Category: health & safety

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hiking with booze?

I’m for it, of course.

The greatest backcountry boozer I’ve hiked with is Kelly Mock, then living in Whitehorse, Yukon. It was Kelly that carried a “Bubba” (mini keg of beer) over the Golden Staircase to Happy Camp on the famed Chilkoot Trail in Alaska.

Arriving on the solstice, Kelly bought a round for the house at Happy.

He’s been one-upped.

beer-keg

Michael Popov carried 20lbs of beer up 4,000′ of Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the continental USA. He was doing some kind of loco carbo loading / altitude acclimatization for his record breaking unsupported John Muir Trail run. (4 days, 5 hours and 25 minutes from Mount Whitney to Yosemite Valley)

This is mentioned in Aaron Sorensen’s trip report from both Michael’s and his attempt that year.

Leave a comment if you’ve seen a greater feat of trudging alcohol up hill.

Here’s beer for you wimpy lightweight backpackers. (Treehugger hates this.)

beer-to-go-1

Incidentally, Aaron Sorensen will be starting June 28th an attempt on the Unsupported Record on the Lake Tahoe Rim Trail. No one has claimed this record yet. Aaron is looking at 55-60hrs for the 168 miles.

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UNSEEN HAZARDS That Threaten Hikers

A new small book by Jerry Genesio.

Vital information about natural, unseen hazards that threaten hunters, hikers, campers, and other outdoor activity enthusiasts, including Rabies, Tetanus (Lockjaw), Tularemia (Rabbit Fever), Brusellosis (Undulant Fever), Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and Borrelia (Lyme Disease), with CDC advice on how to avoid ticks, and how to remove ticks. Each of the subject diseases is described with symptoms, treatment, history, geographical risk areas, and significant incidence reports. The book is written by Jerry Genesio, a former employee of Cutter Laboratories’ Biological Products Division, and author of a natural history series published by New England Outdoors magazine.

Amazon

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Is Half Dome in Yosemite safe?

UPDATE:

Nohara fell to his death in 2007. Kumar fell and died in 2009.

==== original post: Half Dome is certainly one of the best hikes in the World.

Fantastic.

Half-Dome
flickr – TeecNosPos – larger version

more interesting Half Dome photos

But, once again: “Rangers re-examining safety of popular hike after a fatal fall from cables during final ascent”

It was crowded on the climbing cables leading to the top of Half Dome, but Hirofumi Nohara was seemingly giddy with excitement on what could only be described as a gorgeous Saturday in Yosemite National Park.

The 37-year-old Japanese citizen was talking and laughing with his four friends as they worked their way up the nearly vertical granite slope, witnesses said.

Then he slipped.

Nohara didn’t have time to speak or even shout before he slid off the side of Half Dome to his death, becoming the third fatality within a year off the 4,800-foot granite dome. …

SF Gate – Deadly trek up Half Dome

… or is that news story wrong?

An earlier SF Gate article identifies the hiker who tumbled to his death as Manoj Kumar, a 40-year-old software engineer from San Ramon, California.

Who was it that fell? Leave a comment if you know.

Tom Mangan weighs in with his advice to hikers considering Half Dome:

1) Assess your fitness and fear-of-heights issues

2) Research your hike in-depth before you start

3) Train

4) Ask yourself ‘why’

read more on Two-Heel Drive – Is Half Dome safe? A cautious maybe

Related book: Amazon – Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite

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Must Have iPhone App for Hikers

Wow.

The Best iPhone 3.0 Beta app award at the Apple Design Awards last week is for trekkers.

Rave review … at least if you hike in certain parts of the U.S.A.:

… I haven’t used the application on a hike yet, but the mapping content on the application is very rich, and you can see what the surface of the terrain looks like. The drawbacks are you can’t zoom in as far as the iPhone Google Earth application lets you, and it doesn’t use the iPhone’s auto-tilt function to move to another part of the map like Google Earth does.

AccuTerra lets you share your outdoor experiences with others via Facebook and email. You can post a link of your trek to your Facebook profile or email a link to family and friends that includes the route you traveled and pictures you took along the way. …

Intermap created AccuTerra to fill the void of the modern-day GPS: off-road mapping. Though GPS does a “wonderful job on the road,” acknowledged Thomas, it’s not as useful “once you get to the end of the pavement.” The application also has a library of maps of U.S. national state parks and forests for each state. It had an extensive list of popular hiking and biking trails in the Bay Area, including my favorites, Alum Rock Park and Rancho San Antonio County Park. …

GigaOm – For Hikers, Bikers & Trekkers, Accuterra a Must Have iPhone App

You can get a better idea of how it works on the official mobile AccuTerra website.

Or watch a short introduction video on YouTube.

More video tutorials.

I think I’ll try it if and when I get an iPhone. That might be SOON.

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honeymoon on the Annapurna Circuit

Backpacker associate editor Shannon Davis and his wife Emily decided on an outdoor adventure to celebrate their nuptials.

They chose one of our top 10 hikes in the world.

The blissful couple at 17,768-foot Thorung La in Nepal.
The blissful couple at 17,768-foot Thorung La in Nepal.

… The 128-mile horseshoe-shaped route circles Nepal’s heaven-high Annapurna range, and it’s been hailed as the holy grail of trekking since it was first opened to foreigners in the early 1980s. Travel writers and hikers everywhere gush about the trail …

Season
October is the most popular, thanks to reliably pleasant weather (80°F and humid at 2,000 feet; 20°F and dry at 17,000 feet) and clear skies. …

Map and Books
The best trail guide is Annapurna Trekking Map and Complete Guide, by Partha S. Banerjee (Milestone Guidebooks, $10); it can be found at every bookstore in Kathmandu. Use Trails Illustrated map Annapurna #3003 (natgeomaps.com, $17) and Nepal (Lonely Planet, $25) for pre-trip planning.

Permit
Every trekker needs a permit ($25), but no reservations are necessary. Just pick one up in Kathmandu at the Annapurna Conservation Area Project office on Tridevi Marg (open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily). ntnc.org.np/trekking.php

Trailhead
The trek starts in Besisahar (catch a bus at Kathmandu’s Gongabu Bus Park; they leave regularly) and ends in Pokhara (return on a Greenline Tours bus, greenline.com.np).

Cost (Less Airfare & Rental Car) DIY: Less than $500 // Guided: $1,000-$1,499

Cheap and Easy

Annapurna’s teahouses beat the huts on other classic treks in terms of convenience, cost, and local color. Teahouses charge about $12 per day for a room and meals, and they’re never more than three hours apart, making is easy to keep a flexible itinerary. But that’s not to say there aren’t rules. Here are six: Choose a teahouse before 3 p.m. to beat large guided groups to the nicest places; choose a smaller one for better meal service; take showers immediately after arriving (most hot water is solar heated); order breakfast before going to bed to speed your morning departure; and bring a padlock for your room and a ground pad for the beds, which may be foam, straw, or just blankets.

read the trip report – THE PERFECT CIRCLE: HIKING THE ANNAPURNA CIRCUIT

A follow-up article is equally informative – HIKING THE ANNAPURNA CIRCUIT: Q&A WITH SHANNON DAVIS

Want to organize a trip for yourself?

Check our Annapurna information page.

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more bears in the Canadian Rockies?

A few weeks ago – on my first day of mountain biking in the Rockies – I nearly rode into a big black bear on the main trail at Canmore Nordic Centre.

In 2009 are there more bears in the Rockies? Closer to people?

Or am I simply hearing about more bears? And more cougar encounters?

trailex.org tracks encounters and information about trail safety in the Bow Valley (from Banff to Bragg Creek).

That site was set up by the husband of Isabelle Dube who was killed by a grizzly near Canmore.

… Dube, 36, was jogging with two friends when they ran into a grizzly. She scrambled up a tree, but the bear chased after her and mauled the young mother, leading to her death.

She was the first person to be killed by a bear in Alberta since 1998. Since then, two more Albertans have been killed.

Robin Kochorek, a 31-year-old Calgarian, was killed by a male grizzly last July as she was mountain biking on a trail in the Panorama area near Invermere, B.C.

Don Allan Peters, 51, a father of two daughters, was mauled to death by a grizzly last November while he was hunting about 150 kilometres northwest of Calgary. …

Fatal Bear Attacks Spur Tracking Site in Canadian Rockies

Calvin Coolidge, Horace Albright, and others encounter some Yellowstone bears.
Calvin Coolidge, Horace Albright, and others encounter some Yellowstone bears.

photo source – National Parks Traveler – It’s a Bear! Everybody Get Behind the Ranger!!

Having grown up in bear country, I still sleep well in a tent in the Rockies. I really don’t worry about them.

Cougars are a greater danger. But those encounters much rarer.

My prediction: there will soon be a public backlash against bears near people areas in the Canadian Rockies.

UPDATE: 60-year-old trail runner, Thomas Nerison, of Kalispell, Montana, narrowly avoided serious damage when he was bitten by a Grizzly in Glacier National Park last Sunday.

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hiking Fall Canyon, Death Valley, California

Trip report by site editor Rick McCharles.

12mi return

I was the only one on the Trail June 2nd.

Most hikers feel it is too hot in June to do valley hikes safely.

Actually, 100 degrees in the shade and zero humidity is not all that uncomfortable. I took plenty of water. And I love these slot canyons.

Fall Canyon is one of many colorful ravines in the hills surrounding Death Valley in California; shaped by occasional flash floods that flow from the higher mountains beyond, the canyon is remote and little-visited; deep and moderately narrow for many miles, with occasional shaded, cave-like passageways of great beauty. Some of these narrow, twisting sections are enclosed by smooth granitic walls with an unusual bluish tint. As with most other Southwest canyons, the rocks are layered, but quite differently to the orderly slot canyons of Utah – here the strata are multi-colored, buckled, twisted and eroded, the result of ancient geological forces. Fall Canyon is easily reached and offers a perfect wilderness experience, though it should be avoided during the summer months when the weather becomes too extreme.

more photos

The highlight comes 2.8mi in when you reach this 20ft wall.

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Actually, you’d be crazy to scale this wall without ropes.

Instead look for cairns on the right hand side of the cliff. They lead up to a relatively easy path up and over the obstacle.

The next half mile is the best section.

Location: Fall Canyon is located in the Grapevine Mountains, towards the less-traveled north end of Death Valley National Park. It is close to Titus Canyon, another colorful ravine that is popular because of the rough one-way track that extends through it – this is a 4WD route …

The American Southwest

I left my pack behind (carrying only water) before the cliff. My thinking in hanging it was to keep out scorpions and snakes.

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In fact I did see one golden snake further up the canyon. And several chuckwallas.

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where to hike in Death Valley?

Perhaps Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes?

dunes

Gary Hayes – larger version

Death Valley unfortunately lived up to its name earlier this week, when an Ohio hiker failed to return from a day trip in the park.

On Tuesday morning, May 19, employees at Death Valley National Park received a report of an overdue hiker in the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes near Stove Pipe Wells Village. The dunes in that area rise nearly 100 feet above the surrounding desert. …

National Parks Traveler

I’ll be careful.

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scrambling Lady MacDonald, Canmore, Alberta

I was looking for a good first hike of the season. And a chance to test my full set of gear.

My original plan of scrambling Ha Ling, then wild camping, was abandoned after I heard about a better option from local hiker Kelly Mock.

In fact, I walked out Kelly’s front door directly to the trailhead and up the mountain to this gorgeous vista.

teahouse-view

… Just above the treeline you’ll find a large helicopter landing pad, a steel ramp for paragliders, and the remains of a teahouse that was being constructed but is now abandoned. A gazebo just to the east of the teahouse sits on the edge of a large cliff. The views from here are spectacular. A number of hikers end their hike here as it’s already been a hard push to get this far, and the scree slope above can be daunting for non-scramblers. …

TrailPeak – Mount Lady MacDonald

Actually, it’s an easy and popular hike straight up to the ill fated teahouse. Most do not go higher as it’s recommended you have mountaineering skills on the ridge.

That’s not far wrong. The slippery scree takes you up to a knife edge ridge with killer views into the Cougar Creek drainage. In summer it’s merely daunting.

Lady-MacDonald
flickr – Marc Shandro – larger version

In the Spring it’s hairier. It looks like you might fall right through the melting cornice at spots.

MacDonald-in-April
flickr – iHeartDimSum – larger version

I stopped when I got to the snow.

Lady MacDonald is a terrific option for fit hikers. Each in your group can stop where they want. Most will relax at the teahouse or the gazebo until the adventurous return from the ridge.

This is a good hike with dogs. Don’t let them chase after the resident mountain sheep.

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10 essentials for day hiking


According to the Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, the ten essentials of HIKING are:

1. Map
2. Compass (optionally supplemented with a GPS receiver)
3. Sunglasses and sunscreen
4. Extra food and water
hiker 5. Extra clothes
6. Headlamp/flashlight
7. First aid kit
8. Fire starter
9. Matches
10. Knife

Wikipedia

There are many variations on the “essentials”, of course, many combining matches and fire starter, many adding “shelter”.

Personally, I refer to a much more practical list. One put together by Tom Mangan for day hiking in reasonable weather:

Mangan’s 10 Essentials for Happy Hiking

1 – A water supply
2 – A reliable map
3 – Comfortable socks
4 – Comfortable shoes
5 – Underwear that doesn’t chafe
6 – Something to keep crud out of your shoes
7 – Nylon hiking pants
8 – Something to block the sun
9 – Nourishment
10 – The Real 10 essentials

Two-Heel Drive – Mangan’s 10 Essentials for Happy Hiking

Leave a comment if you have any ESSENTIALS for day hiking that are not listed.