“The Don’t Die Out There! Deck” ($6.95, The Mountaineers Books) just happened to be in my pack recently as I was crouched down trying to maintain only two points of contact with my toes in a lightning storm in Estes Park with a friend. It’s funny now, but at the time, it was hailing (nice that these playing cards are laminated); a strike had hit something close enough that we could smell it burning; and when the blinding bursts are coming every few seconds for a while, 20 minutes is a lifetime. Fortunately, we had been prepared: In Estes, a crystal-clear day turns ugly quickly, and as soon as we heard the thunder, we ditched the metal walking poles, took off our metal jewelry, threw our packs far away and made ourselves into tiny balls. It was nice to have some reading material as we cramped up (and something to cover our ears and eyes with), but we did find it amusing that the deck offered no lightning info. It does tell you how to make a shelter, start a fire (didn’t need that one), stop bleeding, treat snake bites and deal with many other survival issues. My kids later pointed out that the cards are hard to read for gin rummy because the survival tips take up all but the corners, so you have to pay closer attention to the colors than usual, but if you’re taking a deck on a trip anyway, this would be the one to have along.
