But I'm getting away from backpacking/hiking emergency survival. But even the most "testy" person, might want to be able to have the materials to start a fire that might leave a trace in the wilderness, if they were too injured to move too far, and needed the expertise to survive until help came.
That was what I was getting at. Heck, if people want to go so natural as to take off on a 50K hike with nothing more than their underwear for clothing and shelter, and baggies on their feet for footwear, more power to them, and their "planning", and so forth.
Here I am in the High Sierra.
There are no trees, no animals other than birds, pika and marmots. Since it's fall the latter two are all bedded down and ready for winter under the tons of granite around me.
Let's say I'm daft enough to go out here miles from anywhere without anyone knowing where I am, and have no one with me, and am immobilized.
What survival skills can rescue me? Oh wait - I should have PLANNED and left a note for my family that I was going. I should have taken someone with me to go for help when the ton of granite slab fell on my leg. I maybe could have carried some extra water to stay alive for the couple of days it will take him to go find a helicopter. Because that little tarn is dry over there, the grass is all dead and growing in decomposed granite - not the world's best substance for digging out "mud" to hope for a pool of water. And that stupid grass won't burn long enough to keep me warm as the temps drop to 10F.
That stupid ol' planning - no one needs THAT.
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