In spite of PPine's endorsement, I don't consider myself particularly tough. I am a real wuss when it comes to skiing. I really don't like crashing at any speed and my lack of skill aggravates that fear to no good end.

But I don't think that criteria, one way or another is necessarily why people survive in the wilderness; helpful, yes, but not necessarily the deciding factor. You can be a complete chicken, which means cautious and still have a great time, by your standards.

Adventure is relative; I know this from years of scuba diving. Dives that bored me to tears were for some people, the most exciting thing they have ever done and I wasn't about to tell them otherwise. There is a fine line between mentally tough and stupid and I've been on the wrong side of it more than once. Maybe mental toughness is what got me back on the right side.

One thing I know, fear of drowning is a powerful force to overcome and it is easy to panic; seen it a number of times where the person wasn't in any real danger, but the perceived danger was real enough to them. Once they realized, "hey, what's the big deal?" that made all the difference in the world. That is what experience teaches you, I think, how to separate real danger from perceived danger where there is none.

Example-I was teaching two brothers, 11 and 12. One got the hang of everything quickly, but the other was struggling with something as simple as using a snorkel. But he didn't give up, instead, he went back to his hotel and stood in the shower for about half an hour wearing his mask and snorkel until he got the hang of it. Mental toughness? Determination? Call it what you will, but the next time he showed up, he was ready to have fun, and they did, both of them. I was really impressed.