Deep Survival

[falling rain]

Deep Survival - Laurence Gonzales

I'm reading this book at the moment and it's excellent.
It won't teach you any Bushcraft or Survival techniques but explores the psychology behind people who survive and people who don't
I'm halfway through it, and time and again already I've recognised traits in myself that Mr Gonzales explains in this book.
It's not just a book with a collection of survival stories, but a fascinating insight into what goes on in peoples minds when faced with danger and the mechanics of accidents and how, by the way we act and think we can avoid them. Far too complicated for me to explain it all here as I'm no psychologist but I can highly recommend it. Check out the website for a taster
www.deepsurvival.com

 

[C_Claycomb]

Yeah, its a great book.

I read it a while ago and wrote up a review to go on the site...Tony has it squirrelled away someplace :?: :rolmao:

Since it might take a while to get up on the main site, and you have brought it up, here is the un-edited, pre-release version.




Deep Survival, who lives, who dies and why.
Laurence Gonzales.
ISBN 0-393-05276-1

I first heard of this book via a short review in Tactical Knives, a US magazine, where it was very well received. Therefore when I stumbled across it while browsing Amazon.co.uk I was primed to order a copy.

First of all, don’t be put off by the title, it may sound a little hard core, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. This is not a book of bushcraft techniques, nor even what most people would consider survival techniques. No shelter building, fire craft or tips on finding water. This book is all about the mind and how it works, the tricks that it can play when you are away from home, and the differences between the minds of those who survive and those who do not. Neurology and psychology at work in the great outdoors.

Though not headed as such, the book is split between two main topics. First it goes about describing how accidents happen, how easily people can get lost or caught out by circumstances, and how prior experience and success can conspire against you. Having set that scene it moves on to describing the key mental characteristics of survival, the stages that the mind must go through in order for the person to survive. The author uses numerous true stories to illustrate the behaviour that he is explaining.
One of the things I found particularly interesting was the author’s explanation of “bending the map”, when people who are lost disbelieve the evidence of their compass, their map, and even their own eyes when those things do not agree with what the person believes the world should look like. Having had this happened to me a couple of times and having seen it happen to someone else, it was eerie to see such a perfect description written down.

Conclusion:
I would thoroughly recommend this book to everyone, not just those who enjoy bushcraft! This book goes a long way to explaining why there can be more to it than gear and training to remaining secure (or surviving) in the outdoors. It has the potential to arm the reader with a different way of looking at the world, and as a result, a different way of seeing themselves.

Pros. Some incredibly valuable gems of information in here, that if taken to heart may mean you won’t need to practice survival skills for real. Not limited in application to the back country alone, the description of how the brain works is relevant where ever you happen to be. Examples are given to prove this.

Cons. It does occasionally seem to labour points and tempt one to scan over of text rather than read it all. The discussion of fighter pilot mental preparation may make parts of the book slow for some people.

 

[falling rain]

That's a good review Chris.
Reading the book, the author recounts a tale of when he himself got lost with a friend. He went for a leisurely stroll from his hotel to a lake for a pre - breakfast walk, which should have taken about half an hour. It was a lovely morning, and having spent the past week hiking around the Montana wilderness he and his friend felt buoyant and confident they knew their way around. On the way to the lake it started to rain. As it was supposed to be a short leg -stretch before breakfast all they had with them were cheap gift shop type ponchos. They put these on and continued to the lake, albeit with a growing sense of urgency as the rain got heavier and turned to hail stones, taking one fork then another. They got to the lake and then tried to remember why it had seemed so important to get there. He looked at his friend and she looked pale and blotchy and was shivering. They were stood on the shore of the lake dressed in cotton t -shirts (Cotton being known to Yukon Park Rangers as 'Death Cloth') and flimsy ponchos with no map or compass.
They started to run back up the trail and when they got to a fork he went one way and his companion went the other. They stopped and looked at each other in horror realising they had no idea of which way they'd come.
They chose a path and heard a human voice in the distance. Crashing throught the undergrowth they came across a tourist boat that they got on and found out due to the weather would be the last one of the day. The hail storm lasted for 2 days.
The Author re-counts that he still wonders sometimes what would have happened if he'd chosen another path. They'd had no matches, no warm clothing, no food, water or knife.
In just a few hours they'd gone from being care free morning hikers to panicked victims saved only by luck. Until that day he would not have believed how easily he could get lost or lose the ability to reason.
The Author is demonstrating that the feeling of successfully hiking the vast wilderness of Montana for a week had led to a sense of achievment and bolstered his belief in his skills and the half hour walk to the lake, should have presented no problems at all. His own belief in his experience as a seasoned hiker led to apathy maybe' and how easily your vast experience can easily become your undoing. It would be easy to sit there and say that wouldn't happen to me I'd have taken all my survival kit and warm clothing with me, but would you ?
About 10 years ago I went walking with my family in Wales. We were going to follow a circular route which was sign posted but as we got further into the walk the sign posts dissapeared. I looked down a ravine and noticed one of the posts had been thrown down there. I could see the hole where it had been pulled up from by someone. It seems someone had been round the route and pulled up all the posts and thrown them into the ravine below. I felt we were probably further round and nearer the end than the start, so we'd carry on to the end. We got lost and although it was a lovely day and we had food and water and good waterproofs with us it was still a scary experience as I felt responsible for my family's safety. They were looking to, and relying on me to take them round this route safely and I was relying on the sign posts to help me do it. I had no map or compass with me, and I felt ashamed that that I didn't because I've always felt I was switched on, and take appropriate kit with me. All I had was a tourist type map with a vague plan of the route. Ordnance survey it most definately was not. We ended up walking along some narrow ledges and I felt pretty scared for my familys safety and again ashamed and stupid for relying on this crappy map and sign posts to show me the way the way. As the afternoon wore on my wife and son were complaining of feeling tired and this increased the stress on me and sense of urgency to get us the hell back.
Using some of my other navigation knowledge I managed to work out the way back and no harm was done but I too sometimes think about that day and what if the weather had been bad or the fog had come down. What if one of us had sprained our ankle or suffered another injury. I learnt a valuable lesson thet day and have spent the last 10 years regularly practising navigation with map and compass in all weathers and I sometimes go out at night to practice in the dark (3 or 4 times a year)
If you believe you are switched on and this type of situation would never happen to you I urge you to read this book because there 101 factors that could lead to being lost or ending up in a survival situation. Factors you've never even thought of, and it's not always only the weaker or inexperienced people who end up in the S*IT

Has anyone else got any memories of when they felt a little scared or lost.
It's nothing to be embaressed about. Having the interest in the outdoors that we do I wouldn't be surprised if the many rather than the few had at some time or other had a bad day out.

Tell us your stories :wave:

 

[Keith_Beef]

There's a passage in "propellerhead" about looking at a map, and then searching the ground to make it match. Rather than looking at the ground, then trying to find those features on the map. Reading from ground to map is the right way. The author did it the wrong way, on the approach to an airport, and was in big trouble for it.


I've lately taken to using my watch to find which way is south. It's a simple technique, and good enough for finding a parking spot that will be in the shade in six hours time

Hilly country is the easiest for orientation. Near the coast is the second easiest. When I was a kid, I found that if I was on a hill, all I need to do wass reach the top, and then I could spot the necessary landmarks to find my way home. Works in Sheffield and around the Peak District, at least.

Keith.

 

[falling rain]

Sometimes just knowing which way the cardinal directions lie isn't enough. It may be OK in a small wooded area but in the big wilderness knowing navigation techniques such as contouring, attack points, aiming off, linear features, pace counting etc are a must. You need a map and compass and you need to know how to use them properly and be able to take bearings. If you need to head east to a road you want to get to, you can find east easily but how without a map and compass are you going to know which way to turn when you get to the road. You need to deliberately aim off to get to the left or right of you destination and then you'll know which way you need to turn once you get there. I think the book illustrates how under stressful conditions such as being behind schedule, weather deteriorating, getting dark, your group looking to you to get them there, things can start to go wrong.
You may have driven a long way to climb a peak and spent money on petrol and been looking forward to the trip for ages. The day starts out good then someone forgets his binoculars on a brew stop, you all go back for them (behind schedule' stress starts) You go slightly the wrong way because you want to make up the time' and make a small error in your navigation (more time lost, more stress) You find the route again, and it starts peeing down with rain and a vicious wind starts up impeding your progress, but it's not too bad so you carry on because you've driven all this way and told all your friends what your doing so you don't want to be embarressed by going home and telling them you failed because someone forgot their binoculars and besides that your ego won't let you fail to do what you set out to do. You get to the top and are happy because you've achieved what you wanted to do. The weather is now getting worse and it's getting dark because you didn't manage to make up the time, so you start to hurry down the hill to get out of the weather to the pub and a warm log fire and a pint, all the time things are getting more stressful because you now can't see any land marks because of the heavy rain and darkness you need to be very switched on with your navigation and under stress and in the pouring rain and wind that's not always so easy
Your mentally and physically very tired and you start to make mistakes and one of your group twists his ankle down a rabbit hole and someone else is showing signs of hypothermia..... Anyway you get the picture. This type of scenario has and does happen. It's all about knowing when to turn back, when to call it a day, and play on the safe side, being able to keep your head and make clear decisions under pressure and stress and planning a route and building in escape routes and emergency procedures into your planned day out, the hill will still be there another day but people do take risks every year all over the world in all sorts of climates. Why do they do it ?
Peer pressure, feeling of failure if they don't do what they set out to do, want to prove themselves. The list is endless. Anyway as I said, the books a good'un and it answers many and much more of these questions...Fascinating stuff :wave:

 

[Keith_Beef]

You're right, Falling Rain, about stress and ego. But most of that stuff is to do with psyochology, as you pointed out earlier, and little to do with the mechanics or techniques of navigation. Which, I hasten to add, was also in your first post.

Most of that stuff is applicable to every human interaction. I have to deal at work with people who can never admit a mistake, and never back down. I have to always be careful to leave an escape route open in any discussion, to avoid an all-out confrontation that just results in the other person digging his heels in and refusing to let the project move forwards.

Expeditions (including just a day trip to a hill with a nice view) are probably 40% planning, 40% psychology and 30% physical effort. Oh, and maybe 20% mathematics.

Keith.

 

[bushwacker bob]

Great eye opener Falling rain and good review from Chris.Some very real scenarios that could easily befall any of us :yikes:
A wise man learns from the mistakes of others

 

[falling rain]

It's all to do with psychology as you say Keith. A person who beleives he's the Mutts at navigation can be crushed when he makes a big mistake and ends up lost. It can affect him so much he'll not be able to admit it and re-evaluate the situation and make a new plan of action, he simply refuses to beleive he's wrong and blames the compass, or map being wrong. One chap in the book actually smashed his compass on a rock because it wasn't pointing him in the direction his brain and feeling was telling him he should be going.
Simply put -People who survive are people who accept that they're in the S*it and and bloody well do something about it in small easily attainable stages, each being an accomplishment in themselves and see the positive in each little thing they manage to acheive, They have the positive mental attitude that we've all heard about. They embrace their new surroundings, instaed of fearing them and hating them and learn very quickly to use what's available. When they get knocked back by something going wrong they don't get despondant or give up, they try again or think of another way of going about it. Of course some survival training will help with this, but if you havn't got the positive mental attitude it won't.
Another passage mentions that Nature won't adapt to you, you have to adapt to it, and in a game of chess with mother nature, she has a habit of unleashing some stunning moves..... You have to cope with all of them and remain positive or you'll die. It's as simple as that.
I read a book called Cold Burial about a chap who went to winter in the Barrenlands with a couple of mates. They were relying on the Caribou migration to get their food, but the Caribou didn't pass their way that year and they died of starvation. They hadn't thought about their worst case scenario. Just like I was relying on those signs in Wales, and I also hadn't even considered that they may not be there.
There are many factors in surviving too such as place, conditions terrain, fitness, your group and many more. The more you look into it the more complex it becomes. Very interesting stuff though. Anyway I've rabbited on enough. As I said before, has anyone got any stories of tricky situations they've been in outdoors. It'd be interesting to hear them.

Cheers :biggthump

Cheers