Originally Posted by
hikermor
I was 17 a mere 64 years ago this month! If only one could combine the vitality and energy of 17 with the experience of 81! You seem to be requesting a resume on my survival experience, so here it is....
Last month we had to leave our home at 2 AM, faced with a rapidly advancing wildfire. I was very glad that I slept with my EDC at hand, including a really good headlamp, since the power was out in our neighborhood. Also glad that both our cars were equipped with basic survival stuff. I only had to grab my CERT pack, our financial records, and our cat and we were on our way out of danger. Our house still stands and we suffered no hardship, so it was definitely 'soft survival" - although we are still cleaning up the ashes. One learns to be prepped...
More challenging and instructive has been my SAR experience, beginning on November 16, 1958 and basically ending in 1985, although there were a few ops after that. Some ops were incredibly trivial, while others were extremely demanding, lasting for many days. I soon got in the habit of keeping a packed bag (= bug out bag) ready to go at all times, because we got the call at all hours of the day or night, often with the request to assemble immediately. We often began our mission at insanely illogical times or places, starting out at midday June in desert heat or starting as the sun was setting in freezing temps. I spent the latter part of Christmas 1983 walking with my partner into a gathering storm, beginning the search for a young teen who had wandered away form her picnic. We walked most of the night, bivouacking briefly, and finding her at dawn, spending most of the day walking her out. We operated in caves, deserts (Tucson, AZ), high mountains, and often proceeded with technical high angle rescues, often at night.
You asked about videos. I didn't usually have time to spare for that, but I understand that the local station took a video of me rappelling into a waterfall to retrieve the body of a young woman who had perished in a flash flood the day before. I understand that footage aired nationally on ABC thee next day, but I didn't see it since we were still retrieving victims.
SAR ops shares with survival situations the need for immediate action and the unannounced nature and time of the emergency, and, often, the need to improvise and make up procedures on the fly.
Personally, I have dealt with injuries to me or others in my group while climbing or hiking. On at least two occasions, I have spent the night our unexpectedly. The most serious of these was a solo climb of Mt Humphreys (AZ) in thigh deep snow and -30 degree temps. I dug a crummy snow cave, put on everything I had and spent a miserable night. Despite that, with the dawn, I was rested and able to get off the hill. It was entirely too close.
About videos -My projects have been occasionally recorded by others - I was briefly in a Nova show on PBS, about a project I directed in Canyon de Chelly (1973). If you come to the Visitor Center at Channel Islands National Park, you will see a large exhibit (including video) of a project I worked on in 1994. . "West of the West", a PBS documentary done about three years ago, also has me ranting about the wonders of the Channel Islands (CA) Two years ago, I worked on another major dig in the park and it was filmed, but I don't have the rights to the footage.
My critique of Alone! is that it is staged, escape from the situation is always possible, you are watched over, and that these factors make the reality show quite different from the conditions faced by people in a legitimate survival situation. Alone is entertainment, but not the real thing. Need I mention that sometime, perhaps often, people in real survival conditions do not survive....I have loaded up lots of body bags in my time.
