I think survival knowledge, skills, and experience are important for any backpacker, and especially so for one who goes solo. It's your safety net for when people, gear, or the weather forecast fails.
The problem is that the "bushcraft" sort of skills die quickly and are not often practiced.
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I don't see how fire building/ making, knife skills,shelter building, finding food off the land....ie "bushcraft" die quickly. Most of these skills, once learned, are life long. Simple knoledge that isn't easily lost to lack of use.
I have to agree with this. I understand how to build a crude shelter. We used to that when we were kids, but I don't practice it now. I mastered all the skills needed a long time ago, and I still use those skills, but I don't apply them directly to bush crafting.
Not everyone has those skills though, and as Lori pointed out, they are not required to backpack. That's really the sticky part of this business.
I suppose it's easy to pick up an issue or two of Backpacking Magazine and romanticize about doing something you've never done before, to the point of convincing yourself you know all you need to know.
I grew up doing stuff. I tend to forget that a lot of people don't. I used to ride my bike ten miles to get to a park big enough to do some bushwhacking in. I rode it to the Kishwaukee Forest Preserve when I lived in Illinois and to Griffith Park when I move to LA. By the time I was 15 I was cutting up cars and putting them back together, and by 16 I was driving to and bushwhacking in the Sequoia NF when I could get away.
But most of the city kids I knew and grew up with in LA didn't do that. I asked one guy I worked with for close to 12 years to come with me to Sequoia once. He declined, said he hadn't left the San Fernando Valley in 22 years and had no desire to. He leads hikes out there now. He's probably good at it. He would have learned and practiced enough to be good.
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