View Full Version : One skill and one skill only...
If you could teach a person just one thing about bushcraft, not in philosophical sense because we've touched on stuff like that before, but practically speaking, just one thing, what would it be?
RAPPLEBY2000
24-10-2004, 01:01
how to keep trying! :roll:
there is no one subject i would want to specialise in, i feel they all sort of merge into one :?:
Squidders
24-10-2004, 01:06
how to browse the bushcraftuk forums :wink:
Very good Squidders...very good!!
:o): :o):
RovingArcher
24-10-2004, 05:25
A solid knowledge base.
Unless of course, you are speaking of one skill. Then that would have to be fire.
The one new skill i have is tracking. This i would hate to lose. All small boys can light a fire and I never grew up.
If you could teach a person just one thing about bushcraft, not in philosophical sense because we've touched on stuff like that before, but practically speaking, just one thing, what would it be?
Improvisation.... how to improvise stuff out of what you are carrying and natural resources around us.....
Ed
that would have to be how to use a knife safely :wave:
How to make fire without matches
TheViking
24-10-2004, 09:53
What I would teach another person?
That would be the 3 rules of survival, the 4 priorities and then a few tips like: remember to make an insulating bed and make the roof on your shelter steep, etc. That would be if the time was limited.
But if we had a couple' days, it would probably be firecraft. :roll:
Paganwolf
24-10-2004, 19:19
its obvious ! one part whisky to one part ginger wine :rolmao: :biggthump HHmmmmm seriously tough one that, how to sharpen a knife properly while finding water and lighting a fire and putting your shelter up :?: can i have that as one thing Kim :?: :naughty:
Graham Snowdon
24-10-2004, 19:49
I'm a newbie here but I reckon
Sustainability.. Covers not just you and your family and friends but the environment you are sustaining yourself family and friends from. Covers all really, can't sustain yourself with a blunt knife or a leaking shelter or unfiltered water and you'll soon not be able to sustain yourself and family if the environment that sustains you isn't sustained.
Have I lost everyone??
Endurance is essential. I think you learn this by just getting out and doing. Year round. However, I think some people are inherently better at enduring hardships than others. Part biology and part how you were raised.
Sometimes having fun can be hard work. A lot of it is psychological. I've seen people whine endlessly about having to work "hard" but then turn around and spend big bucks at a health spa to run on a treadmill.
Tantalus
24-10-2004, 20:12
just about bushcraft alone?
that is a really sneaky question Kim
personally i find it hard to separate lessons learned in bushcraft and lessons learned in life
i heard a lot of "words of wisdom" as a youngster and mostly they went in one ear and out the other
the one that is most important to me is
"try to learn one new thing every day"
i guess it is philosophy but it reminds me to keep my eyes and ears open and my mind active and questioning
oh and it reminds me i dont know it all yet either :nana:
Tant
Graham Snowdon
24-10-2004, 20:22
That's an excellent philosophy.
I've a friend who always tries to go a different way home from work each day just to find out new things. Traffic never bothers him because he never has to go the same route.
Carcajou Garou
24-10-2004, 20:22
To be aware, be mindful of what is around you. It allows you to pick out the most convenient resourses in your immediates surroundings. Fire making would be the immediate skill though.
just a thought
Graham Snowdon
24-10-2004, 20:23
What's a Tenderfoot?
"try to learn one new thing every day"
At my age, my philosophy has become "try to remember what you learned yesterday." :rolmao:
Lycanthrope
24-10-2004, 21:52
I hear that..
Not much else though these days old ears not what they were, not much hair left either.... :yikes:
how to sharpen a knife properly while finding water and lighting a fire and putting your shelter up :?: can i have that as one thing Kim :?: :naughty:
No you can't, that's cheating. :nono:
:wink:
Paganwolf
25-10-2004, 09:06
ok :cry: :puppy_dog
Hmm - it depends on whether you're wanting to teach someone a skill in a survival sense, or teach them a quality they can take into their non-bushcraft lives.
For the latter, I would probably say fire-starting with a bow-drill. This encompasses knife-use, foraging (for wood etc), and patience, as well as an interesting skill, which often gets people closer to their 'primitive self'
For the former, I guess it would be edible plants - people tend to automatically know to keep warm, drink water, get sleep, build shelter etc (even if not very effectively!) but very few people when presented with a forest floor could identify a few things which would be safe for them to eat - or even know how to eat those ones they could identify.
TheViking
25-10-2004, 15:56
If we're talking about skills in non-bushcraft life, then it's a very different thing.
I feel this way: the people who likes me, I like too. And those who doesn't like me, I don't even wanna bother with. Simple is that. Perhaps that would be the skills to choose your friends wisely.
dchinell
25-10-2004, 16:10
I'd teach how to build a shelter with materials appropriate to their environment. I'm thinking about low-effort, low-tool stuff, like debris shelters.
Death by exposure is the thing I remember not having any "common sense" about when I started learning about survival.
Bear
Patience.
Its got to be one of the most important, but sadly mostly lacking, skills any that anyone can have.
Fire without matches. It gives you so much confidence.
Jeff Wagner
26-10-2004, 00:14
Its been touched on and stated in different ways, but what I have in mind has relevance to the currrent world as well as the ancient. In too many people today I see a quick willingness to give up...an eagerness to let somebody else carry the burden...solve the problem. Its the way they have lived their lives since childhood. "Somebody else will deal with this so I dont have to...." "this will take too long ( more than 5 minutes ) and I dont have the patience..."
The thing I would teach is not an individual skill - it is a way of thinking. A mind set that stresses self reliance and creative problem solving. An understanding that "Nobody is going to do this for me..."
Yes, a broad knowledge base makes successes easier, but knowledge alone is of less usefulness without the resolve needed to apply it. A great many people possess a general knowledge of fire by friction, of turning turning clay into utensils and the making of tools to harvest game. But what portion of those are actually willing and able to accomplish the task...
Reminds me of a saying in business. Those who can...do. Those who only know how....consult.
Jeff
To a degree I can agree with what everyone has said, but if there was one thing that I would like to see more, even though it is not a skill as such, it's common sense being applied. You can have as much resolve as you want, you can even be massively skilled, but without the correct application of thought invariably something will go wrong :wink:
Yep, use what you have between your ears... :thinkerg:
To a degree I can agree with what everyone has said, but if there was one thing that I would like to see more, even though it is not a skill as such, it's common sense being applied. You can have as much resolve as you want, you can even be massively skilled, but without the correct application of thought invariably something will go wrong :wink:
You're ****** hopeful mate! Didn't think that really existed any more. It sure as hell ain't very common...
Paganwolf
26-10-2004, 12:07
To a degree I can agree with what everyone has said, but if there was one thing that I would like to see more, even though it is not a skill as such, it's common sense being applied. You can have as much resolve as you want, you can even be massively skilled, but without the correct application of thought invariably something will go wrong :wink:
You said it Leon !!! I have had Oxford and Cambridge educated engineers work for me come up with ideas that made me make this face :shock: and do this :?: that is so true im right there with you on that one! :You_Rock_ unfortunatly common sense isnt on the time table in schools. :lol: :wink:
tenbears10
26-10-2004, 12:27
Its been touched on and stated in different ways, but what I have in mind has relevance to the currrent world as well as the ancient. In too many people today I see a quick willingness to give up...an eagerness to let somebody else carry the burden...solve the problem. Its the way they have lived their lives since childhood. "Somebody else will deal with this so I dont have to...." "this will take too long ( more than 5 minutes ) and I dont have the patience..."
Jeff
I agree Jeff. It reminds me of the most important lesson they taught in the Army (I wasn't there long but still)
'There is no such word as Can't'
If you think, it makes sense. The first thing that people often say in all walks of life is "oh no we can't do that, sorry". Be it in a shop when you ask for something a bit different or at work when you ask someone to help you with a job. You can it might take time and effort or put you out but you CAN do it just depends how.
I try and remind myself every time I have to do something.
Bill
arctic hobo
26-10-2004, 16:22
The one skill I would teach is not to go out into the wilderness without a full complement of skills, objectives, and methods. :p
"I agree Jeff. It reminds me of the most important lesson they taught in the Army (I wasn't there long but still)
'There is no such word as Can't'
If you think, it makes sense. The first thing that people often say in all walks of life is "oh no we can't do that, sorry". Be it in a shop when you ask for something a bit different or at work when you ask someone to help you with a job. You can it might take time and effort or put you out but you CAN do it just depends how.
I try and remind myself every time I have to do something.
Bill"
Reminds me of this thing I read to do with Buddhism. Basically, some guy visits a Buddhist monk in Japan, and the first thing the Buddhist asks him to do when he enters the room is to lift a marble table for him. So the man tries and struggles to pick the table up and then gives up and says 'I'm sorry, sir, I can't lift it. It's too heavy.' (something along those lines, anyway!) and the monk replies 'The tables weight is its own problem. The fact that you can't lift it is your own.'
Sorry if it doesn't fit in with what you said! I was just reminded of it.
Can't think of what skill I think is the most important. Probably some method of being able to get clean drinking water and food.
TheViking
27-10-2004, 16:59
Basically, some guy visits a Buddhist monk in Japan, and the first thing the Buddhist asks him to do when he enters the room is to lift a marble table for him. So the man tries and struggles to pick the table up and then gives up and says 'I'm sorry, sir, I can't lift it. It's too heavy.' (something along those lines, anyway!) and the monk replies 'The tables weight is its own problem. The fact that you can't lift it is your own.'
Mmm... wise... :biggthump
[Hey you're 15 too! :D]
5.10leader
28-10-2004, 13:52
I would agree with most of what has already been said. However, I would like to add that I feel that one should always try to maintain a respect for the environment and keep bushcraft in perspective.
It is, IMO, important to seperate the bushcraft practiced by most of us from true survival. In the latter case, if it is necessary to cut down a tree simply to carve a spoon, so be it. Very few of us are or will ever be in that situation and it is, therefore, difficult to justify such actions. I would, therefore, ask people to think very carefully about the necessity of an action before carrying it out.
Sorry, on re-reading this post it sounds rather like a moralizing sermon; it's not intended to be.
jamesdevine
28-10-2004, 14:13
Hi 5.10 Leader :wave: . I think what you are getting at is that respecting the environment we are in when practising bushcraft is more as if not more important then the skill we are preforming.
I may be totally wrong with the about, but sometimes some people forget this in there enthusiasm to learn. I see this with my scouts as they rush to practise and learn.
James
tenbears10
28-10-2004, 15:58
Reminds me of this thing I read to do with Buddhism. Basically, some guy visits a Buddhist monk in Japan, and the first thing the Buddhist asks him to do when he enters the room is to lift a marble table for him. So the man tries and struggles to pick the table up and then gives up and says 'I'm sorry, sir, I can't lift it. It's too heavy.' (something along those lines, anyway!) and the monk replies 'The tables weight is its own problem. The fact that you can't lift it is your own.'
Sorry if it doesn't fit in with what you said! I was just reminded of it.
Can't think of what skill I think is the most important. Probably some method of being able to get clean drinking water and food.
Eaxctly what I was saying Icekool. It's not that you can't lift it because it's too heavy it's how many people you need to help you to finish the job and lift the table.
Unless the monk has a sense of humor and the table is nailed down :wink:
Bill
One skill and one skill only? Hmm.... I'm going to have to be a bit 'boring' here and say navigation - ie. reading maps, stars, understanding landscape/landform, etc. In my experience, the lack of confidence and downright fear that can come from not knowing where you are/where to go can have a hugely negative effect on just about everything else you might be trying to do at the time.
Not that I am by any means an expert navigator! But the more I work on this skill, the more I realise just how vital it is ... as a good friend of mine often says: "Without good navigation skills, you ain't going anywhere!" (quite literally).
G
I have to go with Leon-1 on this common sense is what keep our species alive in the deep dark past, it is what enabled them to develop stone tools and it is what many of us sadly lack today thanks to the way we are brought up, told what to think, educated ect.
But I would also add a sense of humour to common sense for put these two together and you can overcome anything. A sense of humour is something that we Brits used to be renown for, now like common sense, I think it too is sadly lacking.
One skill and one skill only? Hmm.... I'm going to have to be a bit 'boring' here and say navigation - ie. reading maps, stars, understanding landscape/landform, etc. In my experience, the lack of confidence and downright fear that can come from not knowing where you are/where to go can have a hugely negative effect on just about everything else you might be trying to do at the time.
Not that I am by any means an expert navigator! But the more I work on this skill, the more I realise just how vital it is ... as a good friend of mine often says: "Without good navigation skills, you ain't going anywhere!" (quite literally).
GHaving been a man in muli-tonal clothing I can heartily agree (as will Gary probably).
NEVER EVER let a Rupert lose with a map...
Having been a man in muli-tonal clothing I can heartily agree (as will Gary probably).
NEVER EVER let a Rupert lose with a map...
Rupert + Map = Geographical emberrassment :rolmao: :rolmao: :rolmao:
5.10leader
28-10-2004, 17:13
James has interpreted my thoughts exactly. The bushcraft ideal is to leave no trace that we have been there.
Having been a man in muli-tonal clothing I can heartily agree (as will Gary probably).
NEVER EVER let a Rupert lose with a map...
LIGHT HOUSE IN DESERT SPRINGS TO MIND - odd for bcuk ............. or is it!! (followed by manic laughing) ha hahahahahahahahahah :rolmao: :shock:
Rupert + Map = Geographical emberrassment :rolmao: :rolmao: :rolmao:
Was thinking more one platoon becomign one with the bogs of Wales...<Gets tok in left eye and desire to whimper>
But I would also add a sense of humour to common sense for put these two together and you can overcome anything.
I heartily agree with this, but I don't think you can teach either of these skills!!
I'd vote for observation - not just passive watching, but analysing and learning from what you see - I've learnt more from observing humans, animals, plants, weather etc than from any other source
What little "common sense" I possess (I'm an academic :roll: ) is directly attributable to lessons learnt from observing
Oh yeah, Ruperts and navigation...
I onced rowed a coxless pair with a former Rupert - he steered the boat, I stroked. We were competing on a huge lake, devoid of features except the buoys marking the course. Warming up on the way to the start, I heard an almighty crash and the boat came to a sudden halt. I looked round, and we'd collided with a huge yellow floating hut thing that umpires sit in...
:rolmao: :rolmao: :rolmao: :rolmao: :rolmao: :rolmao: :rolmao: :rolmao: :rolmao: :rolmao:
How to work my mobile phone...containing the phone numbers of lots of bushcrafty people, the emergency services and pizza delivery....
:wink:
Taking into account of course, the fact that I would only be ordering pizza if I knew where I was, because ordering pizza when you're lost wouldn't be a sensible thing to do...and I'm a very sensible person.
:shock:
WHAT...ITS GOT LOTS OF CARBOHYDRATES IN IT!
Ya but Pizza! :wink:
So has a mars bar!! :nana:
Paganwolf
31-10-2004, 10:54
Donner Kebab pizza is a Dagenham Speciality if you can eat one of those and stay alive your ready for anything! :yikes:
Tantalus
31-10-2004, 11:16
so who is gonna tell me how to design a campsite pizza oven ?
then i can bin my mobile and get back to enjoying the woods :nana:
Tant
Great Pebble
01-11-2004, 06:35
Dunno about a Pizza oven but I could manage a reasonable Pizza with rocks and tin foil.
In terms of the "single skill" I'd like to teach, although it probably borders on the philosophical in some peoples eyes, I'd like to convince people that they don't need all the crap they think they need and that when they don't have it, they're not in trouble... They're just in different circumstances.
Tant remind me one day to teach you how to cook a pizza in the field - its easy - honestly!
In all seriousness, I think it would be fire for me. Shelter, if you're lucky you can find, food you can do without for a few days, water would be the other priority.
TheViking
01-11-2004, 15:21
food you can do without for a few days
If you have plenty of water you might mean few weeks. :wink:
TheViking
01-11-2004, 16:04
He he, not me matey!!!
Haha, I agree with that. :o):
5.10leader
02-11-2004, 13:49
But then, it could be argued, if you are adept at bushcraft you wouldn't need to be without food for several days. :mrgreen:
Maybe foraging is an essential skill.
Ridge Runner
24-11-2004, 15:34
Build a shelter appropriate for the elements and environment.
Fire would be second, but fire would not work in the rain........so I would have to go with shelter first.
You can go without food for a long time........you can go without water for a couple of days, but you could be killed by the elements very quickly if you are not insulated well against it.
ed gets my vote, if you can't improvise, your in trouble anyplace more wild than your backyard.
Bob Hurley
20-01-2005, 07:15
How to feed themselves (to include water). If they have that figured out, they might live long enough to figure out some of the rest, but if not ...
Great Pebble wrote:
""...people...don't need the crap they think they need and they are not in trouble if thet don't have it..."
Yes Great Pebble it may border on the philosophical but everything starts from an idea in the mind, doesn't it. And being confident you can craft your way into survival when in unknown circumstances IS the right state of mind.
Unfortunately, as self-reliance has been taken away over time, these past decades and mainly the past one, the very idea that it is even possible to be self-reliant has been taken away too.
Individualism has been taken away as well (although our time self-proclaims itself the time of individualism it is the time of extreme comformism and conformity. Do very young people know that?).
Individualism makes you confident you might just find a solution just of your own creative doing, even when you lack the knowledge or previous training...
David Moulds
01-01-2006, 21:04
I would have to say how to make fire without matches.
Wow, where did this one come from.............I think I would teach them to love the great outdoors................Jon
pierre girard
02-01-2006, 08:25
If you could teach a person just one thing about bushcraft, not in philosophical sense because we've touched on stuff like that before, but practically speaking, just one thing, what would it be?
Well, it's impossible to teach, but if I could - it would be common sense. Every year we haul out the bodies of people without it.
Examples:
Three people dead "lost" in the woods right next to a river (didn't have the sense to follow the river).
Camper and guide drown - caught in turbulance while swimming beneath falls. Camper was wearing a life jacket - guide, who went after the camper, was wearing two (this was from the same outfit I used to guide for - 50 years - first fatalities).
Man and son struck by lightning in their tent. Tent was set up beneath tallest pine in the area. Lightning traveled through roots and into tent. Another man and his son were badly burned.
Man eaten by bear after feeding it (they are not pets).
Man dies of exposure after moving from out of state to "live off the land."
Two men die of hypothermia while cross-country skiing. Got too hot and they stopped to rest.
Man badly injured while rock climbing when drunk - two days in by canoe. Man died before rescue could reach him.
I could go on.
Don't even get me started on hunting accidents.
PG
RovingArcher
02-01-2006, 10:46
Well, it's impossible to teach, but if I could - it would be common sense. Every year we haul out the bodies of people without it.
Examples:
Three people dead "lost" in the woods right next to a river (didn't have the sense to follow the river).
Camper and guide drown - caught in turbulance while swimming beneath falls. Camper was wearing a life jacket - guide, who went after the camper, was wearing two (this was from the same outfit I used to guide for - 50 years - first fatalities).
Man and son struck by lightning in their tent. Tent was set up beneath tallest pine in the area. Lightning traveled through roots and into tent. Another man and his son were badly burned.
Man eaten by bear after feeding it (they are not pets).
Man dies of exposure after moving from out of state to "live off the land."
Two men die of hypothermia while cross-country skiing. Got too hot and they stopped to rest.
Man badly injured while rock climbing when drunk - two days in by canoe. Man died before rescue could reach him.
I could go on.
Don't even get me started on hunting accidents.
PG
Yeah, unfortunately if they don't have it, they'll never get it. Sometimes I think that common sense is Natures way of determining who gets to pass on their seed.
One mans commonsense is not necessarily another.
Commonsense relies heavily on past experience, when you have past experience you instinctively know not to do something but to the person that is doing it for the first time does not have that knowledge or instinct but the knowledgeable one will say don't do that its commonsense!
It is wrong to rely on commonsense.
If one i could pass on one thing i would say endurance and the will to go on. It is amazing what we can achieve when we push ourselves.
The Joker
02-01-2006, 19:51
Open your eyes and be patient and every thing else will follow :D
The one bushcraft skill? - To keep learning from what went right or wrong last time.
Today I was experimenting with replacing a bowdrill with a rope and a bungie - with the ultimate aim of creating a foot powered friction fire. I started out with string the day before. Found it snapped. Replaced it with rope today. Found that I had lots of instability in the setup. Changed the hearthboard for one I could sit on, changed the foot I was using. Still no proper control. Switched to arm power for now and got smoke.
So - making progress but need more reflection and experimentation.
william#
03-01-2006, 08:31
one skill and one only - ooh tricky one - really is an extremely slippery question though has made me think on it a bit .
well i agree most people can make a fire and a shelter and these thing will kind of be learned naturaly - ie you get cold enough and wet enough you start finding ways to make it better for yourself .
now this will be contreversal though i am not offering an idea which i think is any way rock solid - god forbid i would think i had enough knowledge and experiance to say any such thing , however i may as well throw something in the circle for thought ,as essentially this is what we are doing here .
so i would say personel hygiene in the wilderness - with knowledge on avoiding infection and illness - for any one who has had the squits will tell yu its very difficult to do any thing if yu are ill
william#
03-01-2006, 08:36
Well, it's impossible to teach, but if I could - it would be common sense. Every year we haul out the bodies of people without it.
Examples:
Three people dead "lost" in the woods right next to a river (didn't have the sense to follow the river).
Camper and guide drown - caught in turbulance while swimming beneath falls. Camper was wearing a life jacket - guide, who went after the camper, was wearing two (this was from the same outfit I used to guide for - 50 years - first fatalities).
Man and son struck by lightning in their tent. Tent was set up beneath tallest pine in the area. Lightning traveled through roots and into tent. Another man and his son were badly burned.
Man eaten by bear after feeding it (they are not pets).
Man dies of exposure after moving from out of state to "live off the land."
Two men die of hypothermia while cross-country skiing. Got too hot and they stopped to rest.
Man badly injured while rock climbing when drunk - two days in by canoe. Man died before rescue could reach him.
I could go on.
Don't even get me started on hunting accidents.
PG
please do go on i love hearing these storeys it makes me realise im not as dumb as i think - its all realative you know lol
pierre girard
03-01-2006, 17:19
please do go on i love hearing these storeys it makes me realise im not as dumb as i think - its all realative you know lol
I often think there should be some kind of proficiency test for letting people loose in a wilderness area.
Last year we came on two groups of canoers who wouldn't have passed. The first was a group of orientals going down a narrow water way. They were navigating by the pool ball method. Paddle till they hit one shore, paddle further until they hit the other.
The other group was from Kentucky. Though canoe parties are limited to nine people - they had 20 people in four canoes. Their packs (luggage) had more variety than I've ever seen - including a bowling ball bag and small pieces of furniture. We assisted them in getting their belongings (must have been every thing they owned) across the portage. Still took about four trips.
Then there was the fella portaging a canoe, missed the trail and ended up on top of a cliff in a high wind - canoe acted as a huge air-scoop.
And the guy setting up a large tarp in a high wind - had several ropes running for ridgepole ropes (we were never quite able to figure out what he was doing). He came close to hanging himself. He did survive though.
Axe in the leg or foot -happens quite often. Had a man bring up a small chainsaw (illegal) and plant it in his head. Cut off fingers. Get drunk and fall in the campfire. Had two canoers fall asleep in their canoe on a river and wake up just as the canoe was going over a falls. They were stranded on a rock above the falls for three days. :lmao:
We had a Chinese man and his son. Rented a snowmobile - minus 30 C - snowmobile conked out after a mile down the trail. They came through it though. Plucky crew. Instead of walking back the one mile however, they walked 17 miles in the other direction. Sure thought we would have bodies on that one.
The kid was very young. They did have frostbite, but good for them, they didn't panic. They had a trail and kept moving - when keeping moving was what would keep them alive. With the language barrier and all - I can't really fault them - that much - for not having a better grasp of where they were.
We've had quite a few snowmobile and ATV fatalities. Basic stuff. Going 90 where they should be doing 30.
When I used to guide - I would sometimes get back in a day or two and think, "These people are just not up to this." Instead of doing a circle route, or what ever was planned itinerary, I'd just plunk them down on a campsite and do day trips out from there for the rest of the week. Amazing thing is how seldom it happened. Most people, even if they've never been in the woods before, have enough common sense to keep from getting into trouble. :)
PG
Povarian
03-01-2006, 18:13
Hmmm... I don't really think "Common sense" and "sense of humour" can be taught, so I'm gonna plunk for teaching them first aid.
Who knows, they might be my only compainion when my common sense eludes me.
DOC-CANADA
30-01-2006, 05:49
One skill and one skill only..................
Has to be friction fire.
To paraphrase Dan Schectman from Backwoodsman magazine, "Of all the skills a backwoodsman needs, firemaking is the most significant. Fire warms us, cooks our food, purifies our water, keeps the creatures of the night at bay, allows us to make tools, and provides not only physical comfort, but spiritual and psychological comfort as well."
And Jurgen Weiner from the Bulletin of Primitive Technology, " Fire, it goes without question, is mankind’s most important technical appliance. And finding out how to actually make fire, is man’s most important invention."
BobFromHolland
30-01-2006, 11:48
Like a lot of you have mentioned already my idea is about mental bagage.
The primary value would be 'interest', I think.
One tends to remind facts better when interested in them.
To respect nature and not take it for granted.
And after having read what Pierre wrote and remembering the ignorance I have to bear from my customers on all matters concerning the mountains , I would like to yell instead:
"for gods sake, you know nothing about being outside in an environment which doesnt forgive any mistake. If something goes wrong, you cant climb in a cab and get home but will find yourself up s....creek without a paddle. so cut down your ego and listen and learn".
There are so many stupid and ignorant people on the loose, its a wonder there are so few accidents
Kim,
I think you answered your question in your first post.
Don't Panic