Reality Check for Survival Fantasies

Scary.....everyone I think fantisizes about how great it would be to be in the woods when the sun is shining,the berries are ripe, and the streams are full of salmon...That's what they see on t.v. or in romanticised novels... but a Montana winter, that's a harsh awakening, and with no firewood cut and now way to light a fire? that's just trouble...
 
Whoa bad news .... Being unpreparred or not planning ahead with knowledge of the area can be a death sentence.... High hopes but when reality set in it was over before they realized...
 
Sad way for that to end for sure.

We like to fantasize about the wilderness but the reality is most people live in urban centers because it's a hell of a lot easier.

Mountain men did not have a particularly long projected lifespan, and they were people who really had to have a lot of experience to be out there at all.

People moving to isolated places from urban centers would have to have a high level of planning and preparation to survive.

Although in this case it sounds like the level of preparedness was especially low. That's pretty sad.
 
He was 44--she was 67...

Both old enough to not make "teenage" mistakes....

He brought weapons--but did not plan for the "winter" cold???

Not sad----as much as foolish...
 
When I was in my teens I loved sleeping in a blanket roll on the bare ground, using my saddle for a pillow. In my 20's I switched to a sleeping bag and kept the saddle, and by late 20's added an ensolite pad and would roll up a sweather for my pillow. Sometime in my 30's I moved onto a Thermorest air mattress. In my 50's I began putting an ensolite pad under my Thermorest air mattress. Now, in my 60's, I want a bed. A good bed. With a thick goose down comforter. And a Swedish Tempur pillow. I 'know' I can still sleep on the ground in a blanket roll if I 'need' to. I donwanna!

Be prepared. :)

Stitchawl
 
I just can't understand not being prepared these days. The amount of knowledge out there on how to survive and prepare for nearly any situation and they don't cut firewood or have a means to light it? Well this is a case of natural selection i'm afraid.

Does this mean that their cabin is up for sale?
 
Man lived in groups back in the cave. Even when man left the cave, the first villages were formed. Villages grew into cities. Like it or not, man is a pack animal for a reason. It's an easier life!

Not too many people choose to go it alone in the wilderness in real life unless they have some sort of problem. Going it alone in the wilderness is not to be done lightly. These people are a perfect example of romantic dreamers who don't know diddly about the real world, let alone Montanna terrain and weather.

I agree with stitchawl. If I go explore any wilderness in my retirement, it's gonna be on some Carribean island with beach service.
 
Sounds very similar to what happened to Christopher McCandless, who was the subject of the book, and movie of the same name, Into the Wild.

"Alaskan Park Ranger Peter Christian wrote: “I am exposed continually to what I will call the ‘McCandless Phenomenon.’ People, nearly always young men, come to Alaska to challenge themselves against an unforgiving wilderness landscape where convenience of access and possibility of rescue are practically nonexistent […] When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did wasn’t even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate. First off, he spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail without even a map of the area. If he [had] had a good map he could have walked out of his predicament […] Essentially, Chris McCandless committed suicide.”"
 
FLIX said:
Read this today:

Oklahoma Woman Freezes to Death in Remote Montana Cabin

Approach Mother Nature with ignorance, carelessness or disregard and things can end very badly for you.

-- FLIX
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Yeah we had a women go missing a few years back, she was 70 I think, last saw in rubber boots, a night gown and a spring coat. The next time we saw here, my friends found he foot in a boot on the way back to their camp, she must have died in the cold(middle of winter) and coyotes got her. Her family knowing moved her on the mountain into a house that my grand parents lived in and left her, checked on her once a week, she was not fit in the head......
 
Runsalone said:
They followed thier hearts...(however misguided) and died doing so. Worse things could be said of men.:(
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Christopher McCandless only killed himself. Treadwell endangered the pilot that was coming to pick him up, he endangered people he encountered because he repeatedly broke the rules of the park he was staying in and because of the way he treated the bears and how they might interact in the future with human beings. Lastly, he was directly responsible for the death of the woman that was with him. To her credit, she tried to fight the bear that was eating Treadwell alive. Then it was her turn.

How many people will read Treadwell's bullshit and end up in the ground, or scattered around the ground, because of it?

So, yeah, Christopher McCandless "followed his heart" but he paid the price. Treadwell? What a total idiot.
 
stitchawl said:
When I was in my teens I loved sleeping in a blanket roll on the bare ground, using my saddle for a pillow. In my 20's I switched to a sleeping bag and kept the saddle, and by late 20's added an ensolite pad and would roll up a sweather for my pillow. Sometime in my 30's I moved onto a Thermorest air mattress. In my 50's I began putting an ensolite pad under my Thermorest air mattress. Now, in my 60's, I want a bed. A good bed. With a thick goose down comforter. And a Swedish Tempur pillow. I 'know' I can still sleep on the ground in a blanket roll if I 'need' to. I donwanna!

Be prepared. :)

Stitchawl
Click to expand...

Amen brother
 
Don Rearic said:
Christopher McCandless only killed himself. Treadwell endangered the pilot that was coming to pick him up, he endangered people he encountered because he repeatedly broke the rules of the park he was staying in and because of the way he treated the bears and how they might interact in the future with human beings. Lastly, he was directly responsible for the death of the woman that was with him. To her credit, she tried to fight the bear that was eating Treadwell alive. Then it was her turn.

How many people will read Treadwell's bullshit and end up in the ground, or scattered around the ground, because of it?

So, yeah, Christopher McCandless "followed his heart" but he paid the price. Treadwell? What a total idiot.
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Thats hard to argue with Don.;) "melissa is eating her babies!!".:eek:
 
If you are interested, a bit longer article from my local paper can be found here.

It is sad that some people so romantisize living in remote areas and then fail to take even the most basic of actions to ensure their survival. I do not see this unfortunate couple as people who planned poorly, but rather as a couple that had no idea what they were in for and failed to plan at all. What a truly haunting seen it must have been.
 
They were found with two dead cats and three dead dogs and they ran out of food? :confused:
 
o9nce agin treadwell,Christopher McCandless, their ego made promises their knowledge and bodies could not keep. there is no romance about the snowbound cabin in the montana wilderness, it is a cold bleak existance, a lot of work just to stay alive, and without preperation you end up like all three of these examples. treadwell caused the death of two bears, so much for his love of these animals.

alex
 
jackknife said:
Man lived in groups back in the cave. Even when man left the cave, the first villages were formed. Villages grew into cities. Like it or not, man is a pack animal for a reason. It's an easier life!

Not too many people choose to go it alone in the wilderness in real life unless they have some sort of problem. Going it alone in the wilderness is not to be done lightly. These people are a perfect example of romantic dreamers who don't know diddly about the real world, let alone Montanna terrain and weather.

I agree with stitchawl. If I go explore any wilderness in my retirement, it's gonna be on some Carribean island with beach service.
Click to expand...

I dont really agree with you here..going it alone isnt a sign of a troubled soul...it could be that a person with issues would want to go it alone, and so could the opposite..someone that likes to be alone and is just fine with it. Just becuase you might not want to be alone doesnt make it the "right" way to be.
These 2 poor folks sounded like they more than likely had some issues..I feel sorry for them, but only just...they acted foolishly.
Look at Richard Perniky (spelling) ..he moved to Alaska in his fifties..he worked hard and lived. Getting up in the morning and chopping wood, tending a garden, canning, and hunting might sound like a rough life to someone stuck in cubicle, next to the candy machine and espresso maker..but some men and women dont mind hard work..infact I think its good for your soul..keeps things straight..IMO.
Check out the post here from today about the people on Hope Point Alaska..a tough life for sure..but clean. I also wonder about the supposed theory that many folks lived such short lives in the day gone by..I believe that many died, from many different dangers and hazzards..but so do we today, cancer, car accidents, murder..remember, there is alot more of us today, and alot more of us that are cashing in on the odds of making it to an older age. Sure, modern medicine plays a huge part..but aside from that..I doubt there is much difference..infact, for all of those of us living now, we are more than likely mildly sick in some way or another...we eat processed corn 90% of the time we eat....just some thoughts..not really "facts"
 
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