2 lessons learned from recent trip:
Be careful when plunge-stepping steep snow with a large pack. Isolated high mountain lakes are a bad place to injure your back. I might have called for the chopper if my phone battery hadn't been dead... I ended up doing stretches for a couple days and then just gutting my way out. Could have ended badly, but I made it ok. I'll be crippled for at least a week...
Don't drive in the mountains at night if you don't really have to... I hit a deer, about 10 miles east of Stevens Pass. Goodbye, front end of car...
Trekking poles are not appropriate EQ for glissading, folks. THREE TIMES on Del Campo last weekend, I watched as people tried to glissade while holding their fully extended trekking poles by the handles, up above their heads. As you can imagine, they immediately spun out of control, and had no means to self arrest. The first two people wised up before they hurt themselves. The third individual went into an "Agony of Defeat-style" tumble down the mountain, and while is was pretty damn hilarious, it would've ended very badly if the slope hadn't petered out before the rocks.
NEVER drink unfiltered water from Pelps Creek!
Or is it Leroy Creek?
Take risks not to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping
I may not have anyone rocking my world right now but, I don't have anyone messing it up either.
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Take risks not to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping
I may not have anyone rocking my world right now but, I don't have anyone messing it up either.
When I drive, I prefer sleeping with my head back, on the headrest.
"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area."
Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
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"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area."
Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
Trekking poles are not appropriate EQ for glissading, folks. THREE TIMES on Del Campo last weekend, I watched as people tried to glissade while holding their fully extended trekking poles by the handles, up above their heads. As you can imagine, they immediately spun out of control, and had no means to self arrest. The first two people wised up before they hurt themselves. The third individual went into an "Agony of Defeat-style" tumble down the mountain, and while is was pretty damn hilarious, it would've ended very badly if the slope hadn't petered out before the rocks.
I do it all the time. Helps to know how to ski. Take your hands out of the straps so you can loose one pole and use the other for self arrest if you go down.
If you dont' know how to ski, grab both poles and glissade using them together as a brake, like a tripod, pretty much as you would butt glissading. I do that all the time, too, on steeper stuff.
Ie: poles work great for glissading.
"We are, all of us, in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
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"We are, all of us, in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
Nobody is getting out of here alive, SO, Why all the concern? would not the wilderness likely be the most peaceful of places to die and lay your body to rest?.
In my book- idiots deserve nothing better than to be an example to others of what an I D ten T error looks like- so as not to be repeated (the stronger more agile of minds are most productive without the anchor of weaklings loafing about thinking that just to get along they have to be told how everything is)
if your just out of food and water eat some berries, insects, grubs and other critters (ignorance of mans law is never going to help you. so dont worry about a hunting licence, or any other license for that matter, unless supporting a trade of commerce- GET REAL!), a good thing to have in the first aid kit I believe is water purification tablets, a half dozen bullion cubes (chicken, beef or for the overly squeamish- vegetable flavored)- they can be eaten alone with water or used to flavor a camp robber, squirrel and nettle soup. Mmm. along with flavorless waxed dental floss, sutures, ace wrap and sealed scalpel, I also like to keep Morphine (or its ancient predecessor) in there because I cant stand being around crybabies.
if you have bad joints (knees), prior to any excursion are you taking proper supplements? I prefer Hammer Supplements 'Tissue Rejuvenator' product which in one dosage includes 8 separate enzymes, glucosamine sulfate, chondroitin sulfate, MSM, boswellia serrata, devils claw, yucca root, tumeric root extract, quarcetin and undenatured type2 collagen,,, and yes its pain relief effect is better than ibuprofen and ibuprofen doesn't do anything proactively healthy anyways, so why would anyone want that? {real world druglords, and their insurance agents, have entirely conned the western build of healthcare systems}
but, for myself, when my knees will not carry me any further, I will crawl into a deep crevasse, alone, and take a really really long nap <~ no rescue necessary.
All rights reserved and without discourse.
Copyright 2012 - Literal Lee Inc. Without Prejudice. UCC (WACi) 207 & 309
Hey, I appreciate weird, but if you've ever known anyone who has almost died from exposure, you'd know this is utter bullsh##. It's neither a peaceful nor painless way to go.
Fight till your last breath. That's what gets survivors home alive. If you don't have anything worth going home to, take stock.
If you're not injured to the point where you can't walk, screw the grubs and go home. There isn't one spot in WA that's more than 3 days from other people, even if you're a fat ass. 3 days without food isn't a big deal. If you're injured, good luck catching anything. You've got two options: signal and hunker down for rescue or crawl out. If you haven't left your itinerary with any one, best of luck.
PS: don't litter the wilderness with your dead body. Decaying bodies produce lots of nasty toxins - benzene compounds being just one of them. Plus, I really don't want to have to deal with it when I'm out there. Please off yourself and arrange for its disposal in consideration for the living. Take your hemlock or whatever at home and have a nice trip.
"We are, all of us, in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
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"We are, all of us, in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
When I drive, I prefer sleeping with my head back, on the headrest.
When i drive i prefer not sleeping while driving.
"Bears couldn't care less about us....we smell bad and don't taste too good. Bugs on the other hand see us as vending machines." - WetDog
Albuterol! it's the 11th essential
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"Bears couldn't care less about us....we smell bad and don't taste too good. Bugs on the other hand see us as vending machines." - WetDog
Albuterol! it's the 11th essential
Trekking poles are not appropriate EQ for glissading, folks. THREE TIMES on Del Campo last weekend, I watched as people tried to glissade while holding their fully extended trekking poles by the handles, up above their heads. As you can imagine, they immediately spun out of control, and had no means to self arrest. The first two people wised up before they hurt themselves. The third individual went into an "Agony of Defeat-style" tumble down the mountain, and while is was pretty damn hilarious, it would've ended very badly if the slope hadn't petered out before the rocks.
I do it all the time. Helps to know how to ski. Take your hands out of the straps so you can loose one pole and use the other for self arrest if you go down.
If you dont' know how to ski, grab both poles and glissade using them together as a brake, like a tripod, pretty much as you would butt glissading. I do that all the time, too, on steeper stuff.
Ie: poles work great for glissading.
That's a standing glissade. I'm talking about glissading on your butt, while holding your poles as if you were standing. There's no way to do it safely. It just causes you to spin out of control and possibly kill yourself along with everyone you plowed over on the way down.
That's a standing glissade. I'm talking about glissading on your butt, while holding your poles as if you were standing. There's no way to do it safely. It just causes you to spin out of control and possibly kill yourself along with everyone you plowed over on the way down.
glislading with poles: (nice music)
"I will lift up my eyes to the mountains. From where shall my help come. My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth!" - David, King of Israel 1,000 BC
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"I will lift up my eyes to the mountains. From where shall my help come. My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth!" - David, King of Israel 1,000 BC
... people tried to glissade while holding their fully extended trekking poles by the handles, up above their heads. As you can imagine, they immediately spun out of control, and had no means to self arrest.
That's how I broke my ankle, and I had an ice ax, not a hiking pole. I wasn't glissading, I just slipped from a face-out standing position, with only my upper hand on the ax, and couldn't reach the shaft in the 2 seconds it took me to slide 20 feet.
I suspect that 50% of the people who think they're gonna self-arrest with an ice ax are kidding themselves, and 100% of those who think they're gonna do it with a ski pole.
I have seen a real live self-arrest done right in a deadly place: eyeblink-fast, he landed pick-first and didn't slide an inch. I think that's how it has to be.
===============
Unrelated: Oct. 2012, a PCT through-hiker lost the trail under snow, wandered into a deep ravine he couldn't get out of, spent 10 days awaiting a rescue that never came, finally managed to extricate himself in desperation by backtracking. He had neither map nor compass.
Some people have better things to do with their lives than walking the dog. Some don't.
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Some people have better things to do with their lives than walking the dog. Some don't.
Unrelated: Oct. 2012, a PCT through-hiker lost the trail under snow, wandered into a deep ravine he couldn't get out of, spent 10 days awaiting a rescue that never came, finally managed to extricate himself in desperation by backtracking. He had neither map nor compass.
Oh no, your not going to rehash that again? HYOH!
Bouncer
PCT hiker
Class of 2012
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