Soapbox

'You and a friend are in a small plane going to a July Fourth celebration near Denver, CO. Your plane has electrical problems. The radio stops working before you can get out a distress message. You manage to land safely. Below is a list of gear on the plane. Your task is to rank order them in terms of their importance. Place the number 1 by the most important item, the number 2 by the second most important, and so on, through 15, the least important.

• 2 Jackets
• Canteen
• Matches
• Map and compass
• 2 boxes of Pop Tarts
• First Aid Kit
• Plastic tarp
• Knife
• 50 feet of nylon rope
• .22 caliber pistol
• 2 cans of beans
• Signal flares
• Walkie-Talkie
• Comic books
• AM/FM radio '

http://www.e-scoutcraft.com/activities/wilderness_survival.html Small link. - Taken from the Scouting site on wilderness survival skills here at link.

Easy, as the most important survival item must easily be the 2 boxes of Pop Tarts of course! You can use them as snowshoes, eat them, or use them as deadly frisbees to kill and maim attacking wolves or wild bears, with the hot jam centres within!

Next in importance is the two cans of beans, as one can grow a beanstalk and escape that way from the wilderness area there perhaps, maybe!

The next most imortant thing is the two jackets, as it is just so nice and reassuring to have a style and fashion choice when out in a deadly dangerous situation, lost in the wild woods like that!

What's the answer to the original question?

If it's July  in Colorado, it won't be cold so no need to take stuff to keep warm.

If you are a sensible Yank, you will have filed a flight plan before departure and, provided you were on course, you only need to wait near the aircraft for the rescue services to arrive.

If you are a stupid Yank that hasn't done any of the above, shoot yourself with the pistol and do us all a favour 

Where's Trevor when you need him?