Okanagan,

I agree with you wholeheartedly about the wet issue..I live in the UK and its pretty damn wet here too...Only in the height of summer do I hunt in anything other than breathable waterproofs...Its a policy which I believe has helped me avoid hypotheria many times...I also now tend to religiously carry a small head torch plus a 1W LED hand torch...Again this policy has meant I could walk off the hill when i've been caught out after dark, when otherwise it might have meant a night in the cold and wet..

Somebody mentioned a zippo as being a good survival firelighter, but I am affraid i disagree...They are great when they are fueled up, but they dry out relatively quickly if they are not used as they are not sealed as can't be left at the bottom of a pack and forgotten about...I really wish somebody would do a sealed version even if it had to have a screw top to it...the nearest i have seen is the so called perma-matches......

One of the *best* survival aids I have come across is a small strobe light. With one of these I can hunker down and get out of the weather as much as possbile, but leave that flashing away in a prominent place near by for rescuers to see..a whistle is another must for me as again it can be operatered from the confines of water ever shelter I can find...

If you do decide to buy a strobe check the switch arrangement as some are not protected and it would be easy for them to be turned on in your pack in error...