[pct-l] trail fatalities

[Ellen Shopes]

The list of causes of fatalities should be more basic:
    1.    Inexperience
    2.    Inappropriate/missing gear
    3.    Lack of training/fatigue
    4.    Insufficient water

A fascinating reference is "Mountaineering Accidents of North America", a 
compilation published yearly of fatalities/accidents reported by Search and 
Rescue groups.  While not limited to hiking accidents, it is eye-opening. 
Experienced, prepared, educated people do have bad luck in the wilderness; 
anyone can fall, have a heart attack, etc.  By and large, the majority of 
problems arise among the inexperience, unprepared folks out there.

At Grand Canyon, we had very few SARs involving middle-aged and older 
hikers.  But there was a recipe for disaster: a 30 yr old guy (who still 
thought he had what he had in high school) who would convince his gullible 
girfriend to go hiking in July.

Ed Abby once said something about a wilderness being someplace where you 
could get killed.  These days, I think it applies more to our urban 
wildernesses!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Will M" <jalan04 at gmail.com>
To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 7:10 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] trail fatalities


> I'm planning on doing a short talk on Thru-Hiking at work next month and 
> was
> just thinking about what the 5 most dangerous aspects of thru hiking are.
> I'm looking for input but in no particular order I have hypothermia,
> falling, river crossings, heart attacks, dehydration, rattlesnakes.  I'm
> guessing most non-hikers would list bears but I don't think they belong in
> the top five.  Any thought s on this.
>