This thread was prompted by the recent news articles about the "North Rim lady" who was alleged to have attended a survival school, but who did virtually every thing wrong.

Years ago I worked on the body recovery of a group of three winter backpackers who had gotten into trouble on a previous excursion, attended a survival school (allegedly)and then went on this trip, which ended in their abandoning their companion to die by the side of the trail. Essentially, they did nothing right.

On the other hand, there are numerous epic tales of people who survived with no background in survival training who did enough right to get a passing grade from the School of Hard Knocks. There are probably also a lot of people who attended some survival school or another, paid attention, applied the principles, and enjoyed long and productive lives.

Is survival training, as presently applied, worth the time and money? There are surely some decent courses out there, but how is one to tell? Dead men tell no tales....