[pct-l] Yee gawdz, get ahold of yourselves! Or, smallberriesspeaks and ...

[rmoak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Ronald Moak)]

Greg writes

>>
1) "Incremental Stupidity"; means that you make a series of minor assumptive
or poor decisions that now have culminated into getting yourself into
serious
trouble, (I've done this several times!) and

2) "Random Intersecting Circumstances"; a number of circumstances that all
occur at once, that given one at a time, you could handle but together they
overwhelm either your capabilities and/or your equipment (or lack thereof).

A good hiking strategy, IMHO, should plan for these two "conspiring
factors".
 Hiking 30 miles in a day and finding that a snow storm is hitting as the
sun
is going down, at 10,000 feet in the Sierras, may put you in a situation
where hiking out is not a option.  What then?  Will you have enough energy
to
fight the winds to put up your tarp in the driving snow and will it stand up
under the weight? What if you wake up to 2.5 feet of snow the next morning?
Don't say it doesn't happen.  It does in the Sierra late in the Spring and
it
does in the Nth Cascades in early Fall, some years, not all.
<<

Greg, you raise some interesting points. By the way I don't consider you to
be a dinosaur, just a wee bit rusty perhaps.

The circumstances you describe above really defines the intersection between
when a hike is transformed into a survival quest. Then the real question to
answer is what is the best equipment needed to allow me to survive long
enough to reach safety. Then I'll stop, regroup and allow conditions to
settle before continuing or abandoning the hike.

It's not really a question what equipment I should pack so that I can carry
on as if nothing happened, despite any conditions that might be encountered.


Personally if I were to find myself in survival conditions and was presented
with the options of a 4 season tent or a tarp, I'd choose the tarp every
time.  Why, simply because tarps are more versatile in creating emergency
shelters in cramped quarters. I can crawl into bowl of a tree and setup a
secure and reasonably comfortable shelter pretty easily.

In order to setup a mountain tent, I'd need to flatten out a pretty sizable
area to set it up properly. A process that would involve the expenditure of
much needed reserves. Now to be fair, I'd probably just use the fly like a
tarp and keep the body of the pack.

Still if I've got to hike out, I'm carrying the excess weight of a useless
tent. In the process burning even more calories.

Now I suppose one could argue about what happens if one was trapped above
timberline. What then? From my limited experience the only way that would
happen would if for some reason I got hurt and was unable to proceed. Or
made an attempt to cross a pass too late in the day. Both could be
considered reasonable occurrences.

Let's look a each for a moment. Suppose I was traveling alone above
timberline and somehow managed hurt myself to the extent I'm unable to
continue on. What do you thing the odds are the accident will occur at a
prime location to setup a tent, crawl in and await (God forbid) rescue. Not
very likely I'd expect. My two primary concerns would be shelter and the
conservation of body heat.
The best bet is crawl into your sleeping bag and wrap yourself inside a
tarp. Not pleasant but survivable.

Lets say I was crossing late in the day. That's a pretty likely scenario. I
actually stood atop Forester Pass at 7:30 one night and watched the glow of
the sunset  dance on the rock walls surrounding me. One of my most memorable
experiences on the entire PCT.

However, lets assume it starts snowing when I hit the pass. It would have to
be a hell of a snow storm to prevent me from reaching tree line before
becoming encumbered. If memory serves me well there weren't many suitable
sites for tents either on that stretch between pass and tree line.

While the Sierras presents numerous glorious opportunities to camp above
tree line. I found no section that couldn't be traversed with a modicum of
effort. If required to push on so as to camp under tree line, I'd rather do
so rather unencumbered by a heavy pack.

Would I recommend ultra-light gear for a winter sojourn into the Sierras? No
way. In that case you're packing specifically for the experience and would
also be packing other necessities like snowshoes or ski's.

--Fallingwater