I'm from the south where we have a relatively mild climate and no predators of any size to contend with. The absolute worst thing we have to worry about in this area is the summer heat and humidity which a good cool creek solves pretty easily.

I was thinking that other areas are so much different and I was wondering, what are the biggest concerns some of the other people have in different areas of the world when in a survival situation.

well lets see, the altitude here runs from sea level to over 6K feet with in the 40 miles from my house, there is also the Mexican boder to my south, temps at my house gets down to 20 some times during the winter, as far as preatory things, rattlesnakes, the Main predator now a days walks on two legs. Large amounts of traffic if anything happens, and hysteria when they lose electricy.

When I visited my sister in NC, she told me about the black widow spider nest in the corner of the backyard. She said that the field in back of the house was full of them. I saw the nest area with six or seven spiders in it. When we visited the Battleship North Carolina, there was an alligator in the water near the ship. She asked if I would consider moving to NC. After thinking about alligators, Eastern Diamondback rattlesnakes, spiders, killer bees, & hurricanes, I said "I don't think so, Sis!" I don't know where your "south" is, but I bet you have plenty of hazards to contend with.

At 6k, is there any oxygen loss to contend with? I know that alot of times mountain climbers have to carry oxygen with them just to be able to perform the most basic tasks. I must admit I don't know that much about it since we don't have mountains here in Alabama.

As for the snakes and black widows, I am a long time breeder of black widows and keeper of all manner of snakes. Right now I am down to two of each (the snakes are a timber rattler that I've had for about 5 years and a copperhead that I just got.) so I am constantly hunting them when I am out. In fact, most of the time, it's the reason I am out to start with. Most reptiles and spiders don't really concern me too much but if I know they are there and can't see them, they terrify me!

Just a disclaimer, I have dealt with venomous animals for years and know exactly what to expect when bitten. For kids that might think about handling these things, DON'T! If for no other reason than it hurts like hell, and eventually you WILL get bitten. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. DO NOT MESS WITH SNAKES OR SPIDERS OF ANY KIND FOR ANY REASON.

In NE Illinois the biggest risk involves young children. That is how I got interested in survival in the first place - building survival kits and training Cub Scouts.

For adults in remote areas (remote for NE Illinois) the biggest concern is if a health issue places you outdoors unexpectedly, like a broken hip while walking through a remote forest preserve. Though we have an occasional rattlesnake, the biggest risk from critters is probably someone with allergies getting into a bee hive or falling from the occasional high spot (they do exist here, though not common).

From an urban perspective the biggest concern I have is probably a nuclear disaster hitting the Chicago area, a massive tornado hit in my immediate area, a large earthquake, or a massive fire in my place of work (a large multi-story building in the suburbs). We don't get much flooding here, big snow storms slow things down a bit but aren't life threatening, and we don't have to worry about hurricanes or Tsunamis. The midwest is a pretty safe place.

Of course the needs change as I travel to other areas of the country.

"At 6k, is there any oxygen loss to contend with? I know that alot of times mountain climbers have to carry oxygen with them just to be able to perform the most basic tasks. I must admit I don't know that much about it since we don't have mountains here in Alabama."

Every area has its issues. 6000'MSL is hard to distinguish from sea level without instrumentation. Engines need mixture adjustment, athletes notice the difference, clear nights are colder and baking recipes need to change. Otherwise you can't really tell.

Go to 10,000' and higher and it starts to weigh on you and your machinery.

I like hiking in the Rockies because we mostly don't have snakes. In my area only black bears are around and they are fairly nervous and the predators are mountain lions or humans and a firearm works for both if needed. We also have black widow spiders but they are avoidable.

Oh, and one needs a snow shovel and muscles to use it this year!

unimogbert (Colorado)

Oxygen is only needed at the highest altitudes. O2 is only used on 8000 meter accents and many of the elite climbers do not use it anyway.
For most, altitude begins to be an issue above 8K feet but in my experience most folks start to have issues above 10K.

Here in the bay area we have earthquakes and then the potential for civil unrest.
Other than that just the normal pitfalls of everyday life.
I climb, hike, trail run and such; this adds a bit more potential for problems.

Your post reminded me of a thought I had the other night as I was watching Man Vs Wild (Ok, it was a slow night and I didn't have anything better to do.) Bear was "lost" in the mountains and advised viewers to move down hill, find a stream and follow it.

As I got to thinking about the time I have spent in the wilds of south Georgia, south Alabama, north Florida, it came to me that that bit of "conventional wisdom" is totally backwards for this part of the world. If you go down hill and downstream, you are just going to get lost farther back in the swamps. If you remember the old black and white Tarzan movies, many of the jungle scenes were filmed in north Florida. Unless you know the area, down hill, following a stream probably ain't where you want to be.

DEET is an item that I do not see in a lot of kits from other areas, but it is an important item in my day pack. The most dangerous animials in this part of the country have either 6 or 8 legs.

On the other hand, it wasn't until I spent some time in the dry air at Yellowstone that I began to really appreciate chap stick.

Canadian prairies - extremes in cold and heat and wind.

• In any given year it's -40* to +40*C, in an exceptional year those numbers can be eclipsed. Occasional high humidity but usually it's very dry.
• Wind chill can range into the -60*Cs.
• We get an occasional tornado usually F1 or F2 class or something else determined to be a "plow wind". A F4 decimated the city back in 1912.
• An extreme version of rain would be 75mm/hr. so that's not a high priority except in flood prone areas.
• West Nile Virus hit it's peak 2 years ago.
• No malaria but the highest rates of MS in the world and nobody knows why...
• No earthquakes, no tsunamies, no hurricanes.
• No mountains to fall off of, elevation 1850 asl.
• Very few rattle snakes or poisonous insects, growing concern for coyotes and raccoons.
• Very low incidence of black bear or wolf attacks.
• A LOT of deer on the roads, 10,000 deer/antelope -vehicle accidents per year in pop. of less than 1 million.
• Highest rates of property crime and violent crime in Canada but still doesn't hold a candle to the amount of violence in any US urban area.
• Almost no gun crime to speak of. :-) But knife crimes are fairly common - usually kitchen knives used to settle an argument between natives.
• No nuclear weapons here. No WoMD. Not even a blimp on any terrorist's radar screen.
• Only nuclear worry is from American anti-missle defense shooting down Russian nukes above our heads.
• No worries about population control or immigrants - we take everybody! Gladly. The more the merrier. Come hither...
• Low unemployment rate, economy beginning to diversify and accelerate.
• One of longest life expectancy rates in the world for both male and female. (Oh, wait that isn't a "PROBLEM"!)
• Very long distances to urban centres means rural trauma victims have a long comute to obtain health care.
• Longest wait times for most electives surgeries in the world (and yet medicare was INVENTED here!)
• Leftist policitians who put their heads in the sand whenever things get tough.... Damn - can't wait for the election later this year! Get rid of these socialists.

Opps, better stop now or I'll be on the soap box all day.

Thanks for clearing up the altitude thing. The only mountains we have around here are hills in most parts of the country. The only thing I know about altitude is what I see on TV and that's not much. Thanks again for the info.

Well, since our home on wheels is currently parked in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and the mother of all storms is rapidly approaching, we have to try to open the door against 50+ mph winds, then walk around in said wind...

Obviously, a person has to adjust their BOB (and other kits) to suit their local conditions and weather situations. I was watching Ron Hood's video on his BOB and I picked up a couple of pointers. I think I'll add some bear spray to my kit - never know when you need it to fight off some ravenous dog, etc.

You make an excellent point. Sometimes following a stream will get you into more trouble than you can get out of. My grandparents had some land that had a large swamp on the backside of it and I used to hang out there quite a bit. It's not really an easy place to maneuver in at all (but for snakes it's hard to beat!). As you stated, all the streams in the area eventually wound their way into the swamp, so anyone following them trying to find civilization would actually find themselves in muck chest deep in some places. That's a great thing to keep in mind for people thinking about following a stream.

Another thing to think about is predators at the stream drinking or hunting. What are the odds that someone following a stream will wander up on a bear or mountain lion? I'm sure it's not unheard of but coming from an area where both are really rare (most people don't even think they exist here although they have been seen by conservation officers that I have talk to) I have to say I don't really know what the incidence of occurance would be. I wouldn't want to round the bend and inadvertently seperate a mother bear from her cubs. I don't know what the likelihood of that is but I certainly wouldn't want to be the one guy in history to do it.

Boacrow - "At 6k, is there any oxygen loss to contend with? "

I moved from Scottsdale (~1000') to Colorado Springs(~6000'). Initially any type of exertion caused hard breathing. I could no longer jog for any distance. A doctor at the Olympic Training center advised me to monitor my red blood count. It took 6 months to stabilize. I then moved to Woodland Park (~9000'). Jogging every day at HP in Colorado Springs and once a week at Woodland Park, it took another 6 months for the red blood count to stabilize.

I was in shape. I hunted every year on Stewart Peak south of Gunnison. Camp was at 11,000' We hunted the same area for 17 years. One year I let myself get dehydrated on a hard climp. I got pulmonary adema (altitude sickness). We were able to treat it at camp and I was ok in a day.

Over the 17 years we saw altitude trigger a number of health problems for our camp. If you have any health issues, ask a doctor if altitude is a problem. In most cases it isn't - walk slow and work slow.