And there are also two types of cliff divers in Acapulco - successful cliff divers, and stuff on a rock.
Rather than try to re-teach the course, here's a link to one of the earlier AF manuals, pretty much the same as what's still in my helmet bag:
http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA365888Ok, just a few things that are obvious to me, at least from the Cool School perspective.
The snow cave is a darned good idea - but stick with it, keep it just a hair larger than the occupants with a mimimum of at least 8 inches of snow on all sides, and the more occupants, the more body heat to keep it warm inside. Don't build one with 1,000 square feet of space inside if you're going to be the only occupant. If available, the heat from just one candle (or one of those little Sterno tins) in a small one-person snow cave can make all the difference. Likewise, there were three of the climbers - all three should have been in the same snow cave, conserving body heat and making use of the buddy system. Excursions from the cave to make ground markers or get a good cell phone signal are fine, just remember it takes time to warm up again, especially if you return to an empty snow cave. Our snow caves in Fairbanks ranged from one man to 20. One man caves were discouraged unless you were a traveling party of one.
Flares/mirrors/beacons/radios/cell phones/signaling devices - From the news reports we know at least one guy had a cell phone, with maybe one battery, and it appears he was trying to conserve juice by turning it on and off as time progressed. I doubt it was an Iridium satellite cell phone, so he was using a terrestrial cell phone at an altitude of 11,000 feet. I know some cell phones have a GPS locater function built-in, assuming it's turned on and functioning. That's a pretty damned thin lifeline to the rest of the world. Now I don't expect everybody to pop a red smoke flare from their ejection seat survival kits when they're in a pinch, but these guys were supposed to be professional climbers. Even a pocket signal mirror weighs next to nothing.
Rugged survivalists or not, I doubt there's a single mountain climber, amateur or professional, who doesn't realize weather on peaks can turn to sour owl $hit in a matter of minutes. Lightweight and ultra-light doesn't do one a damned bit of good if you don't plan for the contingency. Somebody here was giving Mike Irwin crap about those aluminized mylar thermal blankets, but they actually do a good job of conserving body heat - and weigh next to nothing. The one I had in my two-man snow cave was actually quite nice, I ended up putting it under my sleeping bag to reflect heat back into me.
When they find the other two human popsicles, we'll get the full story. This sad little story won't dissuade mountain climbers, nor will it dissuade unprepared mountain climbers. I don't plan on surviving any mountain areas now that I've retired from flying, but my truck and wife's car have a lot of stuff that would sustain life were we in a similar situation. (Much to her chagrine, I'll wager she'd nominate me for a tinfoil helmet had she not seen the four survival school diplomas)
Pay attention to what shakes out in the news, and I'd lean heavily towards what survival school instructors have to say about it. Why? As part of their qualification process, they actually have to live afield using the tools of their trade, and their course is even tougher than the one taught to flyboys who take their instruction later. (The instructors refer to it as a Gentleman's School)
