"Well Prepared" and Cultures

This week, I picked up the story from Iceland from Iceland Review.

A lot of folks show up in Iceland....for some hiking, treking, and adventures.  Generally, winter isn't over until the end of April.  I emphasize 'generally'.

Around the first of April, this French tourist showed up in Iceland.....Thomas Chretien.  He'd made up some plan which involved the western fjord areas, and this was going to mean going through some mountain pass area.  It's safe to say....it's not a road that you'd want to travel in the midst of a harsh winter, but this was early April.

Somewhere in the middle of this pass.....the snow got deep, and he just got stuck.  No snowplow activity because it was awful deep.

He was more or less in some 20 km stretch on the pass, and no way out.

Now, typically.....when you get to preparing yourself for a trip like this to the back-country.....you'd have a list of things you'd bring along.  Different cultures would do it in various ways.

In Chretien's planning....he had everything.....water, lots of food, and the right gear to stay warm.  He was French.

An American?  Well....sadly, we tend to just throw some crackers into a bag.....two bottles of water.....a Pepsi or two.....some apples, and maybe a flashlight.  Things wouldn't have gone well for an American stuck in a mountain pass for five days.

A German?  There would have been a case of beer in the back of the vehicle, two or three tubes of Bi-Fi sticks, and big jar of Nutella.  Things would have gone well for the first day or two for the German but once the beer ran out....it'd be utter chaos.

An Italian?  They would have stopped at the entry to the pass....looked at matters and snow....and just turned around and spent five days in some luxury Icelandic hotel.

Someone needs to sit down and write a 300-page book on cultures and how they would stack up in a well prepared but chaotic situation.