As the temperatures drop, it’s time to carefully consider survival and your routes. I have frequently told pilots I fly with, if you look down and imagine a circle below you at a 45 degree angle from your airplane and you don’t like the thought of (1) landing in that circle and (2) the challenge of surviving after the landing then maybe you need to either rethink what survival equipment you are carrying and perhaps where you are flying. In the summer in the mountains survival can be as easy as a knife, means to start fire and a jacket. Come winter you need to be more diligent – consider a small snow shovel to build shelter, a sleeping bag, plenty of different fire starting technologies, signaling devices, snow shoes, cold weather gear, means to melt snow/heat water, and some type of calorie dense food.