Daily routine, counting days and keeping a notebook while waiting for rescue

In everyday life clocks, appointments, meals and habits give us a fixed structure. In an emergency all of that disappears. Without these anchors you quickly lose your sense of time, especially after nights with little sleep and a lot of stress. At the same time uncertainty and inactivity increase low mood – up to apathy, in which you hardly do anything any more.

A daily structure replaces the missing anchors. Fixed times spare you constant decisions, and tasks fill the day with something meaningful. The notebook makes progress visible and records important information that is easily lost in your head: how much water is left? Since when has the foot been hurting? When was a helicopter last heard?

Marking the day always comes first in the morning – that way it is not forgotten. Then the morning round, always in the same order: body (feet, hands, injuries, warmth), supplies (water, food, batteries), weather. Anything notable is noted immediately. Checking your feet daily lets you spot blisters, pressure points or cold injuries early.

The task blocks follow the daylight: in the morning fetch water and gather wood, at midday check signals and rest, in the afternoon wood and insulation for the night. An hour before sunset everything must be in place. Signals get fixed times – and in addition you signal immediately when you hear engines, voices or a helicopter.

The notebook holds time, weather, activities, food and drink, how you feel and your thoughts. A separate page is for the rescuers: who you are, since when you have been here, how you are. If you have to leave the spot, leave a clearly visible message there with direction and time.

Keeping busy must never become a risk. Long explorations, climbing or heavy work cost strength and warmth you need to hold out. Many small tasks near camp are better than one big undertaking. Build rest times firmly into the plan and take breaks before you are exhausted.

Watch for warning signs in yourself: if you are hardly doing anything, no longer drinking or no longer care about anything, that can also be due to cold, dehydration or exhaustion. Then first warm up, drink, rest. Save phone battery for the emergency call and fixed check times – on 112 you reach help in the EU, in Austria also on 144 and in the mountains on 140.

A fixed structure is worthwhile as soon as waiting lasts longer than a day: after getting lost, with an injury, in a snowed-in hut or when weather or flooding cuts off the way. It helps when alone just as in small groups, where tasks and signal watches are shared in turn.

For a few hours of waiting no elaborate plan is needed – then warmth, signals and a few notes are enough. And when immediate action is required, for example when danger approaches, action naturally takes priority over any routine.

The US Army survival manual names boredom, loneliness and depression as typical reactions in long emergencies and advises keeping the mind busy. Guidelines on psychosocial support in crises also stress how important routines and meaningful activities are.

The notebook has another use after the rescue: doctors learn what you ate and drank and how symptoms developed. And many people later find it helpful to be able to read what they went through and achieved. Without paper, notches in a stick, pebbles in a row or charcoal on bark from dead wood also work.