Duncan McCallum: 'Survivors know how to improvise. They are unflappable'

THERE are few experiences any of us will ever have to go through - unless we are in combat or unfortunate enough to be caught up in a cataclysmic event - where we will either be pushed beyond our comfort zones or be compelled to make the choice between giving up on life and struggling to live.

I luckily don't think I have had such an experience. However, two stories in the climbing and adventure world stand out as glimpses into the souls of men who have gone beyond the norm and have lived to tell - and sell - their tales to a huge global audience. Touching the Void, which tells Joe Simpson's epic story of determined survival in the Peruvian Andes, and the current 127 Hours, which relates Aron Ralston's enforced self-amputation of his arm after becoming stuck under a boulder in the Canyonlands, can be viewed in two ways: as vicarious entertainment or as a self-probing tool.

In the latter case, all those who engage in difficult endeavours will undoubtedly be asking questions of themselves. Would I? Could I?

Interestingly, prior to their grand epics, both Simpson and Ralston had faced a series of accidents and incidents of lesser proportion in climbing lives that almost certainly provided them with the skills they needed to survive these ultimate tests when they came.

It seems to come down to this; if under stress your tendency is to become rigid or fixed on one solution. This decreases your chances of survival. If, however, under extreme stress you can access information and are sufficiently flexible to seek alternative solutions, you will have a greater chance of living. Survivors know how to improvise; they try multiple strategies. If one action fails, they try another. They are optimistic and unflappable, can tolerate bizarre circumstances and do not freak out.

While in normal circumstances self-belief or ego are perceived to be unattractive traits, in extreme situations they may very well be those that become your saving grace.

Fortunately these skills can be gained and/or trained for. Flexibility not pigheadedness, action over passivity; you can learn these by putting yourself in many varied and challenging circumstances and by playing outside in any weather, not just on the easy sunny days.

Linear thinking also does not help. Rather, it helps to be an abstract thinker. According to US military research into combat survival rates, people who have had soft lives will also give up first and women, in certain circumstances, will be better survivors. I may not last so long. Which is an amusing concept to mull over while sitting in the kitchen on a Sunday morning, but in a white-out at minus 25 it rapidly becomes a more pertinent question. n

• This article was first published in the Scotland on Sunday on January 16, 2011.