Day Hikers Most Vulnerable In Survival Situations
BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 7 months ago
In the study, survivors’ most frequently mentioned source of warmth was clothes (12 percent). Their prevailing form of shelter was camping gear (11 percent). Most survivors had a water source—either their own (13 percent), or one they found (42 percent), be it a lake, creek, or puddle, or derived by licking leaves or sucking moist moss. None of the survivors except one were missing long enough to make starvation an issue, but 35 percent had food they could ration to keep their energy levels up. All these data points suggest that the best way to survive getting lost in a national park is to already have the clothing and gear needed for warmth and shelter during the night, as well as some food and water.
This is not the case with most day hikers, who are more likely to bring a camera than extra clothes in a backpack. Herrington concurs. “If you go backpacking and you get lost, or you get caught out in bad weather, it’s like oh well I’m going to be out here another night and maybe go to bed hungry. No big deal. But when you’re out there and you don’t have a sleeping bag and tent, or extra clothing for the overnight experience, you’re much more vulnerable, and that tends to be where most people get in trouble.
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In Herrington’s wilderness survival courses, he teaches day hikers to pack a puffy jacket for warmth, and a 200-litre trash bag for rain protection/shelter. Even in warm states. “If you’re wet—because it rains or you fell into water or you sweated through your clothes—and its 65 degrees (18°C), you can still get hypothermic,” says Herrington. “Texas is one of the leading states in hypothermia deaths, and look how warm it is there.” An injury compounds the risk of hypothermia by compromising the body’s ability to thermo-regulate.
Well, you can carry a trash bag if you wish. I’ve given you my list before.
Bring a good rip-stop nylon tarp. If it’s good, it’ll be light and it will pack up small. A gun (with a couple of extra magazines of ammunition), a tactical light, 550 paracord, a first aid kit, water purification equipment, decent clothing, a tactical knife (I prefer one with serrated edges), Mylar emergency blankets (which will also be very light), energy and protein bars, and multiple means of fire starter. Finally, wear a hat on the trail. The absence of one will cause sunburn to the head and freezing at night (a large portion of the heat leaving your body does so through the head).
Know how to make a brush shelter (leaf hut) quickly. It’s that time of year. There is no excuse for going into the bush unprepared.
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On April 28, 2019 at 9:36 pm, Dan said:
Survival in the wild is a matter of skill, experience but most importantly common sense. The third factor is becoming more and more rare every year. Now we have people wandering all over gods creation with little more than a cell phone assuming that if things go south punching 911 will take care of the issue. In reality it’s Darwinian selection and we should consider getting out of it’s way and allowing it to function properly.
On April 30, 2019 at 7:34 pm, Gryphon said:
Yep, Daytime Clothes, couple of bottles of Water, and a Cell Phone. What More do they Need? It’s just Less Litter in the Woods after they are Eaten by the Field Mice….
On May 1, 2019 at 9:54 pm, Coyote Hubbard said:
Got to call BS on the “loss of heat through your head”.
This has been debunked many times already.
The TLDR portion is a study by the army, of solders in winter conditions with no headgear lost most heat off their head. That does not equal “you loose most heat through it” story that morphed into this incorrect idea. Bundled up in winter gear with only an exposed head will loose the most heat of course.
Proper headgear is good, but wrong information on why is worse.
On May 1, 2019 at 10:39 pm, Herschel Smith said:
I didn’t use the word “most.” You just made up. I hate to get all technical, but nearly 15% of the cardiac output goes to the cerebral region, approximating that to the skeletal muscles (21%). Furthermore, the head is a much smaller organ than the “whole body,” which means that the surface to volume ratio (S/V) is greater. S/V is important in heat transfer, as engineers know.
Hey, this reminds me of a story. When my Marine son was humping 100 pound kit at Camp Lejeune on 105 degree days with the Battalion, when a Marine would fall out due to heat exhaustion in an attempt to prevent heat stroke, the first thing they did was remove the cover and pour water on the head in an attempt to (a) maximize the rate of cooldown, and (b) prevent brain damage.
But hey, you do whatever you want to do. This is my list. I’m sure everyone has one of their own.