Frequent fliers flock to wilderness survival clinic

On a Saturday night in early January near Bitterroot Lake, 18 people are huddled in makeshift shelters enduring temperatures near zero.

They range from a 12-year-old from Polson to a 70-year-old pilot from Sky Ranch.

Most have made fires and built shelters using trees, cord, tarps and pine boughs. One father-and-son team have taken over the fuselage of a “wrecked” plane for their shelter.

They all have committed to using their gear and their skills to survive a night out in the cold — just as they would if their lives depended on it.

It’s all part of the annual Winter Survival Clinic.

“Survival is a mental game,” said veteran pilot David Hoerner, the state aircraft search coordinator. “Believe me when I say, it doesn’t always happen to the other guy.”

“These are life-and-death decisions and if you maintain control your chances of surviving improve dramatically,” Hoerner said.

The clinic is designed to give people the practical knowledge they would need to deal with surviving an emergency situation.  

The common thread for most of the attendees is flying.

The clinic, which has been offered for a quarter of a century, started as training for pilots who may have to handle an emergency landing. Over the years it was expanded to include law enforcement officers and search-and-rescue personnel.

Recently Hoerner opened the clinic to family members of pilots because these are the people who are most often with pilots.

Different people took away different things from the clinic.

Amanda Dufner of Missoula, a paramedic with LifeFlight, said the weekend was about gaining a new life experience as well as self-assurance.

“I signed up to learn some winter survival skills and to build confidence that I could take care of myself in an emergency situation,” she said.

Susan Jasmann and Tom Bass of Kalispell attended because they frequently fly between Montana and Alaska.

“We carry emergency gear in the plane and you think it’s going to work,” said Jasmann. “But until you go out and spend the night you don’t really know. What we discovered is we needed new sleeping bags.”

Bass said he rethought some of his strategies for dealing with an emergency and added a few items to his medical kit including butterfly sutures and a tourniquet.

“The main thing I did was reorganize the plane,” said Bass. “I wanted everything within reach.”

Bass has moved his survival gear from the back of the plane into a grab bag for easy access. He has a survival kit under the pilot’s seat and a medical kit under the passenger seat. He also has emergency gear for their truck, snowmobile and horse saddles.

Lee Lytton of Polson attended the clinic with sons, Wyatt, 16, and Willy, 12.  

“We never stop learning,” said Lytton. “I see what kids are facing today and I want to help my boys be ready. Life is about preparedness. When they go somewhere, I want them to be thinking about what could go wrong, and I want them equipped to handle whatever they may face.”

“My favorite memory from the weekend was seeing my boys successful in the training, to see them be able to go out into the woods, get their stuff, make a fire, build their shelter,” Lytton said. “If they have done it one time, then they’ll know they can do it. This kind of training gives them confidence. It prepares them for manhood, for being dads, and it prepares them to take care of themselves when I am no longer around.”

In addition to lectures from Hoerner, the clinic featured presentations by Frank Bowen, a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier for 23 years; Doug Dryden, an FBI-trained SWAT officer with experience on strategic response teams; and Zach Vanderwall, an emergency medical technician from Plains who has been an instructor with Wilderness Medical Associates since 2005.

The field test involved surviving a night in the cold with minimal gear, although not everyone managed to stay outside the entire night.