Your Favorite Skills? (help!)

[mochilero]

I'm putting together a list of important backpacking skills, like firemaking, staying warm, how to walk on uneven terrain safely, etc. for a new page on my site.

I want to stress the idea that a trip can be more enjoyable and safer with better skills, rather than just better equipment. I like to gorge on wild edibles, for example, and consider it not just a pleasure, but a source of comfort to be able to identify food all around me.

Suggestions? Any little tips that I can add? What skills add the most to your wilderness experience? Thanks in advance for any help.

Steve

http://www.TheBackpackingSite.com

[Jaytrek57]

mochilero...

I'm curious. Is that your personal website? Business?

Anyways, I think I replied to this before, but while I believe "fire making" is an important BC skill, IMHO it is overrated.

Finding edible plants? Again a great advanced skill, but learning to stash that extra snickers bar is again IMHO, more important.

Also these two skills are what I would consider "advanced" skills. Not to say that can't be practiced by anyone.

Basic land navigation and personal hiking "time" comparisons to any given "book time" I think is a great skill set to have for beginners.

WFA/WFR are great skills.

Knowing your stove inside/out.

Staying dry/warm.

Oh yeah...having fun. Yes...it is a "skill" that IMHO is extremely UNDERRATED in this sometimes "must-do" outdoor world.

peace.

[twigeater]

I'm curious as to how you would explain "how to walk on uneven terrain safely"

watch where you're going, maybe?

LOL...

I'll have to admit, I didn't know there were people who didn't know how to make a fire until I started backpacking with people from the Internet. I guess that would be a handy thing to have on your site.

I'd stay away from including eating edible foods for worry that someone would misidentify something. There was a discussion on another site about fiddleheads and people getting sick eating the wrong fern. To me, they are easily identified, but not to all.

[ctenidae]

Being able to use a map and compass is probably the single most important skill, in my book. If you're confident in your ability to navigate, it's much easier to plan and pack accordingly, and a map can tell you where not to go just as well as where you are. Handy, handy skill. Coupled with that is knowing how to read a map well enough to tell where you are by looking at the land around you.

I'd second twigeater on the edible foods thing (ironic name for that bit of advice, though ) A useful skill, but not one you want to be blaimed for not teaching well.

Som eother skills that, if practiced, make life a lot better: Packing and adjusting your pack (nothing worse than an off-balance, ill fitting pack); predicting weather; food selection/preparation (store bought, of course); gear selection and utilization (some stuff you really just don't need to carry around, other stuff you don't use that way).

Other than that, what everyone else said/will say

[cbcbd]

-First Aid

-How to deal with certain animals encounters (moose, bears, etc)

-Water purification/care

[dmc]

pooping

[ctenidae]

As funny as that is, dmc's dead on.

[dmc]

Originally Posted by ctenidae

As funny as that is, dmc's dead on.

It's very important... Much better to deal with pooping then to try and back yourself up....