Hypothermia On Mt. Washington

It is always this time of year when the winter snows fall and the mercury drops that my thoughts invariably begin to reminisce about my past excursions into the mountains. While I was thinking about some of these icy adventures, a particular memory was resurrected.  Though I had not really contemplated this particular incident much after it occurred, now close to a decade later, I often wonder what might have occurred, should my climbing partner not been in the right place at the right time. As unfortunate fate would have it, this particular incident was not the last my climbing partner and I would see in the mountains and before the conclusion of our careers as hobbyist mountaineers, we would be involved in a total of three rescues and see the deeply troubling death of a friend. Please excuse my inclusion of photographs in this particular posting having completely nothing to do with this story or Mt. Washington. Searching through my archives, I was unable to find any pictures from these past excursions . . . I sense that the Gremlins have been at work once again. Instead, I choose to provide a few images from some of my previous trips to other high places to provide a taste for what a life lived high is all about! Enjoy!
  

Inter-Glacier Mt. Rainier

It had been a hard day of climbing on Mt. Washington, on a long forgotten date sometime in late February. My climbing partner and I had started our summit attempt, well before the sun had managed to crest the horizon. Our plan was to hike from the Pinkham Notch visitor center, up into Huntington ravine, complete an ascent of Diagonal gully and finally cross the wind-swept alpine garden to the summit of Mt. Washington. On our descent, we had decided not to to down climb Escape Hatch gully but instead the popular Lion’s head trail, as avalanche warnings had cause other routes become less favorable. After climbing for around 10 hours, we finally came to the end of Lion's head trail. As the day turned to night, the temperature started to drop quickly and a strong northeast wind began to gust.

Summit Mt. Hood

Even in the relative security of “treeline”, things began to get bitterly cold but through the day, we had managed to stay relatively dry and were well fed and hydrated. Given our situation, we had no fear for our own relative exposure to this sudden drop in the mercury. Our conversations were light hearted and we began exchanging the occasional joke and openly voiced our dreams about the pizza, we were soon to eat at Flatbreads in North Conway, NH. As we hiked, I lamented about how my tired legs felt like two boiled hot dogs but I was still jubilant.

Just as we began to see the glimmering lights of the Pinkham Notch visitors center, we were suddenly surprised by a group of 5 people huddled around a young man. As we stepped closer, one of the groups members frantically ran up to us and asked if we had a stove and cook pot. When I inquired why, she said that her friend was cold and unresponsive. At this point, I became seriously concerned. This was not the first time I had seen someone injured in the mountains and as fate would have it, unfortunately not my last.

Mountains of Patagonia, Climbing Aconcagua

I ran up to the young man and asked his name and received no reply. Upon examining the boys face, he was expressionless; his blue lips visible even in the low glow of my headlamp. I shook the young man and two hand warmers fell out of his hands. “What are these?” I exclaimed! “Heater packs” someone in the group responded. Agitated I thought, well if this boy dies at least he will be able to greet St. Peter with a warm handshake!

Receiving no response from the boy and with him exhibiting all the classic signs of hypothermia, I knew we were going to have to work quickly to get him off the mountain and someplace warm. The temperature during most of the day had been in the upper teens but was dropping fast now and we were racing against time.

Leaving Camp 3, Aconcagua

I removed my down jacket from my backpack and we worked to wrestle his stiff arms into it and to get it zipped. Once on, we enclosed his head in the hood allowing only a small hole for air.  Thus readied, my climbing partner and I each grabbed one of the boys arms and at the count of three, had him standing and quickly walking him down the mountain. With his legs uncontrollably flailing out behind him, it was apparent that the boy’s body had no idea it had been set in motion. As we walked, we continued our interrogation of the boy and after about 15 minutes were managing to get his name and some personal information. In another 5 minutes, he was stumbling along on his feet and attempting to walk.

Upon arriving at the Pinkham notch visitors center, we managed to wrestle the boy into the lodge and set him down. Assessing his current condition, he appeared to be slowly pushing coherence and was now being quizzed by several of his friends. Once of the centers medical response personnel appeared and began assessing the boys situation. Determining that the situation was well under control, my buddy and I slid outside and into the cold night, content to be the anonymous strangers that potentially saved a young man’s life.

Thin Ice in January?!?!

I have to admit that ice fishing on just three inches of ice in Maine during the month of January is a VERY strange concept. Call it global warming, climate change or whatever you like but bottom line is that things are taking a lot longer to freeze and staying frozen a shorter amount of time. A reminder to anyone venturing out on the ice, ice scoop might read 3 inches but that ice thickness might not be consistent. Make sure to teat the ice at regular intervals and have handy a pair of ice self rescue tools. For a couple bucks these devices can literally be a life save. Note in the photo above, mine are hanging out of my coat sleeve. These devices have a sharpened metal point hidden under a retractable plastic housing. When they strike a hard surface, like ice, the metal point is exposed and drives into the object. If you chance to fall through the ice these would make self extraction much easier. Good luck to everyone and be safe!

Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs

I was recently sent a copy of Wendy Brown’s book “Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs, the Thrivalist’s Guide to a Life Without Oil.” by New Society Publishers. Both Wendy and her husband also maintain two separate blogs that are a joy to read. Wendy at: http://happilyhome.blogspot.com and Deus Ex Machina (Eric) at: http://mooseboots.blogspot.com.

I have to admit, I have watched the “Mad Max” series of movies one to many times and Stephen King’s book “The Stand” is one of my all time favorite reads.  It is certainly these vile renderings, of our world when the SHTF and spirals into the hands of the “Zombie Hoards”, unto which most of us base our “survivalist” preparations. No doubt, Hollywood knows shock and awe sells and we as consumers readily digest this mumbo jumbo like it’s our last day on earth. This media storm of death and destruction had me under the impression that perhaps your best TEOTWAWKI preparations had something to do with lots of firepower and plenty of ammo.

Wendy’s book dismisses most of this doom and gloom, instead painting a picture of a much more civilized future after TEOTWAWKI. While she does dedicated one chapter to “Security”, the rest of the book centers on what I define as practical no nonsense living. In the resource poor future, people will need to understand and cope with the realities of a life without many of the creature comforts we currently take for granted. Wendy predicts that gasoline, oil, electricity, supermarkets and even public education will disappear and we will as a society need to learn to live (thrive) without them.

To prepare for this “challenge”, the chapters take the reader through the steps necessary to prepare themselves, their family, homes and available land to be as productive and energy efficient as possible. In many of these situations, I see Wendy providing the reader with a blueprint of how we should all be living NOW and not necessarily after some apocalyptic world-ending event. Reducing, reusing, recycling, growing more of our own food or buying produce local and in season, raising our own livestock, producing our own localized fuel sources for heat (wood) and other practical and smart ways to live both before and after any impending “collapse”.

Also critical, is the idea we must forge a skill set of self-reliance, while also understanding there exists strength in numbers. In the future, it will be beneficial to have an individual practical skill set, as well as a network, community or neighborhood of support.  I particularly liked Wendy’s afterward, that walks the reader through a typical day in a community after TEOTWAWKI.

To close, I wanted to include this excerpt from the book as it sums up most of what the book seems to center on, “If we are to have any hope of giving our children a future, we need to start now with changing the attitudes from one of making money to one of making a living. We need to change our mindset from the belief that independence is related solely to one’s income to the understanding that true independence comes from being able to provide for most of one’s needs.” (p. 212)