Like any relationship between parents and their grown offspring, Mother Nature and humanity get along best when they don't have to see each other very often. Weekend visits and the occasional longer holiday trip seem to be enough for people to appreciate the majesty of nature while still avoiding the inherent guilt of not doing enough for their Mother in her old age. On the other hand, the biggest difference between your real mother and Mother Nature is that if you overstay your welcome in the wilderness, it will murder you.

Probably. I won't pretend to know what your family dynamic is like.

Each year, due to ill-preparedness or accidents, scores of people get lost for days in the outdoors, and many of them end up dead, because nature is full of terrible things like sharp rocks, snow and indifference. Even the most knowledgeable outdoorsman can die while lost in the woods, because he is surrounded by circumstances beyond his control. That's why, instead of preparing you to survive on your own in the wild, I want to at least help you avoid dying in the most embarrassing ways possible. There are a handful of mortal threats in the outdoors that no one talks about and that are wildly humiliating. So if you ever find yourself lost in the middle of nowhere, you may not survive, but you can certainly avoid having your last sensation be utter shame. Here are five deaths to avoid if you can help it.