So, as you probobly know, many (most?) fire departments also do rescue calls. I'd like to share with you a real "Survival" story from a few weeks ago, right after hurricane Isadora passed though this area. We get a call for a cliff rescue at the Waterfall at Ringing Rocks Park which is not far from me at all. ( http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hanauer/tour/ringing.html - it had HUGE water flow at the time of the call, unlike in this picture),

I roll up on the scene, first to arrive of the rescue team, and an ambulance and park ranger is already there - with a bloody, smashe-up and terrified young man in the back of the ambulance and his girfreind, dirty and bloodied, right there too. I look at the squad people (those who drive the ambulance and care for the patients) and ask them if they went down to get the guy. And much to my shock (and the other members of the rescue team) they told me he WALKED OUT with his girlfreind.
Now let me tell you a bit about the location and the accident.
First of all, from the parking lot of the park to the waterfall is about 4,000 feet, and it's hilly, rocky and slippery terrian for a good portion of the trail. Further, with the recent rains of the hurricane, the waterfall, which is about 30' high (the picture online does NOT do it justice), was dumping thousands of gallons of water a second over the edge, with rocks and logs all at the bottom of the falls.

He slipped and fell into the stream and over the falls, landing on his hand, then face, on the rocks below.

His wrist was shattered, he was bleeding out of both ears from a head injury, and he had many other injuries consistent with his fall. We ended up medevacing him out, and only three days later, he was out of the hospital (and sore as hell with a wrist full of pins and such).

My lessons learned from this call were:

- Stay Fit. If this guy was some lard-ass weakling, it would have been a a body job - and a tough one at that. Instead, he was in good physical shape, and able to rely on his body to get out of the water with only one good arm and who knows what other injuries.

- Hang out with with fit people. There is no cell phone service at Ringing Rocks Park, so his girlfriend had to leave him and run over hard terrain to find a house to call 911. Again, a slow lard-ass unable to run a mile would have meant loss of vital minutes in the "golden hour" of trauma recovery.

- Carry a Flashlight. I think the whole situation would have been avoided if the guy had a flashlight. It was dark, the rocks are hard to see, and I can see how he might not have seen where the path went, since he apparently had no flashlight.

- Don't assume cell service will work - even in "civilized" areas.

that's all.