What NOT to do when going into the wilderness

After reading and writing so many survival stories, certain things pop up again and again that cause people to get into trouble or even lose their lives. The wilderness may be beautiful and compelling, but it can also be deadly and filled with things that can turn a pleasant hike into a nightmare situation. To avoid showing up in a local news story as the latest victim of the wilderness, remember the worst mistakes people made to get there and make sure you don’t repeat them.

Don’t tell anyone where you’re going

If you do get into trouble out there, then not telling anyone where you’ve gone is the best way to delay rescue and make sure your life is in danger. Telling people where you’re going isn’t just something to save for long hikes or weekends away, but should be done whenever you go into a remote area alone. Some of the best examples include the story of Aron Ralston who had to cut his arm off after getting trapped in an area he had been to many times before.

(Aron Ralston with the new prosthetic arm he could have avoided having)

Leave your phone behind

I never go anywhere without my phone, but if I wanted to get into trouble I’d definitely leave it behind before going into the wilderness. This is surprisingly common in survival stories and could have ended many tales within hours of them starting, but people don’t think they’ll need to be rescued and that “it won’t happen to them”. A man named Eric Merda is a good example of this and the lack of a mobile phone ended up costing him his arm. After finishing work early one day he decided to go to a nearby lake in Florida and have a long walk around the edge. He ended up getting lost and found himself on the wrong side of the lake, but he thought it would be easier to swim across than go back the way he came. After getting attacked by an alligator and losing his arm, he had to spend the next couple of nights almost freezing to death with a limb missing until he finally managed to find help.

(Eric Merda after losing his arm. If only he could call for help or use a phone to get his location, then that arm would still be attached instead of in the belly of an alligator)

Go off the beaten path

It can be tempting to go and check out something pretty or find the source of that waterfall you can hear in the distance, but doing this in an area you aren’t familiar with could be the start of a survival situation. Unless you know exactly where you are, then stay on the path and don’t wander off, but if you want to get stranded somewhere then this is the best way to do it, and to make things worse don’t forget to leave your phone in the car.

Dont take enough supplies with you

Going back to the previous story of Aron Ralston, when he went into the canyon area he got stuck in, he only took a small 300ml bottle of water and two burritos with him. People always think that it won’t happen to them and so don’t bother taking the right amount of supplies to see them through. There are countless stories of people being stuck somewhere with nothing more than a bag of sweets or other things that are far below what they should be.

Ignore the weather

If you’re going somewhere that could become cold all of a sudden, then prepare for this. A good example would be a group of friends from Glasgow who decided to climb Ben Nevis one day, Scotland’s highest mountain with an elevation of 1,345 m. They didn’t prepare in the slightest and started the climb in tracksuits and trainers, which almost cost them their lives. When they neared the top of the mountain, the weather quickly changed into a blizzard and the group was seperated, with each person walking as far as they could before getting too cold and having to find something to shelter behind. If it wasn’t for one of them having an app on their phone that showed their location to the rescuers, all of them would surely have died up there.

(One of the group who got lost sitting in the snow after being found by rescuers)

Ignore the time

One of the main reasons people get lost in the wilderness is because they don’t realize how late it is, and many survival stories begin when someone doesn’t realize the time and gets caught in the middle of nowhere in the dark. They often make the situation worse by trying to find their way back to safety in a place they don’t know and can’t see more than a few feet in. The light can disappear very quickly in places like forests or a valley when the sun dips below a ridge, and you won’t have time to retrace your steps when this happens. It is always safer to remain where you are for the night and leave at first light than it is to go in what you “think” is the right direction.

Go alone when you have the option of taking friends

The majority of wilderness survival stories happen when someone gets lost on their own and ends up getting injured. If you hurt yourself to the point where you can’t walk and you’re on your own without the means to call for help, then you’re probably going to be stuck for a long time.

Take shortcuts

Paths are there for a reason and cutting corners could cut your life short. A good example of this would be a woman named Victoria Grover who went hiking alone in the Utah desert and didn’t keep an eye on the time. She found herself in the middle of nowhere when it started to get dark and thought she could get back to her car faster by climbing down a series of small cliffs. She fell and broke one of her legs and ended up having to stay there for several days until she was found, and of course, she didn’t have her phone with her.

(The Box Death Hollow wilderness in Utah. Going to a location that has the word “death” in it without a phone, supplies or telling anyone you’re going there is just asking for something to go wrong)

For some more examples of the kind of things you shouldn’t do when going into the wilderness then check out some of these wilderness survival stories. At least 90% of the survival situations in these stories could have been avoided.