Are there females who have survived the harsh wilderness when going hiking or camping?

I mean with only a knife, rations of food, sleeping bag, and maybe a sidearm.Are there females who have survived the harsh wilderness when going hiking or camping?
Sure, I did that regularly in my 20's. I used to go backpacking even in the middle of the winter at temperatures way below zero, often without a tent, just a lightweight tarp. Didn't need a firearm either (have never carried one -- what would you need it for?) I had a number of female friends who were Outward Bound instructors and had gone through rigorous survival training including as much as a week alone in the backcountry with minimal equipment.



There are countless women throughout history who have endured and even enjoyed such challenges. Remember the Donner Party, the pioneer group who was stranded all winter in the Sierra Nevadas back in the 1840's and some of them had to revert to cannibalism to survive? Most of the women survived and most of the men died. The women also managed to keep all of their children alive (and the women refused to eat the dead). Some of the great adventurers and mountaineers have been female, including a woman in her 50's who was the first to climb 22,000' Huascaran, the highest mountain in the Peruvian Andes. There are plenty of books on women adventurers -- too many to list here.



in fact, during the 1950s and 1960s when the US Military and NASA were preparing for the space program, someone had the idea (unusual at that time when women were discriminated against in most workplace environments) to test women as well as men for candidates to be astronauts. Much to the researchers' surprise, the females they tested had more endurance over a range of conditions than the men, especially for the psychological stress of extended isolation. They had one test where they would leave the person in a dark float chamber until they couldn't stand it any more. Some men lasted a few hours, a few made it to a couple of days. All of the women stood it longer than any of the men and one woman was so comfortable with it that she never asked to be let out -- they just ended the experiment after several days so that the researchers could go home for the weekend! Despite the test results, and the fact that women, being smaller and therefore needing less oxygen and food, would have been more practical to use in the early spacecraft, the US decided to limit the first astronauts to males only. It was almost 20 years before women were a regular part of the on-board space program.



Physiologically, women hold up better in severe cold -- though their hands and feet feel cold sooner than men, that is because their bodies have evolved to protect the core (and a baby, if they are pregnant) so they don't lose heat through their extremities they as fast as men do and so are less susceptible to hypothermia and frostbite. Psychologically they are less likely to panic and make poor decisions under difficult circumstances. I've participated in the rescue of several men over the years who lost it in the woods (often the biggest "toughest" guys are the first to break) and had to be sedated or even strapped in a Stokes litter to evacuate them they were so freaked out. I helped in the rescue of women on 3 occasions, but even though all of them were injured they each kept their calm and were able to evacuate under their own power with some help.



I'm not just saying this because I am female myself. I have worked in construction and been a wilderness skills instructor for over 35 years and I have seen first hand how both men and women react to severe conditions. Yes, there are fewer women than men in both construction and in challenging wilderness sports, but the women that are in those fields are just as tough as, and in some cases, tougher than, any of the men.
Yes, I did. Subzero temperatures at night, walking very long distances through rough terrain during the day. There were a few other chicks with me as well. I am perplexed as to why you don't think it possible for females to survive these conditions, is it possible you have such little experience with women you didn't know we are just as capable as men?Are there females who have survived the harsh wilderness when going hiking or camping?
I enjoy backpack camping in the Colorado Rockies.
My girlfriend, Jill, endured ten days in the Appalachian Mountains, Great Smoky Mountain National Park in March of last year. It snowed for four days straight and the temperature never made it above 10 degrees farenheit. She survived by...no wait a minute, it wasn't the Appalachian Mountains, it was Reno, Nevada. Wait a minute, I'm sorry it wasn't snowing, I think there was a drought. And, now that I think about it, that wasn't my girlfriend, it was a hooker named Jill who I met at the Bunny Ranch where I went to get some liquid refreshments because of the darn drought. Ooops, never mind.
--- hey I am a guy so I tend to vote for the guy stuff but I think if one were try to be objective women are tougher because they have to take care of the kids -- in a newspaper I read that in british columbia canada a woman and her kid got attacked by a cougar the lady attacked the cougar and stuck her arm down the cougars throat-- they grappled for a while -- first chance it got the cougar ran away -- I think her arm was mangled but I am not sure but I did read this story -- I think mother nature made women tough for when the guys are out hunting or on war parties or going to the hockey game.
There are a lot of women out there that are able to handle any sort of conditions. There were lots of us that are in the Guiding movement, and able to handle it, as well as there are many women who have just as much interest in the outdoors with that of the men.
If you're asking about famous women the first I can think of off the top of my head is Sacajawea.
No...no woman has ever survived the harsh wilderness. They all died.



If I had a sarcastic font, I would use it.