Footloose - Survival (May 2005)

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I’ve just finished reading Aron Ralston’s fine book, ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’. You’ve probably heard about him in the news a couple of years ago. Trapped in a small canyon when a rock fell on his hand he ended up, after six days of grief and mind sapping cold, not to mention dehydration, by breaking the bones in his arm and cutting his forearm off. Before he could get rescued he then had to walk another 12km or so and abseil down an 18-metre waterfall.

He survived, which in itself is bloody remarkable, as it would be fair to say that lesser people would not have made it through. He is now back climbing and hiking, as well as doing the odd motivational speech.

But apart from a gripping story what intrigued me was not how he got there and his subsequent escape, but the little things he failed to do which made rescue a much longer, drawn out affair.

One of the first and major rules of heading bush, and it is as relevant here in Australia as it was to Ralston in Utah, is telling someone where you are going. Ralston told a few friends he was ‘probably’ going down to Utah to do some hiking and rock climbing with no real indication of his timing for that. I know from my own forays into the scrub that I’ve often told people, ‘I’m going up into the mountains’. But what does that mean?

The Victorian mountains start just down the road from our place and go west and north as well as east through to the NSW border. There’s thousands of kilometers of tracks, vast acreages of dense forest and finding anyone in that immense area of steep hills and hidden valleys would be a pretty daunting task. I mean, where do search teams start?

Even when I’ve been a bit more specific about my destination things happen on the ground that may change my plans. A big tree down or a flooded stream and I may decide to head somewhere completely different to what I’ve told people. That’s been an oversight I’ve been guilty of many times!

For Ralston things weren’t helped by the fact that some time earlier he had filled out a questionnaire about his personal travel info, which he left with his Mum, where amongst other things he listed his vehicle, model and rego number. Trouble was, doing it from memory he mucked a couple of the numbers up, confusing the search teams and slowing the recovery of his car.

These are all pretty small misdemeanors and I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of such oversights when we’ve headed bush. We do such things and for the most part get away with it.

But when the dice rolls the wrong way or the cards fall badly – that’s when you need all the help and assistance that can be mustered – as quickly as possible. And then it pays – in spades – to have done everything right.

The small booklet, Aids to Survival, put out by the WA police force and available from their offices, or as a free download from the web at:

www.police.wa.gov.au/YOURSAFETY/AidstoSurvival/tabid/1337/Default.aspx

have highlighted this info and more.

There’s an old Army saying, modified a little for publication, which the police quote on the very first page of their book:

‘Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents Poor Performance’

The booklet for starters talks about the equipment required, weather conditions, using maps and allowing enough time for the trip. Then it gets down to who you should notify. To quote the Aids to Survival bible:

‘Before leaving on a journey through remote areas, always notify a responsible adult in the form of friends, relatives, station owners or police of the following information –

1. Estimated time of departure.
2. Proposed and alternate routes.
3. Estimated time of arrival.’

After reading Ralston’s book, I’m vowing to improve the information I leave behind. Ralston fell into the trap that the day-long jaunt he embarked upon was an ‘easy trip’ so nothing would happen and he’d be okay. How wrong he was. There’s a lesson or two in that for all of us!

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