Precisely..But as mentioned, survival classes should not be taught as nature is the adversary, as one person pointed out. Just the opposite. I went through numerous survival schools while in the military, and our unit, stationed outside of Riverside CA were primarily desert warfare specilists. Yes you can survive in the S.N.'s, in Death Vally, just about any where you need, if you know how...and you practice those skills.

It was also mentioned here that avoidance was the best method of "survival". Negative. If that were true we wouldn't have to worry about any situation, we'd just avoid it. The time to figure out you don't know what to do, is not when something bad happens. It doesn't have to be day's in the making like a major storm. It can go from a carefree day to a nightmare in an instant.

I'm not implying that people walk around paranoid, thinking constantly that something's going to go wrong any minute. If I were to think like that, I think I'd just give it up and take up bowling or something.

I guess what I was really referring to, is someone with no skills in above the tree line in the Rockies, having spent their whole lives, say..in Hawaii, buying gear and heading off for a winter expedition at 14,000 feet...granted that's kind of a far fetched example, but stuff like that happens more often than you think.

And Marmot might be quite tasty....:-)

Two things will get you in trouble more than anything. Arrogance, and waiting until things happen to find out you really don't know as much as you could, or should, to be where you're at..

J.