Balzacom,

I agree, prevention is always easier than salvation.

In my opinion, practicing the salvation, when safe, can lead one to be more motivated to prevention. If a person in a training class, even if done with a friend, gets wet in a shallow cold mountain stream, they might be pretty motivated to not do it again.

We could also get caught up in someone else's mess. For instance, we might have to rescue someone who fell through ice on a pond. Without training, we might walk out. With training, we might find a long branch and slide out on our stomach with our arms and legs spread wide. In that case, it would be helpful to have something like a couple tent stakes tied to us with a lanyard to help us get out if we fall in.

Getting the training, even if it's simplified training with a friend, might motivate us to tell the uninformed person in the group not to do something.