High-country hunters, especially those who backpack into wilderness areas, need to choose an escape route before a campsite. If it starts snowing heavily -- say, a foot an hour -- it's time to flee. A backpacker's camp, lacking a wall tent and wood-burning stove, is no place to sit out a heavy snowstorm that may last for days.

And if it's snowing so hard the trail will become impassable in a few hours, don't even waste time breaking camp. Leave your stuff where it is and come back for it later.

Rule No. 1: Never go into a wilderness area by yourself. Unavoidable accidents do happen. Learn how to use a compass, take a map of the area and orient yourself before leaving camp. If you do plan to go hunting alone, tell someone where you are going and when you plan to return. If you change your general area, tell someone of that change.

Always carry a survival kit -- and know how to use it. (In the hands of someone who does not know how to use it, a "survival" kit can kill.)

Such a kit should include a knife, waterproof matches, compass, reflective survival blanket, high-energy food, water purification tablets, first aid kit, whistle and unbreakable signal mirror.

If you get lost, sit down, regain your composure and think for a few minutes. Many times, those who are lost can figure out where they went wrong and make it back to camp.

If you truly don't know where you are, stay put. You will be found if you followed Rule No. 1.

The late "Papa Bear" Whitmore was a survival expert who taught Navy Seals, Green Berets and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police -- along with Colorado Hunter Education courses. He used to say that survival is 80 percent attitude, 10 percent equipment, and 10 percent skill. His most important advice: "The best survival tool is your head. Use it."

HUNTING THE LATE SEASONS
As for hunting the late seasons, concentrate on south-facing slopes. Snow melts here first, exposing food for deer. If it's snowing heavily, hunt creek bottoms and mountain hollows protected from the wind or heavily timbered slopes where deer will sit out the storms.

THIRD SEASON
If you didn't draw a tag for this year and are planning for next year, the third rifle season is your best bet.

1. It offers the largest allocation of deer hunting licenses for November,

2. Demands few, if any, preference points to access most game management units west of the Divide, and

3. Promises high hunter-success rates on bucks.

Last year, five GMUs in the northwest region boasted better than 80 percent hunter success, and none needed a preference point for either residents or non-residents. Of nearly 3,000 hunters who drew tags for those units, 84 percent bagged a buck in Unit 3, 93 percent in Unit 301, 87 percent in Unit 11, 81 percent in Unit 211 and 81 percent in Unit 22.

Far fewer deer licenses are issued for the fourth rifle season, which runs Nov. 14 through 18 this year and sometimes overlaps with the start of the mule deer rut.

Some game management units that were open in the third rifle season are closed in the fourth. Others that require no preference points in the third may demand several in the fourth.

For example, units 3, 301 and 22 jumped from zero points in the third season to 4 points for residents -- and 8 for non-residents -- in the fourth season. And out-of-state hunters needed up to 13 points to access popular units in the Gunnison Basin.