[tcvarlh]

Having been a member of Mountain Rescue Services, I still cannot believe how some people approach the 'Wilderness'. Preparation = none, thought-aforethought = none, kit=almost nothing, research=don't make me laugh! We once lifted-out a group of 5 Dutch guys after two days of them wandering around lost, cold, and hungry. No major accident thankfully, but I could have happily strangled the fellahs. They had set off at 7 am on the 12th September (my Lass’s birthday) before breakfast to see if they could catch “fish, or something” and ‘live’ in the wild. By 8 at night they were totally lost and utterly ravenous too. And as it always does, it rained. Not even a Packa-mac, no knife, no lighters (all non-smokers). Absolutely no kit and wearing ruddy trainers!!!! They had mobile phones with them, but on a Dutch provider in the Austrian Alps where the Austrian signal is also poor. They had no idea as to what could be edible, where to look, how to test for toxicity or even how to find out, etc. There was a plethora of foodstuffs around them but they did not know the basics, and thereby had doomed themselves.
I just had a look at my call-out logbook and found nine such cases for year 2002-03, my last year. Ok, these guys were all around 17-19 and youth KNOWS itself as invulnerable, but I have also been on S&R’s for middle-aged folk too.
These TV shows are a danger in one sense; they make it seem so easy. People forget that the ‘Alone in the Wilderness’, “Actor” is NOT alone, Camera-man, Sound-man, radio and therefore in constant link, etc. I’m sure you see my point, the programs are just that, TV programs, not reality, not even close. They are interesting to be certain but oh-so dangerous!
h