Running into a problem - How do I teach someone that its good to be prepared before going out in the woods? The problem is no one expects it to happen to them - after all, they've hunted/ canoed/ hiked mt. baldy/ spelunked/gone to the ruins/ sailed the cliffs -- dozens of times before and they've never gotten hurt/ delayed/ lost...

Excellent question. I don't have an answer, but I've run into similar problems with trying to get employees to exercise "situational awareness" when entering and leaving our bank. They don't think it can happen to them. I would relate war stories of the less than bright things I've seen, but it might hijack your thread and no one would believe them anyway.

I really would like to have some ideas on how to get people to take prep seriously.

I've come to the conclusion that until something really bad does happen, or almost happen, people are so safe today that they can't really accept that anything bad will happen to them. The only recourse we have found is something along the lines of "do it this way all the time with these precautions or you can/will be fired." It still doesn't solve the problem, but maybe takes the edge off a bit.

the start of our school year in Florida coincides with hurricane season, and if a convenient storm was not available, I gave two "paper" labs on hurricane preparedness... one on making a plan and identifying and locating important supplies around the home (with some tips)

the other was to design a 72hour "go bucket", based on (2) 5gal buckets... one for supplies, the second for food and water..if it couldn't fit in the bucket, it couldn't go...

the preliminary classroom prep was to introduce two decision making process... the first was to explain the OODA loop for time critical emergencies...the other we used throughout the year, and may be applicable for your task ...it was introduced to us probably 15 years ago at a district inservice, and you may be aware of it

decision making using...list, cluster, and label

(1)the user free thinks without any categorization... [list] on paper a series of events or scenarios.....eg. " what problems do you forsee if a CAT 3 hurricane comes on shore with a 12' storm surge ...in the context to your home?" ... ..around 20 responses makes a good starting point

(2)overview the entire list (I would do a composite list of the entire class), and group [cluster] problems of a similar nature...eg power outage, injury, water damage etc..

(3)draw lines to the paper margin from these identified similar problems, and [label] the best name you can to your cluster groups...these would be your core focus groups

I hope this is useful to you...

Experience is a harsh teacher.

Jeanette Isabelle

This is easy. Agree to go on a weekend hike with them. Then, when they are sleeping - leave. Oh, and don't forget to take a lot of their stuff. Stay in the area and spy on them. After you get out of jail for reckless endangerment, ask them if they have learned anything in the ensuing five years.

Laugh at them. Baldy isn't exactly big and scary, since you can SEE Los Angeles most of the time. At least, that's probably their mentality.

Go hiking with him. "Twist" your ankle and really foul the hike up. Be snug and cozy in your gear. Let him/her shiver in hers. The next morning, walk out normally. Lesson proven.

Frankly, I don't think anyone with just a modicum of outdoor experience will not have had a close call or two, or will not have been close to someone else's bad experience.

I would review pertinent examples, and point out where better preparations, filing a trip plan, checking the weather report, etc., would have resulted in a better outcome. Don't expect an immediate epiphany and instant agreement with your position, but the notion of better preps will sink in if they are even a tiny bit rational.

I remember when I was a young sprout, I ran across the annual publications of Accidents in American Mountaineering, published by the American Mountaineering Club. It gave me the notion that sooner or later it was going to be my turn in the barrel. in turn I started carrying emergency gear. And, yes, it paid off.

I disagree that going hiking and leaving your charges alone or faking twisting your ankle are a good idea. Keep it simple. Take an ace bandage and triangular bandage, and bind their arm to their side. If they're right handed, bind their right arm. Then give them an afternoon of coping with that. Or switch things up, take away their daypack, or tent, or rain gear. You should be able to build some curriculum around these scenarios - improvising shelters, striking a match / lighter and heating water. They'll get it then. If not, then paracord a 20 lb weight to the bottom of their foot, and watch them walk out. Some folks just won't get it, most should.

We have card key monitored doorways, everyone swipes their card, and standard protocol is the first person through challenges others to swipe their cards. Security will have ordinary folks follow through doorways, and when they go unchallenged for a swipe, will follow the person to their office, inform them of the policy, and the potential issues for not complying. If they don't get it, they just move up the hallway to the employee's manager. Its the secret shopper technique - if the policy is important, it requires some compliance monitoring.

Ask them if they've ever run into any kind of problem, even if it turned out okay. Ask what decisions they made turned it into a non-problem. Then extrapolate the incident by adding one or two conditions that would be likely to foul up the situation: bad weather, darkness, injury, etc, and force them to think about what they would have done then.

Then use Hikermor's suggestion: "...point out where better preparations, filing a trip plan, checking the weather report, etc., would have resulted in a better outcome."

Emphasize a few incidents where people depended entirely on luck... and point out that some of those people have still never been found... even their bodies.

Sue

Good tips. My feeling is that most SAR situations** come from day hikers in over their heads - they simply didn't think they would be out that long.


( Ok I'm ignoring lost kids and senior ' wander offs' here, but more wilderness sar seems to be day hikers or spur of the moment persons.)