Learning from Ken’s Ordeal

The specifics about what happened to Ken and how he managed to get through the week have still not been reported, but his experience certainly has gotten me and a lot of others thinking and evaluating our own risks and preparations. After Ken was found I ruminated over what happened to Christopher McCandless (whose story was told by Jon Krakauer in "Into the WIld", and who died from starvation in a bus in Alaska) and what the differences and similarities were. Part of me applauds Ken's resourcefulness and ability to keep his head on his shoulders in what must have been a scary situation. The other part of me recognizes that what happened to McCandless may seem foolish in retrospect, but, just as Ken found himself in a situation that he couldn't foresee and in spite of knowledge, skill, and preparation, he still found himself in, perhaps McCandless had done the best he could and circumstances dictated the outcome.

One of the reasons I so much respect peoples like many Native American tribes, the Inuit, the Sa'an (Bushmen), and the Aborigines is the traditional abilities to survive in environments that most of us wouldn't have a clue how to deal with without all our technology and backup. They have great knowledge coupled with an outlook and temperament that gets them through the day-to-day realities of living on basics in harsh environments. Learning what they know and how they often approach problems and challenges is part of what makes being a backpacker so interesting for me. For instance, a friend who works with me at my university who has long lived and studied with Athabascan people described how their sense and awareness of time is completely different from ours, relying a lot more observation and less on being somewhere at a certain time. He told me that it often made doing business difficult, but that outdoors, in the wild, it it much better compensated for the way seasons and weather and daylight hours work. I've often wondered if my evaluation of my safety and understanding of the terrain I walk actually loses some vital information by my gentrified view of the natural world. What could I learn to change?

What do others think they have learned from their involvement with the outdoors and backpacking that they couldn't have learned anywhere else, and what do you think you might benefit from learning in the future?