No Excuse To Not Be Prepared
This Father and Son are lucky...
Read news story here…
This is another example of going into the backcountry unprepared. I have seen it way too many times the young couple leaving the trailhead with a single 16oz bottle of Aquafina water and sandals thinking that their 4 mile hike will only take a couple hours. Then that sudden mountain storm hits or the hike is more strenuous than they thought, or they are too reliant on their battery powered devices where they either die or provide wrong information.
The father and son in the above story (I have to assume) ventured out without any of the basics empowered only by the GPS on a phone. Even if they would’ve had just the 10 essentials with them (see link below) they would have easily gotten through this mishap.
The Ten Essentials
What follows is an excerpt from my first book with The Professional Citizen Project called CM-9 Adverse Conditions and Environments (ACE). I'm a firm believer in the 10 Essentials and make sure to use them as the base of not only my physical kit, but as a base in my skill sets of survival in the outdoors.
The other mistake was not fully understanding or paying attention to risk factors that could cause injury on their trip. Whether you are going out for a few hours or a few days, risk assessment is part of the process for proper planning and can help mitigate accidents
Risk Assessment
The following is a brief excerpt from CM-9 Surviving Adverse Conditions and Environments with The Professional Citizen Project. Today we have more and more folks heading into the outdoors and with this increase comes more folks who may not have the necessary experience or skills to safely deal with accidents, or know how to mitigate the risks associated…
The sole reliance on an electrical device could have completely done them in. Think about it for a moment, who has used the GPS in their car and it just wouldn’t take you where you needed to go, or worse, midway through the trip it decides to lose connection with a satellite and now it won’t tell you anything you need to know. I use a car GPS for work to find addresses and on more than one occasion it has lead me astray (thank goodness for keeping a road atlas in my vehicle). So you have to assume that similar issues can happen in remote areas with questionable service as well.
Without coming upon that backpack with survival goodies, this father/son duos story could have ended up completely different. I’m glad they survived, but I think we need to use this as another example of what not to do.
Please guys, take the time to learn proper land navigation, learn risk management, put together a proper base kit of gear for going out into the backcountry, take medical classes, learn self rescue, and more.
10 essentials won't always mean survival. They lower chance of disaster but not make up for inadequate skill or sense. Best thing to say to people is stay away from extreme places if you don't have really good preparations and some basic skills