| Outdoor Survival tips
for the North Western U.S. copyright by Lynn Mills. All rights reserved. Bountiful High class of 58 |
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The information
below is primarily about conditions
here in the North West but may also apply to many parts of the World. |
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There are hazards that are common to certain
geographical
or climatic conditions around the world. This article deals with common
hazards related to the deserts of the Western US and especially about
hazards of the North Western US and British Columbia in
Western
Canada. Every year students from all over the world come to Brigham Young University. The setting is stunning. The BYU campus is nestled beneath the majestic peaks if the Wasatch Mountains and in particular a dramatic Peak called Timpanogos. At this point along the Wasatch range the angle of assent is very steep, rising sharply from the Valley floor. There are lots of precipitous cliffs rising hundreds of feet straight up. At the top are glaciers. The mountain is climbed every year by thousands of novice and expert climbers and every year many climbers are lost, stranded, injured and a few are fatalities. So here is hazard guide number 1. Going up a steep face is always easier than the decent. As a climber traverses the face of steep incline the hand holds and foot holds are easily seen. As one climbs upwards a preview of all the foot holds are observed in advance but coming back down most of the foot holds are out our sight and this is where hikers often get into trouble and panic sets in. My advice to novice hikers in the mountains is to stick to established trails and never climb unfamiliar and intimidating cliff faces. Just remember if it is difficult going up the trip down will be many times harder whether the descent is slow or free fall! |
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| A friend learned hazard number 2 the hard way but not fatally hard. He fell a short distance onto a ledge. Below the ledge was 300 feet of air and at the bottom was a stream, a series of water falls and a jumble of very hard boulders. It took a team of rescuers to get him off the ledge and back to safety. What happened you ask? Why did he go so near the edge? He didn't or at least he didn't think he had. As he worked his way toward the cliff he thought he was still a safe distance from the edge. In reality he was right at the edge. Because of the rainy climate the brush and trees are thick. In this and many places in the North West and Western Canada there is a thick layer of leaves supported by the lower boughs and branches of the surrounding trees and brush. This gives the illusion that the ground continues beyond the cliff. Our friend took one more step onto seemingly solid ground and stepped off into nothing but open air and space. In his case it was a forgiven error but tragically for many it becomes an unforgiven lack of knowledge. | ||
| Number 3 is closely related to number two and just as deadly. As mentioned above a thick carpet of leaves may extend several feet beyond a cliff edge supported by low to the ground branches. Hiding beneath the leafy covering is an insidious trap! The heavy rainfall creates lots of lush growth which in turn produces copious amounts of leaves. The rain enters the picture again by ensuring a constant layering of leaves below the surface. These leaves decay into a slimy strata. As you can imaging this slime layer is very slippery. The dry leaves on top belie the danger beloww and if the ground slops down toward the edge of the cliff you could be several feet from the edge and still suddenly be catapulted over the edge and out into sky diver country. | ||
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A very common hazard is associated with coastal
regions
and is our number 4 danger tip. A friend told me he was going fishing in
the Manchester area here in Kitsap county in the United States Western Washington
area of the Puget Sound. It was an area I was familiar with. My friend
is one of the last Polio victims before the Saulk Vaccine. He had one
leg which was considerably shorter than the other. He wore a brace and
walked with a crutch. I was concerned that the fishing spot was hard to
get to so I cautioned him to watch the tides. He was enjoying the solitude of a beautiful day when He remembered my warning. When he got to work
the next day he thanked me and said that he barely got to safety before his exit was cut off by the incoming tide. The tides in this area can be as much as
fourteen feet between extreme low tide and extreme high tide. Getting
cut off by high tide can be very dangerous if there is no help close by. Along the
Washington coast is a system of hiking trails. Because of the terrain and steep cliffs many parts of the trail traverses long stretches of beach. The only way off the beach is at each end of the trail. If a hike is not well planned you might find the tide coming in around you with no escape. Everything might look fine only to discover further up the trail a land bridges leading to safety is now under water. Plan your hikes carefully in these ares. You can buy a map that
shows dangerous parts of the trail where you can be easily trapped by rising tides. These maps advise as to how long it takes to hike between these dangerous strips of the trail These informative maps will help you safely plan your trip.
In Alaska are many shallow bays where the tides recede for miles. If you go too far out on the mud flats at low tide you will be unable to out race the incoming tide! |
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| Number 5 is another tide thing. This one hit close to home and is some thing I would never have thought of. Our Son and a friend were crabbing on the Hood Canal. They were wading out into the water on long sand bars at low tide. The sand bars were like a corn maze. They were not worried because they could see lights toward the shore to guide them back. They were so busy getting crabs that neither of them noticed the thick fog rolling over them. Suddenly they realized the sand bars were being submerged deeper and deeper by the incoming tide and the fog blanked out the lights that promised to guide them to dry land. Fortunately they kept cool heads and split up. One going one direction and the other another direction all the time whistling to each other to keep track of one another. Finally one of them came across a moored boat they had seen earlier and they were able to find their way back to the shore. | ||
| Number 6 is a hazard that claims many lives and especially in this part of the world. Again rain is the main culprit. People get lost and are unprepared for the weather and die of exposure. The ideal temperature for hypothermia is not freezing or below but rather in the 40's and even 50's under conditions of rain and wind. Let me relate another personal experience. I was one of the leaders for an outing with a church group of young boys. We traveled from Clearfield Utah in the northern part of the state to a remote box canyon in central Utah. There were Indian petroglyph s on the rocks by the camp and there were no city lights to dim the stars. The stars were dimmed anyway that night by clouds. It rained hard for a couple of hours and then the rain turned to snow. The boys had tents but most were not prepared for the cold and they shivered in their sleeping bags. I got up about 4 AM to check on my boy and found he had pithed his tent in a small ravine which was now a rivulet running right into his sleeping bag. His shivering was uncontrollable. I put him into my dry sleeping bag and wondered what I was going to do to stay warm. Everything was covered with a thick layer of snow and soaking wet from the earlier rain. I began looking for fuel for a fire. Beneath a large log I found broken bits of dry wood that had come off the deteriorating log. Under a large pine that had heavy foliage I found some dead twigs that were still dry and some that were just slightly damp. How you construct a fire structure is vital in those kind of conditions. I made a mound of small kindling composed of dried pine needles and lots and lots of small dead twigs. On top of that I put larger kindling, about the diameter of a finger. I progressively stacked larger and larger limbs and finally covered it with logs to keep the wet snow of the kindling. Before lighting it I made sure there was plenty of kindling close at hand to keep the fire stoked beneath the wet logs. After the fire was started it didn't take long before there were red hot coals at the base of the fire that reflected heat up to the bottom of the logs where hot coals reflected heat back down. I call this feed back. The heat is fed back and forth between the bottom and the top of the fires core. This makes the core very hot and helps dry out everything above. Within an hour the fire had an admiring and apprciative audience of young boys who were enjoying it's warm dancing flames. I now had plenty of volunteers who willingly scoured the area for more logs and limbs. The fire roared and the falling snow had little effect. Even though I have never smoked I have always carried a lighter and strongly advise anyone who hikes or camps to carry one. If the area is wooded there is almost always some dry kindling to be found. If you can find some dry kindling then the next size fuel can be a little damp and will dry out quickly. Just keep the interior fire dry and it will dry the logs and limbs that you stack on the top. Also be sure to leave plenty of holes for air to be sucked into the fires base. If you burn it high and hot enough and keep the core well covered even a downpour will have a hard time putting it out. Just remember not to put the base of the fire in the bottom of a pit like most people do. Instead put it on a mound. This serves two purposes. First it makes it so that water will run away from the fires heart and not into it. Secondly it will be easier for air to get to the all important base of you life saving fire. So by keeping the heart of your fire well ventilated and having a protective umbrella of logs or large pieces of fuel will insure a warm fire for as long as you need it. If you are lost or injured and waiting for rescuers a fire will pick up your spirits and greatly enhance your chances for survival and turn the odds in your favor of staying alive until you are found by rescuers. |