[pct-l] What to do when bad weather looms?

[Paul Mitchell]

> http://postholer.com/journal/viewJournal.php?entry_id=8688

"We all do it. We hear of someone dying in the wilderness and we think: What
a dumbass. They should have done this, they should have done that. It's the
way we cope, it's the way we distance ourselves from the tragedy- it's the
way we say to ourselves: That could NEVER happen to me."

Precisely.  Some of these comments about John Donavan, GPS, compass skills,
etc, they remind me of things I remember kids saying when I was young, like
"If I were attacked by ninjas ..." or "You should have turned sideways and
slid under the car" - like I thought of that but DECIDED to ride my bike
smack into the side door.  If you want to dislike humanity, read the
judgmental bullshit comments people post at the bottom of news stories on
the CBC website.  Ack.  I digress.

Anyway, I didn't want to criticize John's choices and disrespect the sad
circumstance he ended up in.  I just wanted to point out that the most
valuable lesson we can learn from it all is probably not about GPS and
compass skills, it's not to underestimate the elements and not to hike up
into a mountain range with an inbound snowstorm.  It's obviously easy to
underestimate how quickly things can go sour.

P178