The Trinity of Trouble ©

Arctic Survival Guide, 1964, edited and compiled by Alan Innes-Taylor

  

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.

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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

² Innes-Taylor, Alan; Arctic Survival Guide, p. 46

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]