Winter survival - This is a severe situation indeed, taking into account extreme temperatures, and how there is a serious lack of vegetation for food and shelter due to these temps.
Winter survival can become an issue when hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, hunting, or even driving to Grandma's house. There are the situations where you are prepared, sort of prepared or not prepared at all. People who venture out in the winter for winter sports are usually at least dressed to spend time in the cold, people going for a drive usually dress to arrive not to survive.
Understanding some of the dangers of winter survival may be of some assistance in getting your mind around being better prepared.
The seven enemies of survival are, thirst, hunger, fear, pain, boredom, loneliness, and fatigue.
Thirst, we have no true mechanism that lets us know we are thirsty,and when it is cold out side it is even harder to recognise thirst. Add to that the fact that you can loose up to a litre per day just by breathng, your feet sweat about a quarter of a cup of water, and you tend to sweat a lot in winter clothing when doing hard work.
Hunger has it's obvious threats in that a hungry person who is expending energy trying to start fires and build shelters becomes even more hungry and weaker. Staying warm uses up huge stores of energy in fact you can burn up to several thousand calories per night trying to stay warm. The longer you go without food the weaker you become and the greater the chances of making a dangerous mistake leading to injury.Fear, can mess with your psyche and paralyze you preventing you from performing essential tasks, like setting up signals for rescuers or improving your shelter for protection against the weather.
Pain like fear can be paralyzing and demoralizing leading to depression and death. A positive attitude can litterally be the difference between life and death.
Boredom and loneliness can be overlooked as enemies but both are no less dangerous. If you have all of the survival gear in the world with you but have develped a negative self defeatist attitude, you will die. Keeping your mind active and positive will keep you alive.
Fatige can also lead to physical mistakes like tripping and falling, or falling asleep and letting your fire go out or missing the sound of a search plane.
Being well rested hydrated prepared mentaly will be a survival situation, anything less will be a sad day for your family and friends.
