[pct-l] Hypothermia (was "Earthquake!")

[Scott Williams]

Thanks Yoshihiro,

Your pictures of backpacking in Japan are stunning.  The shots of hoar frost
on Mt Miyanoura, and the ancient cedars, are breathtaking.  Also the article
on the hypothermia disaster last year, very telling for this set of emails.
10 people stricken and 6 dead in the mtns. of Hokkaido.  Wow.  It's worth
following your links.

The state beyond uncontrollable shivering is stillness and disorientation,
as you've used up all your energy reserves at this point, after which I
believe is coma and death.  I've only seen the stillness stage once in my
life, in 1978 on a group trip to Desolation Wilderness. We had drizzly rain,
but moderate temperatures, all day on a scramble climb over Pyramid peak and
camped at about 8,000 ft. that night.  The rain continued all night and one
of the tents leaked, and a bag and person got wet.  The guy probably slept
through the early stages of hypothermia, and never told anyone that his tent
was leaking.  We found him that morning sitting quietly, and at first nobody
took notice that his clothes were wet, and he wasn't talking.  But he was a
dark skinned black guy, and when we looked close, his hands and face were
ashen, and really didn't look normal.  then one of us took his arm and it
was icy cold to the touch.  At that point we all jumped into gear, with one
person heating water and another getting him out of his wet clothes and into
somebody else's dry ones.  We wrapped him in a warm sleeping bag and started
shoving snickers and raisins in his mouth.  He could chew, but could hardly
talk.  By the second cup of hot chocolate he began shivering, and worked his
way back to normal over the course of an hour and a half, and eventually
walked out that day with the rest of us.  What we didn't do, as mentioned
earlier in this string, was to put people in that sleeping bag with him.
That would have been good.  But cup after cup of hot liquid and lots of
simple carbohydrates brought him round.  At the time, we knew this
misadventure was serious, but I don't think we appreciated how close to end
stage he had gotten.  This was late summer in Desolation, and the temps at
night were not even close to freezing.

This is a great string, given the cold weather we're all likely to be
starting in this year.  See ya at Campo on the 14th!!!

Scott