A tragedy...

C

coyotlviejo

Joined
Mar 26, 2001
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313
Here in Southern Oregon recently a man died - apparently of hypothermia - while working for the Forest Service in the Siskiyou Mountains. He and his father-in-law have been doing field research for ten years, so it's not like he was a tenderfoot or anything. He left their camp to return to a study plot to retrieve a hatchet that he had left behind, but it started snowing, and snowed hard all night. Eighteen days later the snow had melted enough that his family members were able to find his body. S&R had given up after 6 days of hazardous searching. Now they say that he was likely dead by midnight of the first day. He was found 40 feet from the trail and just below the ridgeline, with a deep river canyon on the other side.

Now he has left behind a widow, two children, and one more on the way: God help the family and God rest his soul.

So here's my question: What might someone in his situation do? He was not dressed right for the weather, but it was a freak storm that nobody expected. I assume that he did not have a lot of gear on him because he was just going to retrieve his hatchet and returnd to camp. There were signs that he had tried to build a fire, but he obviously failed. I don't know what fire tools he had, if any.

One thing I have thought of is that if the fire-making failed I would bury myself in leaves and pineneedles to wait out the storm. Or maybe cross the ridge and head for lower elevations? I want some serious suggestions, as this is a real situation that anybody around here could end up facing.

If you want specifics for the scenario, place yourself at about 3000 feet on very steep and stony terrain with mixed evergreens and live oak. Nearest road is several miles away as the crow flies. Surface duff is likely light, all wood is wet, and wind cuts across the hills. And then it starts to snow.
 
Wow, that's really too bad. My heart goes out to the family.

A couple of thoughts come to mind, first of all, never leave camp without the essentials for survival, of course, he might have had them and was hurt.

Also, if I knew that I would be in an area for a while, if circumstances permitted, I would have a panic azimuth memorized, if possible. That's when, if possible, you can shoot that azimuth, and eventually hit a road. If that's not feasible, definitely get in some trees and brush, shelter, fire, water...
 
Bummer. Assuming a complete lack of survival gear, I'd opt for a debris type hut (relying mostly on the evergreens) and wait the storm out.
 
i guess the first question was did he have the hatchet, this would help in fire and shelterbuilding, and what kind of firestarting equipment did he have, third, what did the body look like, fractured bones, other injuries, might have contributed to the situation. the answers to these questions would help us all to prepare better.

alex
 
without any answers to obvious questions like injuries and what have you.

stick to the essentials, we all have a saw and a mini kit.

given just that

shelter first then fire.


another factor I have been contemplating is we here get so attached to our gear and feeling like we got to have it on us at all times to feel safe. If in the odd event we left it behind. Maybe we would automatically go to retreive it, putting us in more jepardy.


I was thinking, say a storm was aproaching in your home area and you were just far enough away from all your home gear, that it might be tempting to head into the storm to get your gear.

I travel with a BOB but still most of my good emergency gear is at home.
would I be tempted to take that risk?

another moral to the story is buy cheap axes so you don't miss them when they are gone.
 
i think that there is a time that you sudddenly know you are in trouble. if that happens after you are shaking from hypothermia then you have had it. as there is no other individual there to help, you will have a hard time doing anything that requires fine motor skills such as fire building (you cant hold and strike a match), building a shelter, and your judgement is also further impaired.

the key is not only be prepared, but to have the forsight to start your emergency action plan before the weather debilitates you to a degree that you cant take action. this is the most likely scenario, that he thought "yea i am cold but it is only a another hour to camp", then he gets turned around in the snow storm, and by the time he realizes it he is shivering uncontrollably, and he cant hold a match to light, the tinder it all wet, and he is just too exhausted to build a shelter, and then the show is over.

start your action plan early. as soon as the snow started he may have been better served by looking for a suitable shelter site, starting to gather his tinder on the way befor the snow covered it, and deciding that his clothing was becoming rapidly saturated with melting snow/rain.

he never thought he would die in the woods, so the thought that he would need an emergency action plan never crossed his mind, after all hadent he been through a snow squal before?

alex
 
How sad.
We have all been there, and luck has something to do with coming back. How har was he going back to retrieve the hatchet? If I am within an hour of camp, I may go without survival stuff. Now that may be risky. One key point is to make the survival kit truly as easy to take as leave behind. Lower weight pouch attached to a belt, but that is always a problem if you carry a backpack. BDUs with a kit always in a cargo pocket. Not starting our unless you can be back before nightfall, unless you are CERTAIN of the trail and conditions.

And then there is the prudence vs. confidence factor- when do you say "Screw it, I am going to hunker down here"? A vicious blizzard has to be experienced to be properly feared. Getting down before shivering is crucial, but it is hard to believe how fast you can get out of control in a bad storm- litterally minutes if you are unprepared enough. How many of us have gone on, "knowing" we could make it back and warm up? I have gotten so cautious in my middle years that I often wish I had stuck it out, rather than chickening our, but making a habit of surviving near fatal events is not a good way to enjoy a long life.

To answer your question, I would do as you suggested, head lower, start gathering tinder, make shelter, try for a fire and pray.

Paul
 
Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

I have noticed this even in small things.

Like, when planning something with my brother, I need to ask him to repeat what we agreed upon, and sometimes even troubleshoot the "what-if"'s, in advance, that way the real or imagined pressure of the situation does not cause him to miss an option.

I have been impressed by my readings of military stories, the need to have contigency plans, and contingency plans, and contingency plans.

Negative Emotion can be a real stumbling box.

As to the gear....

I had a former SF soldier ask me a very penetrating question that really taught me alot...

I was talking about how I always had access to a firstarter and a compass.

And he asked me "Is it on you right this moment?"

And it wasn't, revealing the flaw in the planning.

Have it with you at all times...... AT ALL TIMES.
 
A few more details:

He was apparently uninjured, but the autopsy remains. He never reached the hatchet, as it was found by S&R right where he had left it earlier that day. He was only about 40 feet from the trail home.

Also interesting is that today they found another body in the same moutains: an elderly man who had abandoned his jeep in the same snow storm. His body was found in melting snow in a ditch 3 miles from his jeep. He also apparently died from exposure. The stretch of road he was on is probably one of the most remote (paved) areas you can access in all of the region, with no houses or anything for maybe 15 or 20 miles either way, and high at high elevation, too.

This presents an interesting comparison. No disrespect to the dead, but it seems that the second man simply made a foolish decision. I would think that he would have been much better off to stay with his car. The first man, however, started under favorable conditions and then got caught.

I drove up into the Siskiyous today in the same general area. The mountains are very steep, with maybe 100' rise to 30' run. Open slopes of serpentine and shale covered with buckbrush drop into canyons choked with trees. It's a tough, tough area.

A link for the curious...
http://www.backpacker.com/places/0,2678,102,00.html
It doesn't have any picks, but sums up the area pretty well.

cv
 
she is a ski instructor.

she said it is very common that people who are lost separate themselves from their gear and sometimes take off their clothes even in winter.

I thought this was absurd, but she said it was a common occurance.


sit down and breathe is probably the best first thing to do.
 
First of all, I WOULD have something on the order of a dayglo bandanna, and I' tye it to a branch to make location easier.
Seccond, I'm thinking snow cave. I know frozen water is cold, but it's also an excellent insulator. Beleive it, or not, packing it around you will keep you warm assuming you have on a waterproof layer. I'd also aim for the roots of a tree for that slight extra warmth from the biomass.
Surviving the storm seems the bigest priorety because it's an immediate threat, and limits vizibility. After that, I'd worry about fire, and food. I'd probably bet on the snow cave as the fastest low energy to get warmth, and not tax myself building something bigger. A tarpuline sure would be nice, though, or maybe a heafty bag. I'd probably have at least one on me in that situation.
Everything else has been covered. I'm just saying what I'd do, not that it'd work. Take my advice at your own risk, and don't ask for your money back when it doesn't.
 
Chrisaloia,

It's actually very common for people to disrobe as they are freezing to death, the hypothermia really messes up their mental abilities, and they start thinking they are warm. Kind of like "rapture of the deep" with divers, I guess.

When I lived in South Dakota, this is unfortunately not an uncommon occurance. I guess the only good thing about it is that they don't suffer, thinking that they are warm.

Most of the people that die this way are the ones who live in these climates all of their lives, and get too used to it, perhaps losing respect for the weather.

Every 10 years or so, we lose people who forget how dangerous cisterns are, climb down one to do something, and asphyxiate quickly and die. Never descend into a cistern without your own oxygen supply!
 
Don't think I'm being wierd, but maybe there is a divine grace in the tendency to remove clothes when freezing to death. I think that if I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I was going to die from exposure I'd rather just take it all off and let it happen as quickly as possible. Why prolong the inevitable?

Well it looks like our study subject might have fallen from the trail. They found him at the bottom of a cliff. He was stretched out on his back with his hands folded over his chest and holding a lighter in one hand and a scrap of paper in the other. I guess that the area he was in is so rough that even S&R was having a tough time up there and the search was called off because the searchers were being placed in danger.
 
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