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

[Yoshihiro Murakami]

I am sorry. I had a miss writing. 8 peoples died at once. These
incidents iterates regularly in several years.  The cause is ignorant
of weather, of wind-chill effect.  By the way, when the foot is wet,
it will exhaust your physical strength in a long run.

Dear Scott, I cannot obtain long holidays except summer.  I will meet
with you somewhere in August.

Good night.



2010/4/10 Scott Williams <baidarker at gmail.com>:
> 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
>
>
>



-- 
Sincerely
--------------- --------------------------------------
Hiro    ( Yoshihiro Murakami )
HP:http://psycho01.edu.u-toyama.ac.jp
http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/CompleteWalker/
Backpacking for 30 years in Japan
2009 JMT, the first America.
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