+1 on that.

I don't expect normal people to be prepared like us. I don't even expect us to always be as prepared as we'd like- we all have done the "I'm just going a mile to get milk" or "it's only a hundred yards off the road to get to those crab apple trees" and left everything but what is in our pockets behind.

In some ways they were better prepared than most of us are with our EDCs- they had a good saw. The difference between planning and luck sometimes is just do you make a habit of it?

I don't think the dad and the oldest son deserve medals, but they do deserve credit- everyone survived, even if the one daughter did get some frost bite. They got a shelter up. They stayed warm, even if it meant doing things that might seem counter intuitive to Joe Average. And he moved when he needed, rather than taking time to put his shoes on first.

In some ways, that they pulled it off without being like us is more worthy of merit than if we did it with our EDC.

Although it does nicely illustrate my point about a KISS pocket kit built around shelter for people who aren't as heavily trained.