The 5 main reasons people find themselves in survival situations

Every year around the world, thousands of people die because from being stranded or getting lost in a dangerous environment. There have been countless people die over the years from getting lost in a jungle or dying of thirst or starvation before someone finds them, but why do so many people keep getting themselves into trouble? Even though there are many factors that lead up to someone getting into trouble in the wild, there are a handful of reasons that repeat themselves over and over, the 5 most common of which are below:

Lack of planning

It goes without saying that you should always prepare for going out into the wild, but whether it’s due to overconfidence or just plain stupidity, people often don’t think it’s necessary. The best example of this would be the story of a group of four friends who tried to climb Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK back in February of 2020. They simply just decided on the spot to climb it one day and didn’t bother to prepare in the slightest. They ended up getting separated close to the top after getting caught in an 80 mph blizzard, and all four of them were wearing nothing more than summer clothes and trainers. They were all extremely close to death when the 22 strong rescue party finally found them.

(One of the idiots who tried to climb Ben Nevis without preparing, seen here sitting in the snow wearing emergency clothing brought by the rescuers)

Ignoring the sun

If you’re in a location you’ve never been to before in the middle of the day, chances are you’ll be able to see quite far, but when nighttime comes you’ll find yourself stuck in unfamiliar territory with only a few feet of visibility. This may seem obvious, but the amount of people who became stranded because they didn’t pay attention to the sun going down is huge. The story of Victoria Grover would be a good example, because not watching the sun almost cost her life. She went hiking in the Box-Death Hollow Wilderness in Utah on her own and was in the middle of nowhere when she realised it was getting dark. To save time getting back, she climbed down a series of ledges and ended up breaking her leg, causing her to spend several nights there with no food until someone found her.

(The Box-death Hollow wilderness in Utah)

Not telling anyone where you’re going

If you’re ever stranded in the wild, the chances of your survival will depend on how fast help can reach you, but it’s very hard to get rescued if no one knows you need help in the first place. The most famous example of this would be Aron Ralston who had the movie “127 hours” made about his experience. He fell down a canyon and spent five days there before cutting off his own arm and walking to safety. If he had told someone where he was, his experienced probably wouldn’t have been longer than 24 hours.

(Aron Ralston with his new arm)

Going off the path

We’ve all done it at some point when in the wild, you’re walking along and see something interesting down a side path or a short trip through the trees from where you are, but acting on this curiosity can cost you dearly if you’re not paying attention. Ed Rosenthal found this out the hard way when he was making a routine hike in an area of desert wilderness close to his home. The trip was 4 miles, so he only took a small amount of water with him, but along the way he saw an interesting looking canyon path he decided to follow. After walking far enough to get lost, he spent the next 6 days dying of thirst before he finally lay down for the last time, only to have a search and rescue helicopter fly directly overhead out of pure luck. He was taken to a hospital and made a full recovery, but was only hours away from death when he was found.

(Ed Rosenthal wrote a book containing 36 poems about his survival experience)

Trying new routes

Just because a path looks like it goes in the same direction doesn’t mean it actually does. This is quite common when people climb up mountains and want to try a new route back down that they think goes in the same direction. My own parents have an amusing story about this when they found a lovely Japanese woman on holiday who had climbed mount Snowdon in Wales and somehow walked down a path on the other side, she was about 8 miles away from where she was supposed to be with no means of transport. After a quick car ride with awkward broken sentences, they dropped her back off at her camp site. Making this mistake in a country like Wales can just leave you heavily inconvenienced, but doing this somewhere more remote where friendly drivers aren’t there to pick you up can be life-threatening.