The most difficult decision that must be made....

Where does one draw the line between having a minor inconvenience and the beginning of a survival situation?
When things start going wrong, on a lonely highway or in the woods, in the city, etc; I start re-evaluating my situation about every 1 hour. When I have decided that I am going to be stuck out in the boonies for the night, I go into survival mode.
"Survival Mode" is to look around and make plans for an expedient shelter, fire, water, and food. My first goal is to get through the night with the time that remains before it gets dark. When I get up the next morning, I am working on a distress signal, improvements to my shelter, getting firewood together for the next night, and addressing further food & water issues.
I will stay in survival mode until I get rescued. This basic outline does allow for cold weather but not snow covered weather and applies to most situations that could happen to myselff here in the swamplands of Lousy-anna and through most of the south.

Again, how do you know when to switch to survival mode?

In my mind, survival mode starts when you're into difficulties and you can't see an end to it.

This could go from being at home in deep winter when the power goes out to being on the road in a remote area when your transportation gets disabled.

Lacking a little LED that flashes when a survival situation starts, I've done as you have and preplanned. I carry and/or store what I think I may need in situations where the trappings of civilization are just not available.

I agree it is a bit subjective, but also depends on the conditions you find yourself in. For instance...

In most urban settings, I tend to have a routine, or at least a boundary of familiarity with my environment, such as my commute to and from work in New York and thereabouts. Having already worked up several contingency scenarios for that area and probable function, I can be a lot more decisive about when I am put into a survival mode, the criteria are usually fairly distinguishable.

Conversely, when I put myself into an unusual circumstance, say elk hunting in the Colorado Rockies in November, then I must prudently raise my prep level to accomodate the additional uncertainty and risk I've undertaken. This means equipping with more survival friendly gear, brushing up on skills beforehand, and formulating new plans and contingencies while trying to reorient my thinking towards entering the new environment.

The greatest risk is when I am unexpectedly thrust into new situations for which I am unable to prepare specifically for. Global plane flights are problematic, both from the standpoint of the severe limits placed on my gear, and the great variation in what type of environmnet I could be put into should something go wrong. Sometimes you are just not able to adequately prepare yourself, so in times like this you must have your wits about you and excerise that greatest survival tool of all, your ability to reason. It isn't always enough, but it is often going to be all you have.

Almost always these situations are event based. The train into Manhattan breaks down often enough, hunters suffer injuries regularly, and planes crash. Sometimes they can be more subtle, such as getting lost in the woods or losing my wallet or unexpectedly becoming ill, but these are things I can respond to easier, so as you say the most important thing is to recognize that the situation has changed and take appropriate and timely action.

You bring up an interesting question. For me, it is when I begin to become mentally uncomfortable. By this, I mean that I begin to have the feeling that something is not quite right, or someone is not quite right (including myself). For example: If I am expecting a landmark on a trail, and I don’t come to it when I expect, I begin to feel mentally uncomfortable. Sometimes I might be speaking with someone I have never met before, but for whatever reason, I don’t quite trust them. Or (for myself), I might be feeling the first signs of an illness.

In all the above examples, I may continue on for a bit, but I start to think about contingencies. As I continue on, if something continues to nag at me, I try to do something about it. Re-verify my position on my map, put some distance between myself and the person I am speaking with, or try to determine how sick I am about to become and pre-position myself accordingly (home vs. hospital, etc.).

My “inner voice” or “trusting my gut” or whatever you want to call it has kept me safe in some situations that could have been very very bad. I can think of at least two situations that my “inner voice” kept me from getting lost, thereby preventing me from having to be out unexpectedly overnight, thereby preventing a “survival situation”. It seems especially fine-tuned when dealing with people, but that may be influenced by profession and its experiences.

I try to pay attention when the first thing goes wrong, or at worst, the second. I start focusing on what would be the best thing to do now that things have changed. I try to consider all my options and to move slowly, and to re-evaluate very frequently.

I'm afraid that is what bothered me most about the Kim situation: he went too far (20+ miles) under poor conditions (darkness, snowstorm, bad road). Sometimes, moving forward is the worst thing you can possibly do.

On the James Kim thread, one of the members here mentioned something about not wanting to backtrack 'in front of the women' (something like that). My first reaction to that was, HOW STUPID! (sorry). If I'm your passenger, and you think something is wrong, I would LOVE YOU for saying, 'I think we're going the wrong way, and we should go back to where I was sure we were okay'. You would not hear one single negative word from me -- not one! I would hear you balancing my life against your ego, and I won. And if you think you would hear something different from the woman (women) in your life, well....... I guess I'd better not say what I'm thinking. <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Sue

When "something doesn't feel right", I go to the next stage of cautiousness. When I KNOW something isn't right, it's a problem.

I'm not sure if that answers your question, but it is a very broad topic. I trust my gut and subconcious, and if they think something is fishy, I listen. I think the best answer that I can give is a movie quote: "If there is a doubt, there is no doubt."

It sounds as though a good tactic is to use the S.T.O.P. procedure even when something small goes wrong. I guess unless your life is in danger in your present position, it would be prudent to stop and think about how to fix whatever has gone to hell in a handbasket, no matter how inconsequential.

I have never been in a situation where I needed to go into full survival mode. On the other hand except when asleep I'm never fully out of it either. Even asleep I react fast to full awake if something unusual happens.

But when out and about in the wilds I have been in situations that could easily become very sticky in a very big hurry. But because of good or maybe lucky planing. Things never got to the point that I really concidered it a survival situation.

Not that I know every thing as I'm still learning. But so far I have guessed right.

I was the one who threw that in there because as a man I know how men think. We are motivated by our ego at our own peril. We also just hate to give up which is partly ego & partly the desire to not "lose".

I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU - STUPID!!!

However, that is an honest assestment of men. And that is why men don't like to ask for directions, etc.

(Not all) But many men (myself included) hate to give up. That can be good - it got me thru college. And it can be bad because we press on inspite of the warning signs & that little voice inside that is giving off warning lights. I'm 40 now & have learned to listen to that little voice. I also listen to my wife who has a little voice that sends off warning messages way before mine.

I may have worded it improperly so that you took it to mean that I agree with that "MANLY" attitude in all situations. I definitely do not especially when it comes to driving in the winter & when your vehicle is climbing in elevation.

This atttribute in men is what allows them to go fight for & defend this country. And it is also the attribute that can get us killed for no good reason when we press on into needless danger.

Great topic. If you think about it we really are all in survival mode all the time. We just don't realize it. Driving on any road, but especially a two lane highway where the speed limit is 60 is a survival situation. As 3,000 pound bullets are missing us by a couple feet. We just don't think about it as such because we do dangerous necessary things like this everyday. If you throw an inch of sleet on that road the risk goes way up & we (hopefully) switch into a defensive survival mode & slow down or better yet decide to go home until the storm passes. (Assuming we can make that choice)

I get into trouble when I ignore that little sick feeling in my stomach that tells me I'm in trouble.

Like a recent backpack trip when I didn't listen to my 43 year old body telling my brain we weren't 18 anymore and needed to give up on trying to reach the designated campsite and pitch camp where I was.

Like I taught my daughter when she was little: "if it feels icky, it IS icky".

I think most of us know when we're in trouble/in over our heads, we just tend to argue/rationalize ourselves out of it.

In addition to being kind to ourselves and allowing ourselves to "be flawed" (getting lost, running out of gas, getting snowbound, or run of the road), I think it would benefit us to be flexible in how we view our capabilities in light of the circumstances.

A little humility can save your life.

How I'm going to be able to handle a situation is going to vary depending on 1) how I am physically, 2) how I am mentally, 3) general conditions around me.

Being sick or having just donated a double-red (2 units of blood) will change an inconvenience for me into a crisis/survival situation because of my body's ability to cope.

I have to say that on a personal note, I am in survival mode all the time. I can compare it to our national threat awareness system. I have always felt it be important to be prepared (as do the rest of you in the forum). Just by being prepared, we are already in the "mode". As I move about my day, if something that comes up that is not in the norm - then my level escalates accordingly. If it a minor problem then it is dealt with as such. If it is a major/serious problem then my leven can jump dramatically. For those that are not prepared, then they have to go from not prepared to survival mode. It is a mind set that people are either in on they are not. Just by asking the question - you are in the mode. If you know you are going to a place (mentally, physically or environmentally) I would gather that most of us would plan accordingly (winter conditions = warm cloths, possibility of getting stuck, mechanical problems etc...). In summary, I would say that I am constantly in a state of survival mode, it just depends at what level it progresses to. That way I don't have to make that "jump"