Chris, you're one of the hardcores, eh? I mean, anyone who wears eau du coyote...

For me - in my experiences so far - practicing and really being caught between a rising tide and a beachless cliff have not been the same. One either rises to the occasion when it matters or not, and if fate is not unduly cruel, one manages with what the situation tosses at us. The knowledge and any bits of gear are well worth gaining, but it's still just not the same in a practice situation as it is in a real situation.

I generally believe in practicing with/how one reasonably expects he/she might someday find themselves situated. IME, again, having some accustomed gear fail/go missing is not that big of a deal most of the time - if it's critical, one improvises from whatever may be available. We're basically a tropical animal who has adapted mostly through making and using "gear" to survive most climates and weather on this planet.

There are plenty of situations where some bit of gear is absolutely required - I can't survive in vacuum without a suit and breathing mix. If I fall in frigid water without an immersion suit and have no way to emerge from the water, I'm gonna die. I personally cannot survive long naked above the treeline at sub-freezing temperatures, and so on. Let's leave those sorts of exercises in futility aside.

It is useful to stay out a night or two with only the waist pack / day pack a prudent person always carries when venturing out. No cheating, folks - pick your real pack and don't succumb to adding whatever you''ve been meaning to add to it... (I use a different day pack in Winter than the rest of the year, and that is realistic. It's still just a daypack and I really do carry it all the time.)

It is useful to go "car camping" with only what you normally carry in your vehicle. It is useful to camp off your horse/ATB/ATV with only what you normally pack.

IMHO, doing things like that are reasonable enough for most of us to practice at least once a year. Twice a year, with one in the "bad" weather season is 10 times better - for me, that means early rainy yucky spring as the "bad" weather. I admire the knowledge of folks who are proficient with some useful abo skills and try to learn some from time to time, but life is so short... I'm not willing to practice going strictly abo because I do not expect that I will ever *need* to do that. "Use what you've got..."

From upwind, Regards,

Tom