What makes a person a survival expert?

I dont know to be fair, the age matters only to an extent. I mean, I have friends from all diffrent age categorys, and their are some 20 year old's I be much more cumfy with then some that are 30.
Its also your personality, when I think of an expert, I think thats someone who is open to every option, and has explored them for that matter, in other words experience, whether through trial in error, or if the get it the first time, as long as they have an understanding of it, and have experienced it in some way shape or form.
 
This makes me think.

I'm pretty good in the woods around here anyway. I've got some experience in Utah and other places.

I know one thing; the more you learn the less you know.
 
I don't take stock in the "expert" classification. Some know a lot, but everyone can learn more. No one knows it all. I think the best survivors would have to be whatever indegenous people are living (or have lived) in the area that one needs to survive in. And then the elders would be the experts by the simple fact they have lived through what nature has thrown at them.
When I was 14 I lived in the woods for a week living on birds baked in mud, 34yrs later I still try to soak up any info I can, learn what I can and pass this knoledge on to my kid and anyone else who wants it.
 
A Survival expert is someone who can overcome the odds in diversity !!!
 
IMHO, an expert is someone who has made all the mistakes and remembers them :)

Who would I give creedance to as a survival expert?

Someone who has done it. Practice counts, but real survival means a lot, more for the psychological aspect than anything. I think anyone can learn the skills, but keeping your head straight is number one.

Military survival/SERE experience, more because of the range of terrain types covered as anything else. Being able to survive while others are trying to capture or kill you has to add a few points!

Someone with experience and teaching skills in the following:

First aid credentials, particularly with mountaineering medicine

Navigation skills: map, compass, and use of sun and stars

Knowledge of edible plants

Hunting, fishing, and trap building/snaring techniques

Locating and evaluating water sources

Bushcraft: fire starting, shelter building, improvising implements

Signalling techniques

Prevention and preparation: not getting in a jam and being equipped if you do.
 
led4them said:
I think the best survivors would have to be whatever indegenous people are living (or have lived) in the area that one needs to survive in. And then the elders would be the experts by the simple fact they have lived through what nature has thrown at them.
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That says alot!

When it comes to survival there is no one expert. It is too broad a topic. Scientists are not experts in science only in their narrowed area. A survival expert in one area doesn't mean they can be an expert in another.
 
Interesting thread. I have an opinion that would be hard to express in writing and I don't feel like typing that much.

Soooo... I will just throw this into the mix. Below is a link the Survival Instructor Trainee Program at Karamat which is affliated with Mors Kochanski.


http://www.karamat.com/S_Trainee.html
 
I'm a computer engineer by training, and I'll slap down anyone who tries to bill me as a "computer expert". I get nervous whenever I hear someone called an "expert" anything. It often means they are very good at bluffing, a theoretician, or have specialized in such a tiny section of a field they've ignored the rest of it. Or someone else is talking about them.

It is better to be proficient, professional and widely experinced. Those don't give you a swelled head.
 
From The Karamat site...

"We encourage you to take other people's courses, for Mors Kochanski and Karamat Wilderness Ways recognize many of these other in-depth instructors in their own fields."

That is exactly what I was talking about. Mac
 
pict said:
From The Karamat site...

"We encourage you to take other people's courses, for Mors Kochanski and Karamat Wilderness Ways recognize many of these other in-depth instructors in their own fields."

That is exactly what I was talking about. Mac
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Most of the experts go to other experts and share info too, Cody Lundin has spent time with Mors for example. Much sharing occurs at Rabbit Stick, Winter Count, one-on-ones, guest teachers, etc..

Not all experts have a school and/or survival book in their resume either; The Society of Primitive Technology has many experts from academia as members, and they share via thier research and with those practioners truly living it - whom do have the school/books.

That being said, to a certain extent a test of being a true expert would be being accepted by others within that community as such.

There are many who a self-professed experts that are popular to the sheeple community, but laughed at by the expert community, Bear Grylls being a prime example.

But there are also other experts from folk schools for example that don't have that survival moniker, but they easily could, at least within thier geography. For example, Ila Hatter is mature lady who knows about as much as one can know about wild edibles and medicine of the Cherokee - I would say she is an expert in Appalachia.
 
Quiet Bear said:
That being said, to a certain extent a test of being a true expert would be being accepted by others within that community as such.

There are many who a self-professed experts that are popular to the sheeple community, but laughed at by the expert community, Bear Grylls being a prime example.
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Yep - acknowledgment by peers is a good qualifier!
 
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