hen Ken Killip set out on the trail in Colorado's Rocky Moun-

tain National Park at dalwn on Augu st 8, 1998 , Ite hrad the nag-

ging sense that he should not haYe come. A group of friends had

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planned the three-day fishing trip, but the others had gradually

dropped out until only Killip and his friend John York wete left. Kil-

follow the Continental Divide south for four miles, dimbing 2,000 feet

to the top of Mount Ida. There, at an altitude of 12,889 feet, they'd tum

east, deicend into the Gorge Lakes drainage, and hike two miles to

Rock Lake. \While six miles doesn't sound like much, the tiny lake sits

at the edge of Forest Canyon' a densely wooded wildemess in the Big

Thompson River valley "It's one of the most remote areas in the park,"

district ranger Doug Ridleywould later say. "It's pretry unforgrving'"

At a8, Killip had plenty of outdoor experience. He had been with

the Patker Fire Protection District just south of Denver for 24 yeats'

He'd even had some survival training in the military. But he'd never

been in aplacequite so rugged, and before long the altitude and pace

began to wear him down. He fell behind, and York had to keep stop-

ping. After five or six hours, York told Killip to meet him at Rock Lake

u.rJth..r -".tt on alone. Splitting up is never a good idea, but Killip

didn't want to slow down his friend. Both men had maps, but Killip's

compass was in the pocket of a shirt that York now caried.

Ston a lightning storm came rolling in, and Killip descended

from the exposed ridge to wait it out. By the time the lightning had

passed, it was late afternoon. It continued to rain, but Killip shoul-

dered his pack and started up the steep slope, convinced he was

climbing Mount Ida.When Killip at last reached the top and turned east, his first

glance into the drainage told him that something was wrong: The

lip wondered if he should drop out himself but decided to go ahead

the trip. From the trailheld Lt Milner Pass, their route wouldGorge Lakes should have appeared as a string of pearls far below,

but there v/ere no lakes. And the large rock shelf that York had toldhim to expect was not there. In fact, Killip had not reached the

summit of Mount Ida. He was looking down a parallel drainage

about a mile to the north. It was after 5 p.m., and the sun was get-

ting low behind him. The temperatute had begun to drop. He'dbeen in motion for more than ten houts and had drunk the last ofhis water three hours earlier.

It was a crucial moment. Killip was nov/ teetering on the invisible

dividing line between two wodds: He was in a state of only minor geo-

graphical confusion, for he could still turn back. But by the simple act

ofputting one foot in front ofthe other, he could very quickly cross

over into the state of being genuinely lost.

The late \filliam G. Syrotuck \I/as one of the first search-and-

rescue (SAR) experts to conduct systematic research on the behavior

of people who become lost in the wilderness. In his pioneering

monograph, "Analysis of Lost Person Behavior" (Barkleigh Produc-

tions, 197 6), he wrote:

Panic usually implies tearing around or thrashing tlrrough the

brush, but in its earlier stages it is less frantic' ' . . It all starts

when they look about and find that a supposedly famfiatloca-

tion now appears totally strange, or when they start to realize

that it seems to be taking longer to reach a particular place than

they had expected. There is a tendency to hurry to "find the

right place." "Maybe it's just over that litde ridge-"

As darkness and rain fell around him, Killip started down the un-

famthx dranage. In a short while, he found himself blundering thrcugh

dense timber in total darkness. A chance flicker of lightning ignited

reflections on a pond. Parched with thirst, Kllip headed for it. He used

his pump to filter some water and prepared to spend the night.

Killip had food, but York had the tent. Killip caried garbage bags

in his pack but didn't use them for shelter. Although he needed a

fire, he knew that open fires weren't permitted in that part of the

patk. And, as a firefighter, he reasoned, he of all people should fol-low the rules. Still, he was able to rest, rehydrate, and even heat a

meal on his camp stove.

\Vhen he awoke on the second day, Killip felt somewhat refreshed.

At that point, he still had the option of retacing his steps to his car.

But he was determined to find his way to Rock Lake. He began bush-

whacking through forest so dense that he sometimes had to remove

his backpack to squeeze between the rees.

If things get progressively more unfamiliar and mixed up, [the

victimsl may then develop a feeling of vertigo, the trees and

slopes seem to be closing in and a feeling of claustrophobia com-

pels them to try to "break out." This is the point at which run-

ning or frantic scrambling may occur. . . . -Syrotuck,

1976

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ldeally, tou have a tent and a.sleepiild bag. fiailingthatr:you,.ought ts hav€'nasacltirc@$v-atpplie6 {$e i5uryi.val in a'Eqg'":rpage S}. iretuginga ptas':'

tic drop'sheet and sorne. paracfrute:coId thatr yoil ean use,tc malae a siffiple '

A-fiame fsr*:But even witli ns'supplles,ata!|,:yo-u,can str'ltbuild a'baqicdehris shelter! First -dro$e-a.d{y:locati'oa-with plentyi af sgcki;, }daves' arid'grass around., Next, find a.ridg€pole-.-arfallen trqq. (4qqt:12:feet'lq-rg:-and :

a standing tree with.a braneh a few,feet off the.lgbund" R6st orie'end of '

the ridgepole in the.crookrvltere:thC brarleh.extendsfigrn tletrunk,t$Se'a 'rock orJtrmp foiasupportif you:canitf;nd alow b-ranehlr thenline$e pole

with sticks; eaeh about e hanA:s wiCth.apa*''nnei c{iqc@swtleseipolsswith snall bmnches or flfck grtrqes, ,cover tlte compFted',ftamework with afhida layer of boughs, Ebr€ gra$s,,and lealtesi Gerterortsly co\ter.tte,€lqJnd .

anc pad te inerOr walts llith tear@ e1 fine nqedles',tttet! slide'inside and : '

r.rse uq.€hs or your jacket to.Seal. the dqor. 'SIfvnd spec-iali$t' Mark ' : ' ': ' ":Morey o;lce safellt sper* the nidr!, !n 4.debd*-shefter vlhile a.': : '' :r

hurdcane destroyed' 1t;" stsre:ftorrghl teqt' livhicti 'i{65 ,.. : '' . t llr ll :

set up neady. 'lt was snug and suaet i$ lhe-feii :: '',-:r:.'4. r.:.ltitillfi:: .

he says. Lsarning tlore: Workshops . ::. :

withMorE/sVermontwildernessSur-'''.'&$JIWM

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Rocky Mountain National Park's Bi$Thom-pson River valley, where firefightelxen (ilnp (left) was lost for five days.Mount lda is ttre trian$ular peak with

midnight when he awoke, wet and shiveling, to find hailstones cover-

ing the ground to a depth of 12 inches. His fatigue u'as so severe that

he had slept through a driving hailstorm.

W4ren he 'd set out on August 8, Ki11ip had been a healthli compe -

tent, wcll-equipped hiker. His pack contained everything he needed

to survive atleast a u,eek in the wild. Now, just over t\vo days after tak-

ing his wrong turn off the Continental Divide , he u'as huddled on an

ic), mountainside, exhausted, hungry, injured, and slipping danger-

ously toward hypothermia. \Vhat had begun as a sma1l errol in navi-

gation had progressed, step-b-v-step, to a full-blorvn battle for sun'iva1'

INTO THE WILDAnyone can get 1ost. I know; I've done it mvsell But surprisinglv feu'of

us are genuinely prepared to Live through the expcriencc' Syrotuck ana-

lyzed a group of 229 search'and-rescue cases (of lvhich 11 percent had

ended in f'atalities) and concluded that almost thfee-quafters of those

who died perished (generallv ftom hlpofiermia) withjn the first .18 hours

of becoming lost. As sketchy as these figures ma1' be , they suggest that

those who die do so surprisingly quick\r But no one knou's r'"'hat the

odds are that a particular individual v'i11 sulive an episode of being lost'

In fact, the more I investigated the subiect of survival' the mole I u'as

struck by how little research has been donc on the topic' The fer'r'sta-

tistics that do erist show that growing numbers of people are finding

themselves in Killip's situation. In 1995, SARteams responded to 3,72)

incidents in the National Park System. By the ye ar 2000, that number

had risen 31 percent, to 4,869 One reason is the boom in outdoor

recreation. BeLween 1994 and 2000, the numbcr of American adults

who participated in adventure acti\-itie s (including hiking, backpacking,

rock cLimbing, and off-road driving) increased by 55 percent In 1999'

some 44 million people went mountain biking; 2J million went back-

packing. Almost 71 million people visited wilderncss or prirnitivc arcas.

Another reason for the increase in the number of SAR incidents

is technology: ATVs, snowmobiles, mountain bikes, and fat skis are

carrying relatively inexperienced people deeper into the r.vilderness

snow patches in thepeak withleft, and the

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Gor€e Lakes are visible below it.

Bv afternoon, Killlp's circle of contusion had expanded to such

an extent tl-rat ire had no means of tinding his s-a-v to any knov'n

location. llc u,as nos, plotouncllv lost. Convinced that he was

getting close to Rock Lake, 1-re bcgan scrambling up a steep scree

,lop. io get a bctter vierv. About 1-ralfii'ay up, he lost his footing

o,-rj b.gt't to tumble dos'n the long grade , arresting himself onlv

b1. .1-ro".". Hls injr-rrie s rl'ere sobering: severel,v prilled muscles in

l-ris shoulder, ligamcnt and cartilage damage in his knees, and

r$,o spr.ained ankle s. Killip dlagged himself a sholt distancc to a

small pond, whcre he had no choice but to remain through another

rainy night. Agair-r he made no shciter or- fire .

If thel'cio not totall\'cxhaust or injure themselvcs during outright

panic. thev m21' g1'gnlunllJ'get a grip on dlemseives and decide

ot-r sc,mc plan of action. \\hat thcv decide to do mat' rppcar irra-

tional to a crrLm obsen er, bLrt doet tr.'t seem nctr11' so uffeason-

able to the lost pelson u'ho is nou'totallv disoriented Generallii

tho'u'ouid be s'iser and safer to stal'put and get as comfortable

and s'alm as possible, br:t manl- feel compelled to push on'

urgeci b1' subconscious teclings-Syrotuck,

1976

Ki1llp as'oke sore and frustlated Although he had no idea in what

clir.ection hc s.as going. l-re told himself that I're could still re turn to his

car. He bcgan iimping tltough thc forest. Though he didn't know it,

he passed.,'ir.hin a cllrzrrtel rnile of Rock Lake . Eventualll', he began

struggling up another rockl' s1ope. rl'hich later analvsis shou'ed to be

f Z.;li f.rot Terra Tomah \'Iou.tuiin But an approaching storm forced

him bacj< clown to the tre e line , \,here he took shelter among the rocks

and passed out r.ith one arm \\Tapped around a tree tlunk lt was past

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THE SCIENCE OF LOSING IT

Kenneth HiIl, a professot of psychology at St. Mary's University inHalifax, Nova Scotia, has spent the past 15 years analyzing how peo-

ple get lost and how to find them once they do. One of his experi-ments involves taking a group of students into a small forest. "It'sabout the size of alarge city park," he says, "and notorious for its maze

of poorly marked tails." He leads the students in and then asks them

to lead him out. Only one person has ever succeeded.

Flill cites cases to further demonstrate how easy it is to get lost:

the farmer who got lost on his own property and then wanderedneaiy L2 miles from home; a construction worker who became lostbetween two tees while clearing brush for a golf course. "If you ask

hikers on a trail to point out where they ^te

on a map at any given

moment," Hill says, "they are usuallywrong."To be sure, "lost" is a relative term; the only time when most

people are not lost to some degree is when they are home. It'squite possible to know the route from one place to another u/ith-out knowing precisely where you ate at a given moment along the

way. "It rarely occurs to us," Hill writes in his book, Lost Person

Bebaaiour (National Search and Rescue Secretariat, 1999), that"we lack 'real' spatial orientation, such as knowing . . . the layoutof the land. Rathet, we may have the illusion of being oriented."

In daily life, that illusion is necessary. While our senses are capable

of perceiving the wodd around us, the human mind is not capable

of processing it in all its complexity. Instead, we create simplified

& swmmwrc# ss*wm€€mre #e e ticki4g! clock

models of our environment. 'T7e are constantly maintaining a modelin terms of our position," Hill says, "and most of the time it's wrong."Nevertheless, that simplified model is normally good enough to get

us where we're going. \When it's not, we get lost.

Here's how it works: Suppose you're searching the house for yourcopy of Moby Dick, andyou remember it being a red paperback edi-tion. ril/hen you search, you don't examine every item in the house tosee f it's Mohy Dick. In fact, your mental model of the red paperback

allows you to screen out neady everything you see until, at last, a redbook blossoms in your field of vision. If, on the other hand, your mem-ory is imperfect and the book is actually a blue hardback copy of MobyDick, chances are you won't find it even if the title comes into view.

Everyone is familiar with finditg something "right under my nose." Afaulty mental model is the explanation. It's the reason card tricks and

magic acts work: You see what you e4)ect to see.

\,Mhen it comes to our perception of where we are, the mentalmodel can be unbelievably strong. "I saw a man I was hiking withsmash his compass with a rock," Hill says, "because he thought it was

broken. He didn't believe we were heading in the right dtection."

BENDING THE MAPThe first step in becoming lost is to persist in following your mentalmodel even when the landscape tries to tell you that your model is

wong. Edward Cornell, a psychology professor at the University ofAlberta in Edmonton, also specializes in studying the behavior of peo-

ple who become lost. 'qWhenever you start looking at your map and say-

ing something like rWell, that lake could have dried up' or 'That bouldercould have moved,' a red Jight should go off," he says. 'You're trying tomake reality conform to your expectations rathet than seeing what'sthere. In the sport of orienteering, they call that bending the map." KenKillip was bending the map when he headed down the wrong drainage

despite ample evidence that he was starring from the wrong place.

Once the map is bent, it can be extemely difficult to get it straightagain. And so we proceed until we come to a point at which we can nolonger deny the evidence of our senses. "It's not something that hap-pens immediately," Hill says. "First, it's a sense of disorientation:'Uh-oh, I'm not in Kansas anymore.' Then the woods start to become

strange; landmarks are no longer famitan"The mind's functioning-indeed, our very sanity-depends on a

reasonable match between our mental models and the world aroundus. (It could be argued that insanity amounts to the conviction thatthe world, not the model, is faulty.) As the mental model becomes

more and more sharply at odds urith the environment, many peoplewill experience the vertigo, claustophobia, andparic that Syrotuckdescribed. But since most of us are not conscious of the process, we

have no way to reflect on what's happening to us. All we know is thatit feels as if we're going mad. rW{hen at last the fulI weight of the incon-gruity hits us, the impact can be staggering.

" '\(/oods shock'is a term for the fear associated with complete loss

of spatial orientadon," HiIl says. "It is unique. It has very litde similarity

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toanyotherkindoffear.Noneofthentionalabilitiesthevictimhadbefore being iost are usefirl to him an)'rnore'" In severe cases' the actions

strategy In the fourth stage, you deteriorate both mentally and physi

.ully it your strategy fails to get you out' And in the final stage' you

become-resigned to your plight as you run out of options'

Of coursle, these stages might be reordered' occur almost simulta-

neously, or, in some .us"r, b" ."p"ated' But the overall direction of

.u"nr, upp"u.s to be all too common. It is perhaps no surprise that this

pattern ciosely resembles the now widely accepted stages of dy'lng

iesoibed by psychologist Elizabeth Kiibler-Ross: denial, anger' bar-

gaining,d.pt.ttion, ,r.d u...ptutt.e' And the end result is often the

lu-". 7Ot.",he stage of psychological disintegration is reached, death

is often not far away," observes John Leach, a professor of psychology

at Britain's Lancaster University, in his book Szruiual Prycholog (New

York University Press, 1994). "The ability people possess to die gendy'

and often ,tdjenly' through no organic cause, is a very real one'"

This is a lesson Hill knows well' "I have photos of a man who set-

tled into a cozy lsed of pine needles after removing his shoes, pants'

and jacket anj setting his wallet on a nearby rock," Hill says' "In the

phoior, he seems so peaceful; it's hard to believe he's dead' The pho-

io, hu* special ,ignifi.unc" for me, because I helped coordinate the

search. \xh"n"u"r I staft to believe I'm some hot-shit SAR expert, Ipuil the photos out and I'm over it."'

By his third night lost in the wild, when Killip awoke amid the

hailstones at the ioot of Terra Tomah Mountain, he had arguably

passed through denial (descending the wrong drainage)' panic

iclimbing ,rp1h" dangerous scree slope), and strategic planning

iutt"rnptitg io backtack) and was well into the penultimate stage of

deterioration. But he did not succumb to resignation'

Instead, he puiled himself together. He put on his fishing waders and

started walkinj u.ornd to get v/arm, made a fire, and built a makeshift

shelter using hrls garbage bags. For the next two days, he stayed put and

aftended tolhe business of living, Killip had entered the final stage that

separates the quick from the dead: not helpless resignation but prag-

matic acceptani". At Killip would prove, that final stage in the process

can be either a beginning or an end' For some, it's when they give up

and die. For others, it,s when they stop denying and begin surviving.

If the disorientation of woods shock is the first transformation the lost

person goes through, Killip had now gone tryough a second, and that

second transformation is the secret to survival'

'You get into some really crazy thinking," Killip says now, three years

after his iescue. ,,You don't realize that you've started talking to youf-

self." He began feeding his rations to marmots iust to get them to come

.lore. ThenL" talked to them as well. But having faced the reality of his

situation, he was now able to concentfate on keeping himself alive. onhis fifth and hnalday of being lost, Killip watched in hoffor as a heli-

copter passed right over him, so close that "I felt like I could throw a

.o.k u, hi-. Then he tumed and flew away' It was almost breaking my

spirit." But the pilot had seen Killip's blue parka hanging on a branch

and directed the searchers to his location'

"I lost 30 pounds in five days," Killip says' His knee iniuries

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of even th" mort experienced outdoorspeople seem inexplicable' Hik-

ers have abandoned-fi,ril backpacks; hunters have left their guns behind'

The simple truth is, .rr"rytn" *ho dies out there dies of confusion'

But woods ,ho.k i. seldom the sole cause of wilderness deaths' In most

cases, there is a destructive slnergy among various factors' including

exhaustion, dehydration, hypothermia, anxiety, hunger, and perhaps

even injury. First, woods shock leads to frantic, poorly planned actions

that expose the victim to fatigue, thirst, and cold; these stresses then

in upuiitut the victim further. People in the last stages of hlpoth-er-

mia, for example, sometimes disrobe completely' One man' lost for five

auy, i" Colorado's San Juan \X4lderness, \)/as rescued wearing nothing

[", nt wristwatch. In the worst cases, the impaired mind and the

impaired body drag each other down until, like two drowning swim-

mers, they Pull each other under.N&ti.lce

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GOING THROUGH STAGES

Being lost, then, is not a location; it is a trans{ormation' Though

there is no standard model for desffibing this mental and physical

metamorphosis, the research of Flill, Sytotuck, and others suggests five

general ,iug.r. ir, the first, you deny that you're disoriented and press

3., *ttr grol*ittg urgency In the next stage, as you admit that you're lost'

yoo b.gI.t to fanic. In the third stage' you calm down and form a

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lfyou brought a cell Phone'pray that it works. Other-wise, you need to makeyourself as visible andaudible as possible. Whenit comes to beinE heard, shouting is alast resort: lt wastes energy, and thehuman voice doesn't travel far. ldeally,you brought your whistle-quite possibly

ihe most vital piece of survival equipmentyou (or your children) can carry' The interna-iional diitress signal is three blasts. For visibility'

in the United States. Weeklong courses cost $895'

stirt wiitr a signa'ifire: Choose an open area' get a large' hot blaze goifig'

.no *t un un iircraft comes in sight, throw on green pine boughs of other

""*rV ci,t plant materials to maki a dramatic smoke signal' Also' spread

orfilfiu#vu blankets or brightly colored clothingto help $earchers spot

vou from the air. ror long-iisiance visibility, nothing beats a signal

i"ii,-"r. it "

i""uv_made vaiiety has a sighting hote to help you aim the

,"n"*ion "t

a rJseue helicopt6i or a search plane, But a basic compact

*iir* *"tfr" almost as well, and even a knife btade, a gedit card' ot a

;ffi;d;ft wrapper will do in a pinch. Start bv reflectingthe sunlight

onto Voi,it anO anU ttten position your hand so ll?t il covers the target

in voJinero of vision. Remove youi han! 91u yolote. ltte mirror back and

;;fi. ;ilitg Morer Establiihed in 1968, the Boulder outdoor survival

Scnoof €OO-g3S-7404; www.boss-lnc'com) is the oldest' school of its tYPe

s* ffiffim?r6ck,'*

dead.*

with IucK you are close to aIake or 6tream''lf You cantfind a souree offiesh lvatel,there are ssveral possible strate- 'gies. Flrst, don't be overly stins/ '€iliththewaterwudohavelManyhave 1died vtith carefully hoarded water stilt inthEir canteens.'Better to drink when you're

thirsB..lf you msst search or work for water'beware of exerting yourself unproductively'f'Conserve svreat, rioiraater" is the maxim to remember') You can try dig'

iing in ttte Cty utr"ambeds or looking for rainwater in hollow stumps or pockets in rocks, You can even use a bandanna to blot the dew from plants at

dawn and then \wting it into your mouth. The solar slill pictured here is a last

resort To make ona, choose the damBest sunny spot you can flnd' Fig a

hole ahout three feet across and bn fuet deep, with a deeper indentation at

the bottom to hold your water containen Cover the hole with a piece ofyo{rpl,asttc Urop sneet isee "survival in a Bag," page 96) and place a small rock

it tt "

cenie, to depress the plastic. Anchor and seat the edges with rocks.

{Adding crushed:plint leaves wilt slightly boost the output,) water from thegroun{ana vegeiation $ill condenGe on the sheet, roll down to the center,

ind drip into lie container. But don.t get yorr hope^s up. Stills often produce

only a iew swallows of water a day. You'll need more than one' Lcarningi

nririe: 71re US Anny Surviva! Manual (Dorset Press, 1991' $15) hat detailed

information on solar*still construction and other survival techniquos'

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I set out for survival school troubled by this deep puzzle' \7e like

to think that education and experience make us more competent'

more capable. Yet it seemed the opposite might sometimes be true in

life-or-death situations. I wondered if there u/as a way to learn

the skilis of survival while keeping the instincts of a small child' Icouldn't help thinking of theZenconcept of the "beginner's mind,"

the mind that remains open and ready despite years of training' "In

the beginner's mind there are many possibilities," said Zen master

Shunryu Suzuki. "In the expert's mind there are few."

LEARNING TO LIVE

Byron Kerns is a big, macho-looking guywith 14 years of military expe-

rience, including four years as an Air Force survival instructor. He no\t/

runs the Mountain Shepherd \ftldemess Survival School in Ly'nchburg,

Vrginia, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where the woods

ur" d..r. and rugged. It's a perfect place to get lost. On my first day, we

hiked up a rocky river drainage and into the wildemess, where we prac-

ticed navigation, fue craft, making shelter, and findingwater-the basics

of survival that anyone who enters the woods ought to know' But the

skills and tools are only the beginning, he told me. \Vhat's in your heart

and head is far more important than what's in your pack'

The fust time I saw him, Kerns was sauntering across a parking lot,

wearing a 16-inch Panamanian machete. I had the definite impression

that I was about to meet a hardball military type who was going to make

things rough on me. But Kems is soft-spoken, polite, earnest, and gende

to a fault. Even after a life spent in the wildemess, each time he enters

the woods he approaches it with a deep sense of respect and humility,

like a man approaching a magnificent and unpredictable creature'

H" *urii always that way. Eady in his Air Force days, Kerns told

me as we walked, he took a group of pilots into the mountains near

Spokane, \WashinSon, for survival-training maneuvers. He was trying

to be the hard-driving drill instructor: Go, go, go; push, push, push'

They were crossing a vast field of slushy sno\I/' and the pilots began to

fatigue, but Kerns kept driving them' "I now realize that was a mis-

take," he said. As darkness came down like a curtain, the temperature

dropped. "suddenly everybody wanted to give up' They just sat down

u.rJlort all their wi11." Apathy is a common reaction to any sort of dis-

aster. After the bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese who observed that

reaction among survivors calleditburabura, ot do-norltng sickness' Ifnot countered, it can rapidly lead to complete physical deterioration'

"A11 at once it hit me that those million-dollar pilots could die,"

Kerns said. "I fe1l to my knees, and I prayed." \X4rich turned out to be

exactiy the right thing to do. Having mustered his inner resources, he

was then able to rise from his knees and take charge. He pulled a

cedar fence post out of the snow, carved off shavings for tinder, and

built a fire. "It's amazing to see what fire can do," he said' "The

minute you light that fire, you're home, the lights are on, and supper's

cooking. It just turned everybody around'"Kerns learned many lessons that night: "That experience taught

me to carry eveq,thing in my pack, have everything ready to make

that fire," he said. But, more than that, he saw how his own mastery

of the situation inspired the pilots. That lesson was driven home to

me again and again: Helping someone else is the best way to ensure

your own survival; it gives you a mission and lets you rise above your

fears. You're now a leadeq not a victim'"Lack of leadership in a survival situation can be fatal," Leach writes

n Suraiaal Psychology. He tells of the fishing boatWest I' which sank in

the Pacific, leaving eight members of its crew floating in two life rafts,

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required two operations. Today, he gives talks to Boy Scouts and other

groops on wilderness safety' "Now I catty a survival pack and a map

I.rd .o-pus everywhere," he says. "And I'm very careful about who

I go out with. If I have a bad feeling about something, I don't go' "

WHO MAKES IT_ANDWHYOne of the great riddles in the study of survival is why some people

live while oth.tr, often facing less difficult conditions, die' "It's not

who you'd predict, either," says Flill, who has studied the survival rates

of diifereni demographic groups. "sometimes the one who survives is

an inexperienced female hiker, while the experienced hunter gives up

and dies in one night, even when it's not that cold."

Among healthy people, he says, "the category that has one of the

highest ,rrruiuul .ut"t it children six and under-the very people we're

m"ost concemed about." Despite the fact that small children lose body

heat much faster than adults, they often survive in the same conditions

better than experienced hunters, better than physically fit hikers, better

than former members of the military. And one of the groups with the

poorest survival rates is children seven to tv/elve' Cleady, those youngest

.hildr".t porr.ss some secret that trumps knowledge and experience'

Scientists do not know exactly what the secret is, but the answer

may lie in some very basic childhood traits: small children do not cfe-

ate complex mental maps. They don't understand traveling to a par-

ticular piace, so they don't r*n to get somevrhere beyond their field of

vision. They aiso follow their instincts. If it gets cold, they'll crawl into

a hollow tree to get warm. If they're tired, they rest, so they don't

fatigue. If they're thirsty, they drink. They try to make themselves

comfortable. And staying comfortable helps keep them alive'

Children ages seven to twelve, on the other hand, behave much

like adults: They panic and run. They look for shortcuts. If the ffailpeters out, theykeep going, ignoring thirst, hunger, and cold, until

ihey fall over. In learning to think more like adults, it seems, they have

suppressed the very instincts that might have helped them survive'

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ln the best-case sce-nario, you have enoughfood for three days. No?Don't panic-most Peo-ple can go at least a

Stitl, hunger is debilitat- rl

ing and makes you more I

susceptible to hypother'mia. So attend to Your lll'ifood needs once other rll',rtf'll'I" lv?lllQf-1it.f,]a$problems are dealt with.batching mammals is extremely difficult for the untrained-not worth the

ener€5/ ;xpenditure. Fishing is much more effective, especially if you have the

*ghGear. Aside from familiar berries, plants are not a good idea unless you're

t;mel in identirying the edible ones, and even then, they dont provide much

nourishment. Thi best available supply of nutrients is insects. Your most vital

nutritional needs in a survival situation are protein and fat, and most insects

are rich in both. Slugs, earthworms, ant eggs*-atl are good' (Avoid stinging

insects and spiders; "six legs or fewer" is a good rule of thumb') The best

method for collecting ants li to find a nest, disturb it with a stick, allow the

ants to climb the stick, and then remove them by dippingthe stick into a con'

tainer of water. Grubs (insect larvae) are easy to find in rotten logs' under the

bark of dead trees, and in the ground. Most types of bugs can be eaten raw

though roasting them makes the meal more palatable' L€arnlng More:Cnec-k out Man

-Eating Bugs: The Att and Science of Eating /nsects Oen Speed

Press, 1998, $2O), by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio'

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which were tethered together by a 3O-meter line. In one raft, the third

mate quicldy took charge, setting watches and assigning the men chores'

In the second raft, which included the captain, no leader emerged'

"Instead of discipline, there was disintegration," Leach writes' rW4ren

the crew was r.r.,r"d two weeks later, the men in the first raft cLimbed

aboard the rescue ship under their own power' Those in the second,

who'd been only 30 meters away, were helpless and had to be carried

aboard. The captain had already succumbed to the elements'

"Establishing a definite purpose to one's existence strengthens sur-

vival," Leach clncludes. "But . . . it must be coupled with ' ' ' the

breaking down of the person's aim or purpose into simple tasks so

that life can be handled one step at a time'"Taking things one step at a time is the essence of modern survival

t".ht iqne. A survival situation is a ticking clock, Kerns told me' You

Since hypothermia can kill so quickly' shelter is next on the list'

"Shelter begins with your clothes," Kerns said. \fi4th the right clothing,

you don't rl*uyr n".d additional shelter, but he advises carrying a plas-

il. d.op sheet and large garbage bags for conserving body heat'

'After that, you can think about your fue caft." \W{hile you may not

need fire to survive, he said, "seeing that light as the sun goes down sure

is nice." A fire is also useful for signaling, the next item on the list'

In most cases, u'ater and, especially, food are less urgent' ("\We've

never found somebody starved to death," says Steve Foster, of the

National Association for Search and Rescue, or NASAR') You don't

v/ant to be crashing through the woods, trying to find a stream, when

a helicopter happens to fly over.

I noiic.d that Kerns didn't talk much about "positive mental

attitude." But on my last day of training, we v/ere hiking in dense

timber when Kerns suddenly began shivering and refused to go on'

"Help me," he moaned. "I'm freezing' I can't walk any farther'"

Earlier he had shown me how to assemble a ready pack (see

"survival in aBag," page 96) that contained everything I'd need to

survive for three days. I opened it and whipped out a large orange

plastic garbage bag, one with a face hole already cut in it, and put

it ou". hi-. I had him kneel on a bit of foam rubber to insulate him

from the ground. "You're going to be just fine"' I said' \7hen

you're working to save someone else, it's amazing how the tricks

of survival come tumbling out. Pulling my tarp and cord from my

ready pack, I erected an emergency sheiter. Then, usingVaseline-

coated cotton balls and a sma1l chunk of a fake fireplace 1og, I was

able to get a roaring fire going in minutes. And when he asked

for a cup of tea, I had my canteen cup ready to boil water' From

there, I felt as if we could do anything."The most terrifying thing in the wodd to me," Kerns said after

our simulated emergency, "is to be in the woods and not be able to

help someone who needs my help'" And as we sat relaxing under

our makeshift shelter, I realized that Kerns had taught me about

the first item on the checklist, positive mental attitude, while

barely mentioning it.One point of survival training, of course, is to prevent you from

becoming lost in the first place. But what if you are lost for a reason

beyond your conffol, such as a plane crash? I asked Kerns' How do you

find yourself? 'You don't," Kems said. "It's ertremely difficult to get your

bearings once you are really lost, even if you have a map and compassoN

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have only so much $/ater, so much energy,

so much emotion stored inside you. Every

time you exert yourself, you're using them

up. The heart of his teaching is iearning

to be stingy with those scarce resources'

To help reinforce this idea, he recited the

seven-point survival checklist used by the

Air Force and other groups: (1) positive

mental attitude, (2) first aid, (3) shelter,

(4) fire, (5) signaling, (6)water, (7) food.

"The tirst thing you do is STOf;" Kerns

said. "It's an acronym: stop, think, observe,

plan. That's your first order of business."

In other words, first organize your mind.

Next, Kerns said, "you check the physical

condition of your people: Is someone sick?

Is someone hurt?" Stabilizing the injured or

sick takes precedence over all other needs'

and can see mountains." You cannot solve an

equation in which all the variables are un-

known. If you do not know your present

location, you cannot readily navigate to any

other point in space. So Kems, like most sur-

vival experts, advises staying put and waiting

for help to come. My raining and the ready

pack were designed to keep me alive for72hows,which, he said, was generally the

maximum time it would take for SAR to find

me and have me sitting down to a hot meal.

The problemwas, I'd come across some rare,

but chilling, exceptions to that rule'

THE LONG, LONG WAIT

InJune 1990, David Boomhower set out on

a ten-day hike on New York's Northville-Lake Placid Trail. He was taveling alone,

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accident on October 20. According to hisjournal, he had lasted 55 days.

The truth is that if you do get 1ost, it's nota foregone conclusion that anyone will even

search for you, let alone find you. In some

states-\Washington and New Mexico, forexample-the search-and-rescue operaLions

are well organized and scientific. In many

other regions in the U.S., however, searches

arehapbazardly organized by local sheriffs,

state police, and fue departments. Manyrelyon well-intentioned but poorly supervised

volunteers. "It's the posse method," KennethHill says. "Send some people west and some

people east, and tell them to bring 'em backif you find'em, boys."

So the question ofwhether to stay putor go back is not a rivial one. And theanswer might depend on a number ofother questions: Have you left your routewith the authorities? Are you close towhere you said you'd be? Are you able torefface your steps?

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1 be s€en up to a hundred mitbs aw4y,on.:,e!ea:.dpy.3t ;\&11. ciin pur,c.hase

g'wel r as q wlqtle (so meth i ng eyery g$e i1 vour;tifisf T,tq,,9ii-ry1.ia&ld-ts,'ieri,treai,up td tS.4tlhrte:ot,uat€r' N€Ylg?.fiofiiht is useful in many ways-and having light also boosts

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and although he had done a lot ofplanning, he started running low

on food after about five days. So he looked at his map and decided

that Sucker Brook Thail would take him to a road, which he could

take to the nearest town.lle was not in trouble yet, but he had begun putting together a

plan that would end his life. He'd left a copy of his route with the

authorities, but now that he had aitered his course, they would have

no way of knowing where he was. All he needed was one surprise,

and he'd be in big trouble.He got more than one. The trail was far more rugged than he'd

expected. It crossed a stream 14 times before it petered out Then

the weather arrived. Although he was only two miles from the road,

he could not figure out how to reach it. Even so, when he admittedto himself that he was lost, he did things by the book He made

camp and awaited rescue.

The search for Boomhower wasn't begun until he'd been gone thir-

teen days and was three days overdue. More than once, he saw the air-

plane that was ferrying state troopers and

search volunteers, but it didn't occur to himthat they were looking for him, so he didn'tsignal. At dark he would light his lantern, butthe plane didn't fly at night. There is an

annual Fourth of July fireworks display at a

nearby campsite, and Boomhower reasoned

that he'd hear it and be able to walk in thatdirection. But for the first time in ten years,

the fireworks were canceled.

Boomhower kept a diary and it is heart-

breaking to read. By the time he realized thathe might not be rescued, he'd grown too

weak to travel. In one of his joumal entries,

he wrote: "I wonder if anyone has died outhere, waiting, believing in that 'stay calm and

help will arive'bullshit." David Boomhower

set out on June 5; his body was found by

,raneef,031-r*9S'q,qg7$ pentc4i 1{

That life-and-death decision could be the most difficult one you

might ever face, and you would be forced to make it at a time when

your own mind is deeply unreliable. Think about it: If your predica-

ment begins with an inability to interpret information correctly, how

can you rust yourself? Therein lies the Zen paradox of survival.

If I was ever faced with that decision, I like to think I wouldremember first to sit down and quiet my mind. I would make sure

that I was rested, fed, and hydrated. I would go back over my

actions to see if they fit the pattern of denial, panic, strategy, and

so on. And only then, I hope, would I consider trying to backtack.(Those who do attempt to backmack should remember to mark theirtrail as visibly as possible.)

The mind is the ultimate survival kit. But the mind that gets us intotrouble is not the same mind that will save us. Part of the process ofsuwival is to move through those stages with as little trauma as possi-

ble, coming out the other side with a new kind of rationalism, \fliththe rationalism that comes from acceptance. I needed to know if it

was possible to ffain my mind to recognize

its own shortcomings.

BEGINNER'S MINDThe morning I arrived at the Vermont\X/ilderness Survival School near the GreenMountains, a group of childten about eightyears old were moving through the forest,pretending to be deer. They had theirhands cupped to their ears to amplifysounds. A twig snapped, and they scat-

tered and vanished.The school's co-foundet, Mark Morey,

and I watched them silently Motey, who has

studied at Tom Brown, Jr.'s famous tackerSchool, teaches what some term "primitive"suruival skills, though he likes to call them"the ancient ways (Continuedonpage 155)

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bewildered. . . . They will behave in a reflex-

ive, almost automatic or mechanical manner'"

A third group, 10 to 15 percent, will exhibit

inappropriate behavior-confusion, scream-

ing, weeping, ot paralyztng anxiety.

Even the mi)fiary, which invests huge re-

sources in survival training, can't predict who

will and will not fold under extreme conditions.

But the accounts of those who've made itthrough the worst situations hold some clues to

the heart of the true survivor' Inl982,DebbieKiley, an accomplished ocean racer, was deliv-

ering a yacht to Florida when it sank in a storm,

stranding her and four others in an inflatable

Zodiac boat. As she recounts in her book,IJntarned,seas (Mariner Books, 1994), they

drifted for five days. Passenger Meg Mooney

slowly died of injuries she'd sustained when the

yacht sank; Captain John Lippoth and crew

member Mark Adams drank seawater, became

delirious, and went over the side, where they

were eaten by sharks. Only Kley and her friend

and fellow crewmember Brad Cavanaugh sur-

vived. Her analysis of why they lived is telling:

"I felt like it was my job to keep him alive," she

says. 'And I think he thought the same about

me." \7hen the sharks attacked, Kiley and

Cavanaugh could only sit and listen helplessly

to the frenzied batde beneath the boat. "That

is the only time in my life I felt like I was just

walking doum that fine line of sanity," she says.

"Here's Mark, he's overboard, the sharks are

eating him, Meg's dying, it's in the middle ofthe night, and it's the fust night that the stars

are out. It was just very haunting."

Yet she never doubted herself. "\When Iwas out there and people started to die, Iknew that I wasn't going to die," she says. "Itwas just a mattet of figuring out how fto stay

alivel." Kiley and Cavanaugh took turns

keeping watch, and she endlessly recited the

Lord's Prayer. But mostly they hunkered

down, trying to stay warm and conserve

energy. "You have to take responsibility foryour own survival," she says. "You can't just

sit back and let someone else do it for you."

One SAR worker told me the PossiblYapocryphal story of a man who had survived

six days in the desert with no water, in tem-

peratures above 100 degrees. \[hen his res-

cuers asked him how he did it, he told them

he was in the middle of a divorce and "just

didn't want to let the bitch get everything."

Anger, focus, determination, ptayer, faith-whatever keeps the boat afloat. But what

seems to set deep survivors apart is their

abfity to tap into it when they need it. Leach

puts it this way: "\[hen the personality is

ripped away, there has to be a core remaining

to carry the person through. This inner charac-

ter is self-supporting and if a person can carry

all his support within him then it matters littlewhat the external environment comprises."

In some ancient cultures, young men (and

a fewwomen) were sent into the vrildemess tofast for days in search of a vision. The vision

quest was a rite of passage, a religious custom;

but underneath, it was survival school, too, atest of those inexplicable reserves that sepa-

rate the living from the dead. It was a way ofsimulating that split state of mind that sur-

vivors describe, a state that gants us peace at

the very moment when panic is closest.

Kiley and others describe an eerie sort ofcalm that setdes over people when they have

accepted the brutal reality of their situation.

"Be still," Kiley says. "If you can't make a decision, just be still." Leach calls this state "active-

passiveness." It is the ability to accept one's

plightwithout giving in to it.At the ultimate stage of a survival situation,

we are faced with two paths: Gking one, we

perish. Taking the other, we accept the new

world in which we've found ourselves' Leach

calls this final transformation "survival by sur-

render." It sounds almost Zen.

Ken Killip's transformation took place

when he settled down to use the materials he

had with him instead of uying to tl-rash his way

back to a wodd he could no longer reach.

Even his befriending the marmots could be

seen as an acceptance ofhis new envfuonment.

Having to fight in order to live another

day is among the most fundamental trans-

forming experiences a human being cari have.

And yet so few of us ever have to face thatstruggle. Rarely do we take true responsibility

for our actions. \(e live in a culture of life-guards, of insurance and lawsuits, where

someone else is always responsible and some-

one else is always to blame. But take one

v/rong turn in the woods (o! more aptly, inthe mind), and we go directly to the Stone

Age. \7ith our survivai at stake, we're sud-

denly called to account for the long amears ofour inattention. Then it's up to us to find ourplace in that new wodd. L-Additional

rEortinghy Kate Cheney and James Vlahos

Have you ever been lost? Share Yourexperiences and lessons at wwwnational

geo rfi aph, c. com I a &/entu re.