Pika, I don't think anyone can be prepared to survive in any environment at anytime. Your correct, and that would be a foolish if not insane perspective. When I started this thread, it was out of curiosity. Let me clarify. If you have no experience or survival skills in a desert environment, then I would not recommend you voluntarily step into Death Valley for a 10 day trek. (the roughest training and place I've ever been, but it's entirely dooable). Or the Sahara (second roughest). That's all, just simply that. I was not implying that if you were in an aircraft that crashed while flying over the artic, wearing a tank top, shorts and a pair of flipflops, that having extreme cold weather survival skills would help you much. I think I've tried to make that point several times in this thread. I don't think you should look at the enviornment your in as an adversary either. A challenge, yes, if that's what your going for and if it in fact is, but not and adversary.

I remember one of my survival instuctors saying something to us like this (or very close, it's been quite a while).
He said "The earth is like your mother, your father and your God. Like your mother it can feed and nurture you. Like a stern father, it can scold and admonish you, and like a God, it can give you life, or take it.

Having said that, if you read my original post, I was just asking who had formal training.

One person mentioned that self-learners can use the resources available today to teach themselves. Sure. I doubt if our early ancestors had any formal training, they learned as the went and they passed on what worked and what didn't, to their young.

I certainly didn't want to rankle any feathers, or create some sort of disconnect between those who feel in harmony with the universe and all that.

I just love the outdoors, and honestly, due to age and injuries, I don't really do the arduous challenges, I'm talking flat out ragged out, shredded, cut, bruised, letting out a big "whew, that was fun" and smiling like a possum at the end of the day, trips.

I would like to try some extreme cold weather trip of some sort, as part of my "bucket" list. But I don't know if that'll happen, and I wouldn't try it without some formal training of some type, and without a group of very experienced or expert people that do that sort of thing.

Happy trekking,
Jim.