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Arctic
Survival Guide, 1964, edited and compiled by Alan
Innes-Taylor
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Recently
I have been reading the Arctic Survival Guide, a rather hard to find
survival guide; by Alan Innes-Taylor1, an early expert in northern
survival.
“…survival
is terribly unforgiving of excessive optimism,
carelessness, and neglect. Remember
these three – they are the trinity of trouble…”, Alan Innes-Taylor, Arctic Survival
Guide, p. 46
This
guide was written in 1964, for the aircrews of the Scandinavian Airlines
Systems (SAS), and on page 46 the author wrote about the “trinity of trouble”; which he explained was excessive optimism,
carelessness and neglect.
The
trinity of trouble seemed to me
to be an easy to remember survival rule and so today I am going to write about
the things you should not do, if you want to survive an emergency in the
wilderness.
Unfortunately,
Mr. Innes-Taylor, on page 46 in the Arctic Survival Guide, never fully
explained what he meant by the statement “…excessive
optimism, carelessness, and neglect…”.
However,
in the Arctic Survival Guide, he did include two statements that provide
some insight into his thinking.
“To date, reviews of polar crashes continue
to reveal avoidable hardships due to overestimation of personal
capabilities. In too many instances
deaths may be attributed to lack of appreciation for the physical demands of
the conditions as actually found”, Alan Innes-Taylor, Arctic Survival Guide, p. 46
“Finally, the infrequency of crash landings
can lull the participants on long flights over the polar regions into a false
sense of security resulting in non-survival when all have landed safely”, Alan Innes-Taylor, Arctic Survival
Guide, p. 48
Another
source which offered some insight into Mr. Innes-Taylor’s thoughts on the
trinity of trouble, is the book Northern Survival, which was originally
compiled in 1967. Mr. G. D. Cromb, who
wrote the foreword, credited a number of unnamed contributors; however he only
mentioned one contributor by name, “Mr.
Innes Taylor of Whitehorse who had first-hand knowledge and experience in
northern Canadian living”.
I
believe that the following quotes from Northern Survival, if not
directly from the mind of Alan Innes-Taylor, are certainly derived from his
thoughts.
“The mental attitude that ‘it can’t happen to
me’ is dangerous in that the individual will not accept the situation as it
exists and is blind to reality”, Northern Survival, page 5
“Most people are inclined to over-estimate
their physical abilities. Be very
careful when trying to estimate your physical stamina…”, Northern Survival, page 5
I
believe that what Mr. Innes-Taylor was trying to communicate with the phrase, the
trinity of trouble, is that “excessive
optimism”2 and the “it
can’t happen to me”3 mental attitude, leads a person to have a “false sense of security”4; which
leads a person to have an “overestimation
of personal capabilities”5,
their “physical abilities”6 and “physical stamina”7; and finally to have a “lack of appreciation for the physical demands of the conditions as
actually found”8;
all of which contributes to “non-survival”9. Additionally, I further believe that he
intended it to be understood, that excessive optimism, leaps directly to carelessness
and to neglect.
“But to expect is not enough; you must
anticipate and prepare for the unexpected” Survival: Training
Edition, AF Manual 64-3, page 1-4
So,
if excessive optimism leads directly to carelessness, then what are some
examples of carelessness? Carelessness
following an emergency in the wilderness usually involves not anticipating and
preparing for the unexpected. Some careless
errors that you might slip into include; wasting resources, supplies or
opportunities by not preparing in advance, perhaps by not building a shelter
before the storm arrives, or signals, before you hear the rescue plane; by
delaying setting up camp or not turning back on the trail until it is too close
to dusk; or by not sleeping and resting when you have the chance or it is in
your best interest to be out of the elements.
“…it pays to prepare for any
eventuality by carrying on your person a personal survival kit”, Survival:
Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, page 1-4
Examples
of neglect, which follow carelessness, generally involve neglecting to prepare
for any eventuality in some way or the other.
Perhaps you have failed to leave a detailed travel plan with
someone. You should always leave detailed
travel plans with someone at your base of operations, these plans should
include who is traveling, where you are traveling, when you are leaving and
when you plan on being back. Another
example of neglect would be failing to prepare for emergencies by neglecting to
carry a personal survival kit, first aid kit or other emergency supplies.
“…no matter how well prepared you are,
you probably will never completely convince yourself that ‘it can happen to you’…”, Survival: Training Edition, AF
Manual 64-3, page 1-6
However,
as Survival: Training Edition mentions, you will probably never be able
to fully convince yourself that it can happen to you and if you are not careful
you can unconsciously slip into the “it can’t happen to me” attitude and
from there into “excessive optimism, carelessness, and neglect”. So do your best to remind yourself that it
can happen to you, prepare and anticipate for any emergencies and finally don’t
neglect to file a travel plan or to bring a survival kit and emergency supplies
along with you.
I hope that you continue to enjoy The
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Productions on YouTube, and if you have questions, as always, feel free to
leave a comment on either site. I announce new
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and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
Notes
1 So
who was Alan Innes-Taylor
 |
Charles Alan Kenneth
Innes-Taylor, from the obituary by Philip S. Marshall,
which was published in Arctic,
Volume 37, No. 1, March 1984.
|
Charles Alan Kenneth
Innes-Taylor, who went by the name of Alan Innes-Taylor, experienced the switch
from riverine roads travelled by canoes, steamboats and dogsleds to asphalt
roads and airplanes and he witnessed the change from the heroic age to the
modern age of exploration. He was born
in 1900, in London, England, and his family moved to Toronto, Canada when he
was eight. During World War I, when he
was 17, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Flying Corps (RCFC) where he learned
to fly: beginning his association flying and aircraft that continues until his
death. Following World War I; he began
to move north, working first with the Canadian Mounties, where he learned
dog-mushing; after that as a miner at the Treadwell Yukon Mine in Keno Hill and
after that as a purser on the steamer the SS Whitehorse.
It was his northern
Canadian and Arctic experience that uniquely qualified him in 1929 to bring
replacement sled-dogs to Admiral Byrd’s BAE I Antarctic expedition. He returned to the Antarctic with Admiral
Byrd in 1933 as the chief of field operations for the BAE II Antarctic expedition.
At the start of World War
II, he was commissioned, by a special act of the American Congress, as a Captain
in the U.S. Army Air Force. He first
helped rescue down air crews from the ice sheets of southeastern
Greenland. Later from mid-1942 to the
end of the war, he trained arctic and mountain troops on how to survive and
operate in these frozen environments.
In 1950, with the start
of the Korean Conflict, he helped to make possible the first commercial air
flights over the North Pole from Stockholm to Tokyo, by the way of Anchorage;
which was pioneered by Scandinavian Airline Systems (SAS) in 1957. He wrote two survival guides for the SAS
aircrews; This is the Arctic: Arctic Survival Guide, a 54-page guide in
1957 and finally, The Arctic Survival Guide, a 137-page survival guide
in 1964. He also invented specialty Arctic
survival gear for them, such as exposure suits and 4-person sleeping bags.
 |
Picture
from the SAS Museum of the 4-person sleeping bag, by Tormund Burn
For more from his obituary
by Philip S. Marshall, click HERE
3 Minister of Supply and Services, Northern Survival,
p. 5
4 Innes-Taylor,
Alan; Arctic Survival Guide, p. 48
5 Innes-Taylor, Alan; Arctic Survival Guide, p. 46
6 Minister
of Supply and Services, Northern Survival, p. 5
7
Ibid
8 Innes-Taylor,
Alan; Arctic Survival Guide, p. 46
9 Innes-Taylor,
Alan; Arctic Survival Guide, p. 48
Sources
Burn,
Tormund; “In the beginning, SAS flew over the North Pole with polar bear rifle
and four-man sleeping bag in the cockpit”, 10/ 28/2018, [Dagbladet, 2019], https://www.dagbladet.no/tema/i-begynnelsen-floy-sas-over-nordpolen-med-isbjorn-rifle-og-firemanns-sovepose-i-cockpiten/70334263,
accessed 9/18/2019
Department Of The Air
Force, Survival: Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, [Headquarters, US Air
Force, Washington, DC, August 15, 1969], https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5Qaea-Z580phmhBGIWOpEb9sVNVKFl2eMbPyfv7ki4p2Zoy6cs7h1CmdXQI0ydjG07PWu6RRNYLtLVCYuecTw2NN4WTAEhAOzNk4TNnzUHc7kP7tsTOrDJ3VK9NEK-NneCrLSICyuWFBMNPcX5ktcJp_VvkWOiUDKjo0k-2FChV7srDVmZ9PH_OOSrcXbuyb5IIy2fCYgUQoVWwECShqfJU9zjSSbvFyxx_xE8Rtx_HUmvwls2pzM2AWkIUgXEGChXtpZx3Mo, accessed 12/12/2018
Innes-Taylor, Alan; Arctic Survival
Guide, [Scandinavian Airline Systems, Stockholm,
Sweden, 1964]
Marshall,
Philip S., Arctic, Volume 37, No. 1, March 1984, http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic37-1-84.pdf,
accessed 9/13/2019
Minister of Supply and Services, Northern
Survival, [Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited, Don
Mills, Ontario, Canada, 1979]
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