The lack of IMMEDIATE firemaking tools may be material for criticism, but I think he did well. He was able to change out of wet jeans into warm clothing ( Alaska instructor Chris Janowski wears jeans, but always has spare woolens on hand,) erect a tent and shelter in a sleeping bag with some minimal food. Note that he was nearly exausted just snowshoing in the immediate area accomplishing this. Had he been able to make a fire, the exchange in initial physical labour for a fire may have actually been less efficient. That is just collecting materials. I'd hate to show off my bowdrill skills under his situation. I've mentioned another accident posted @ www.wiggys.com in the current newsletter. Those people actually had to extract their bags with difficulty from a flipped and partially submerged floatplane. There is no "set piece" scenario. Your gear can go down with the ship, or get scattered like so many christmastree decorations. Crucial communications gear can be forgotten or fail. Notice he had a third option. It was redundancy that compensated for any dumbdancy. As for age? Luftwaffe fighter commandant Adolf Galland was an advisor for the movie Battle of Britain. He was given an opportunity to fly one of the spanish BF 109s and was soon barrel rolling a few feet off the runway. Right behind him was RAF ace Lacy in a Spitfire matching manuever for manuever. " experience and treachery will always defeat youth and enthusiasm." <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />