally reported it as "A man demonstrated nothing more than what used to be called common sense, so his snowmobile malfunction caused a minor inconvenience." :yawn:
Click to expand...
Survival situation is all relative.
Being locked out at night is "fun" to young people but might be a genuine survival situation for an elder with disabilities.

The guy had the right gear, he didn't do anything stupid and he went through. Might seem obvious but morgue stats seem to speak otherwise.

Now shouldn't we discuss "survival" in a snow storm because, you know, for the average eskimo it's all common sense and little inconvenience.

I guess turning "survival situations" in "minor inconveniences" is the point of this forum so nothing wrong to flag it when it happens.
 
SouthernCross said:
Do you reckon it would have made it here if the media had originally reported it as "A man demonstrated nothing more than what used to be called common sense, so his snowmobile malfunction caused a minor inconvenience." :yawn:
Click to expand...

:yawn:

By extension, this is why we don't hear all kinds of exciting stories of SAR members going after well prepared hikers/campers/whateveryouwanttocallitthisweek -- they're prepared and it's not a siurvival situation anymore.

See, the nature of the internet is that everyone wants an either/or extreme outlook on everything.

It's not gear OR skills, it's gear AND skills.

If you have enough gear, you CAN live with little skill, but you still need enough to be able to use the gear.

However, there are places where I don't care how skilled you are, you will die without gear -- and by that, I mean carrying gear. You won't always have enough TIME to make gear in every situation before you die.

See, animals carry their "survival kit" with them: they have sharp teeth, claws, fur and come preprogrammed with their skillset.

Humans gave all that up for opposable thumbs and frontal lobes.

We have the ability to make our own tools (gear), and "write" our own survival "program" (skills). Having an extreme of one can offset lack of the other, but you can't carry that to the extreme of having all of one and none of the other. Those are the cases that make adventuresome reading.

Having the proper balance, means you're not in a survival situation, but makes for more boring reading. Lessons can be learned by both type of story.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top