beardy wrote:The absence of any "get out" tends to work quite well for me. No choice but to carry on going.
Indeed.
The worst case of having to keep on on a cycle tour was at the end of our planned campsite had changed to static caravans only, the next one had shut, and heading on it then started to rain as our legs were past their best, and there was a B&B so we stopped there. That wasn't exactly a hardship.
Worst case of having to keep on on a ski tour was a broken binding in the middle of a Norwegian wilderness with no shelter until we got to the next hut. Could have gone for the impromptu snow hole and survival bags and minimal emergency food, and would have had we got to the probable exhaustion stage, but as it was just keeping on trudging was the better option so that's what we did. I've never been so tired in my life as when we arrived, but when the only option is obviously much worse than keeping going I don't really have a problem with keeping going.
The trick I can't do so well is keeping going when I really don't have to (like coming across that B&B in example 1).
Typical UK/NL cycle touring (where I've toured to date) doesn't result in high death potential if you stop without shelter. Other places may, and that does indeed concentrate the mind wonderfully...
Pete.