[pct-l] Getting Into Trouble on the Trail

[Bighummel at aol.com (Bighummel@aol.com)]

The issue with going ultra-light (and possibly under-experienced) is what I 
coin as "incremental circumstances lead to incremental stupidity or ignorance", 
i.e. one poor decision upon facing a certain circumstance may not end up 
causing you any harm, however, when followed by another poor decision upon facing 
an additional circumstance and then another, may end you up in a position 
which you are not prepared for nor experienced with and from which just being able 
to walk 30 miles in one day with a 12 pound pack wont necessarily get you out 
of.  I have had several of these in my experience and am not immune from 
them, but have learned the early warnings of such.  Don't follow up a poor 
decision with another!  The late 1990's Everest tragedy was full of these and ended 
up costing many lives!

Uh Oh!  The snow conditions are more than I thought and now I'm wasting 
myself postholing and don't have the right equipment to handle this . . . so maybe 
I'll keep going just a little while to see if I can catch up with the next 
group (poor decision #1).  Uh Oh!  I can't catch up with them and it is now 
getting dark and there isn't anywhere to camp . . . so maybe I will just head down 
off of the mountain towards that little resort and try to get there before 
dark or find a campsite below snow level (poor decision #2)  Uh Oh!  It is now 
dark and I'm facing a canyon with walls steeper than I can climb in the dark and 
the snow is deeper and now new snow is falling . . . .  Uh Oh!  What's that 
pain in chest?  Hunger, I hope!  

BTW,  the man who died (in 2000 or 2001?) was trying to go over New or Old 
Army Pass from Crabtree Meadows when conditions were getting beyond his 
capability, equipment and experience.  He had no ice axe and apparently slipped on 
steep ice.

Fortunately the dangers on the PCT are still real and you actually still can 
loose your life out there.  This is one of the things that makes the adventure 
real and exciting and difficult.  If it was a paved trail with markers every 
twenty yards and park benches every mile and shelters every ten with running 
water and stocks of food, then it wouldn't be much fun anymore.

IMHO,

Greg