This survival quiz on Field & Stream is a hoot:

http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/quizes/lost/lost.html

And dang it, I only got 12 out of 18. Now I barely want to go outdoors...

useless quiz

Agreed


Go ahead do something stupid, it's cool! Give me a break.

THey need their head's examined. If my GPS does not obtain a lock within a couple of min's, the trip stops. Right there, right then. The 15 min's that they are quoting is for a cold start. Which you would allow for. If the GPS shows no sign of aquiring then everything is below the horizon. The GPS is therefor not usable. Time to take a hint and call it a day.

Man navigated across the land for thousands of years before the advent of satellites and GPS. I would hope that you would not miss out on the chance to spend some time in the great outdoors just because your techno gear didn't turn on. I was personally very upset when the quiz told me that "whipping out a map and compass" was wrong, because that is exactly what I would have done and felt totally confident in doing so.

Matt

Me too. I was well over 55 before I got my first (and only) GPS, and somehow managed to survive in the boonies. The GPS is a neat tool, fun toy, but it does not run my life...

Matt you must have answered the same way I did and was told WRONG
Mike

That was my second reaction. I personally prefer to establish my position by taking a resection, but cross checking that against a GPS is only prudent.
GPS comes into its own if something untowards happens, like the weather clamps down and you cannot see anything that allows you to determine exactly where you are.

The other point that I was trying to make was:
If you wind up having a ODTAA day, take a hint. There is always tomorrow.

ODTAA - One Darn Thing After Another.

I got that one right. There's a later one about navigating to a ridge that I got wrong. Ironically they won't let you use your GPS for that one. My instinct was to fix my location on my map and then use the map to tell me where to go. They wanted you to walk a bearing instead, which I kinda took for granted as part of the map thing, but my experience of mountainous country is that you can't always follow the bearing you want (and can't always get back onto the bearing using the method mentioned in a later question - which I did get right).

I got several wrong about local fauna which weren't local where I live. Why should I care about rattlesnakes or bears in England? I thought some of the fire-related ones were a bit precious. I think you make mistakes in a quiz that you wouldn't make in real life. (And probably vice versa.)

My comments:

Use the map and compass to rely on not the dam fallible GPS and wasting 15+ minutes while technology catches up to the tried and true method.

Don't go into that shallow cave as it attracts lighting.

Why the hell did "you" the hunter lose all you previous equipment? Master dunderhead! You panicked and now you expect to score high on an hypothetical quiz at your computer? <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

PS why do you ONLY have matches and not a backup way of starting a fire? There are lots of ways to build a good fire not just the quizzes "correct" way.

Stupid quiz. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Call me old and antiquated but I have never used a GPS. I do however have a compass and know how to use it and a map.

You and me both. I consider GPS a useful back up. I am however, mindfull of it's limitations. As with any other tool.
I am concerned, as I suspect many of the members of this forum are, about people misunderstanding that point and thinking that GPS is the be all and end all of navigation.

Glad to see I'm not the only to have those issues with it.

Another other one I had an issue with was when navigating on an azmuith to a major terrain feature and you fall over loosing your reference point instead of reshooting your Az and continuing on, you attempt to back track to your last know ref point?
1. Your navigating to a major terrain feature... +/- a few feet of drift from falling over your still going to find it. Its not like your navigating to a specific point.
2. So reshooting an Az and your on your way to lost ville. But blindly trying retrace your path in an attempt to find the backside of your last reference point is a good idea? I don't think so; especially since things look different from teh other direction. Odds are you are going to walk right past your last ref.
3. As already mentioned GPS anyone? You've got a map, you've got a GPS, you SHOULD have a protractor, us tech to help you, that's why you bought a GPS in the first place.


Finaly as somebody already said, this guy should have cut his loses and called it a day. If this werea real case I would classify it as another example of a self-inflicted survival situation; he had numerous chances to break the cycle but instead allowed one bad chioce to create more bad chioces he made.

If my GPS doesn't work, I do what I did before I owned a GPS. Using a map and compass mark my location on the map and navigate throught my hike using old school land navigation techniques.

I had the same thoughts about using my back trail after I fell unless of course I fell down the mountain, but then I think I may have other things on my mind after I fell far enough to get lost.

9/18 what a rediculous quiz. I'd love to take some of these guys out in the woods and see how they would do. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />