!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What keeps you safe in the wilderness? (A: slow down!) with Miriam Lancewood

I thought this video was very insightful.

Miriam Lancewood is a true expert in wilderness living, not just camping...

Here is the transcript for those who cannot watch videos. It's very short:

Peter and I lived for seven years in a wilderness of New Zealand nomadically. We were always on the move. We had no satellite phone, no cell phone, no emergency beacon. And in all those years, I never had one accident or injury. Now, why is that?

Because we had time. I think scheduled time, as in a planning, is the most deadly thing you can have. Because on the Sunday evening you want to get back to the car park because Monday morning you have to be back at work, for example, and then people cross that flooded river and they drown. Or they go through the rain, through that storm, they get too cold, hypothermia, and die. Or they don't give their body rest because they can't afford a rest day, and they get an injury, or an accident, because the body is exhausted. So the most important thing is to be very very flexible time-wise and don't promise other people to be back in 5 days or 6 days, you know, give it a little bit more leeway. If you stay warm and dry, and sometimes have the patience to stay in your tent, you will be safe. Remember the number three rule. You can go 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. You will not starve overnight. So, give yourself time. Make sure you have water to drink, and make sure you're dry--and you will live.

Many people don't truly see what's around them. They look at the trail immediately in front of them, maybe at a bird in a tree that they hear - but they don't look near + far, in front + to the side + behind.  They don't pay attention to the sky - where the sun is, what the sky looks like above and in the four directions in the distance.  Many people don't pick a point to head for (like a mountain top, or a tall dead tree, something easy to find again if they lose view of it temporarily), and they don't do it every time they are moving in the wilderness. Even when they're on a clear trail. So many people just go any which way, so of course they don't know how to get back to where they came from..

It's stunning to me how many people have no clue where north is. To me I'm always subconsciously aware of compass directions.
It's equally stunning to me how many people don't look to see what the view behind them is. I mean, when you want to go back, it's nice to know what going back will look like.

Too many people in the wilderness think of themselves as the center of the universe where everything revolves around them, when in fact they are motes moving through an infinite universe and it is each person's responsibility to understand where their place is in that universe by paying attention to their surroundings as they go.

Wilderness First Responder courses have saved me many thousands in medical bills for back and front country situations by helping address minor injuries and illnesses as well as better knowing when to get advanced care. It provides a problem solving framework and practice using it. I have also met great people on every course or refresher I’ve taken.

A couple of good adages to remember for any outdoor adventure, be it hiking, camping, biking, boating, etc.  "Prepare for the worst and the best will take care of itself."  And "the time to fix a problem is RIGHT NOW."

As an avid outdoorsman for over 50 years, Wilderness Master Trainer (those who writes the courses and train instructors), ex-DAN instructor, and senior consultant in the outdoors, I can tell that what she says is not accurate. THE most important factor is the ATTITUDE and why we say "Attitude over aptitude". And attitude means, among many other things, learning first, buy gear after. To take the time comes way after that and many other things. Think about it; You can take as much time as you want, that if you don't have the knowledge, the outcome can still be "negative". Ask anyone experienced and he/she'll tell you that, in a survival situation, they would rather be with someone with a positive attitude and zero knowledge, than with someone very skilled but with a "not so good attitude". To stay safe in the wilderness you need to learn the basic and next to get the necessary skills vs the type of adventure you want to do, you need to practice with your new gear BEFORE you go out, you need to learn about the weather, permits, etc, etc.. regarding where you plan to go, etc... A.T.T.I.T.U.D.E. is everything... And this applies not only to the wilderness.... As for saying that taking the time is what makes the difference, this is BS. You can have the best attitude and the best knowledge/experience in the world that an accident can still happen. As we say: Sh*t happens.

Lif Strand wrote:when you want to go back, it's nice to know what going back will look like

Very true, that's why one of the most important rule is to look back about every 15 minutes so you know what it'll looks like in case you need to go back. What you see in one direction differs vastly from what you'll see from the opposite direction.

I love Miriam’s attitude of “slow down”. I think we can learn a lot from that outside of the wilderness, too—in gardening, natural building, weaving, or just managing our own energy levels. If it is worth doing anything, it is worth doing it well and sometimes we need to do less, slow down, and not be rushing on to the next thing. If you take good care of one plant, that can be worth more than taking lousy care of a thousand seeds or plants. Attend to their needs, and they might make a thousand new seeds! Many a plant variety has been saved from extinction by one seed.

In Paul’s latest sleaze podcast there is something about how in the bootcamp or any good community or “gardening gardeners” program, there is an attitude of abundance rather than scarcity—of time, food, etc. And so ordinary chores turn into art projects, like Harry’s recent project. For our indigenous ancestors, it seems like everything was an art project. Making clothing, housing, pottery, baskets, so much! It’s clear they wanted to do something meaningful with their time on earth.