Scariest Wilderness Experience?

Brian Jones

Brian Jones

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Hi, everyone. Would be curious to hear about people's scariest experience in the wilderness (any enviroment), and:

--what you did to handle it

--mistakes you made

--why it scared you

--and what you learned about yourself and survival as a result?

Now's the time for all us adventure junkies to share! :-) I'll post mine in a bit, too!

Best,

Brian.
 
My ego check cleared so I will own up to the two incidents that left me most concerned in the Outdoors. (The need for the ego check will be obvious.)

The first took place in the Blackwater Falls State Park in Davis, WV. I was vacationing alone doing alot of solitary hiking. I decided to get adventurous and leave the trails. I worked my way down the cliff into the main canyon by going from Laurel Bush to Laurel Bush in what was basically a controlled fall. The problem was I ended up in the bottom of a river canyon with very steep walls and no chance of getting out the way I got in. It took me over 6 hours to find a trail that went out of that part of the Canyon and I was never more than half a mile from the Lodge. Needless to say I was only prepared for a short hike.

The second experience occurred on the very well marked trails of the Grand Canyon. My wife and I decided that we would hike from the rim of the canyon to the river and back in one day in spite of the Rangers warnings. We made it to the river and were coming back up the Bright Angel Trail. When we got to the Indian Garden rest area it was 120 on the trailside thermometer. We had been careful about hydration and were doing OK but we rested in the shade for safety anyway. When we left Indian Garden and it started sprinkling we enjoyed the refreshment of the rain and ignored the raingear we had packed along just in case. When we reached the next trailside thermometer halfway up the rim from Indian Gardens it was 50 degrees and we were thoroughly soaked by the Thunderstorm we had just hiked through and hypothermia was a real concern.

I guess it just goes to show that the biggest threat outdoors is likely to be ourselves and that you don't have to be in deep wilderness to get in trouble.

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AKTI Member No. A000370

[This message has been edited by SDouglas (edited 03 December 1999).]
 
SDouglas,

Thanks for sharing those experiences. It's amazing how a even small twist of the ankle can be a minor event in civilization, and a major life-threatening event in the wilderness.

It's also amazing how changes in temperature can be very extreme when you change elevation, even a half-hour or so apart in time. When I was at Glacier National Park once, we started out at Logan's Pass in a snowstorm (it was the end of August), and 32 deg F, and within half a day, we were hiking in shorts and T-shirts and sweating! We looked back and could see the snow still falling at the higher elevation. This kind of extreme happens often in the mountains -- especially out in the western US.

Thanks again,

Brian.
 
You're right Brian.

As a teenager three of my friends and I climbed Mt. Baker here in Washington. We left from our base camp on one of the glaciers planning to make a day hike to the summit and back. I argued for taking a tent. I won the argument so long as I would pack it. I also took a bottle of champagne. (You have to carry the necessities.)

We ran into some rotten ice which was difficult to traverse and made the summit late in the day. The day was calm and the scene was beautiful. Then suddenly three things happened fast. The sun went down, the wind picked up, and it got really cold. It became evident that we had to get shelter quickly. We didn't have a viable option to get out of the wind quickly, so we set up the cheap two-man dome tent where we were. Our hands would quickly become numb whenever we took them out of our gloves to do fine manipulations of poles or ropes.

We got the tent up and got inside. It was warmer inside out of the wind, but still quite cold. We had no sleeping bags or pads. One of our party panicked and wanted to try to go down the mountain in the dark, with the freezing wind. Everyone else told him he was crazy, but he was so scared he wanted to set off alone. We finally calmed him down and convinced him to stay put.

One of our party had a nylon liner in his pack that pulled out to make the pack into a bivy sack. ( I have since sewn such a liner into my pack. ) Two guys got in the bivy sack together. We put down packs, shoes, etc, to keep us off the snow. Another guy and I lay head to foot and zipped each other's legs into our parkas. Between the two of us we almost had a makeshift sleeping bag. Sometimes it's good to have some warm stinky feet to hug. Meanwhile the wind picked up and made our dome tent look like a P laying on it's side. The construction of the tent (Two crossed poles instead of three) enabled the wind to partially collapse the tent. It was a loud, scary, and cold night. I don't think any of us slept.

In the morning it was a beautiful calm day. In the light we got off that mountain fast. We used a specialized garbage-bag-glissade that we developed to make excellent time down the slopes. Only fell into one crevasse on the way down.
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disregard.

[This message has been edited by jrf (edited 12-26-2000).]
 
A couple dozen years ago.., when I was still in college
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, and when they didn't close the roads through the Smokies, at the first snow flake..., I hiked from Clingman's Dome to Derricks Knob (about 11 miles), for an overnight trip. Temperatures when I left the Dome parking lot were about 20 degrees, with a 25-30 mph wind, and snow. I wore wool pants, a heavy down parka, a coated nylon Gerry shell, and wool knit cap.

The temperature kept dropping, snow kept falling, and I had ice forming on my mustache and beard. *Cold*. I'd never been to Derrick Knob, and at about 9 or 10 miles, I wasn't sure I'd ever get there. It was getting dark, and I saw bear sign where they'd clawed up the snow and ground.

Finally made it to the shelter. Got out the thermometer and it was about 3 below zero. Got some water from the spring and it had a layer of ice formed across the pan, by the time I'd walked the 30 yds back to camp. Stripped off the nylon shell, and there was ice on the inside of the shell, and the outside of the down coat, and the coat was matted with moisture.

No major problem.., just snuggled down in the down sleeping bag, fixed dinner, and listened to the wind howl all night.

Probably should have made sure of the weather forecast, and probably should not have gone alone (saw 1 or 2 people all day, and no one else at the shelter site). Probably should'a been more aware of the down/coated nylon problem (but this was before Goretex.. or even 60/40 cloth). But it was a memorable experience.
 
JRF,

We should talk: I have a fascination with bears, too. From one trip, we were always calling out, "Hey, Bear!" as we went down the trail. My friends accused me of doing it too often (my buddy John says, "I think we may have seen a lot more wildlife if Brian didn't keeping calling that out so often.")
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Now we start emails or phone calls by saying, "Hey Bear!" to each other. They are truly magnificent animals.

I think a new thread rearding "Grizzly and Black Bears" might be a good one...

On another note -- please see Greg's topic on "The Will To Survive."

Howard, it goes right along with your story, which was incredible -- thanks for sharing that, too. Question: what did you guys say/do to bring your friend down from his panic? It would be good to hear and learn...

Best,

Brian.

[This message has been edited by Brian Jones (edited 03 December 1999).]
 
Brian,

As I recall we restrained him gently, and explained the number of ways he could die if he ventured out. (In truth his life would have been measured in minutes if he had started down the mountain in those conditions. We were not in a good position to actually wrestle with a panicked man in our fragile shelter. If he truly made up his mind to go and would fight for it we would have let him go, and he would have died.) We reassured him that things were going to be OK, and that we would look out for him. He calmed down somewhat and we gave him the "penthouse suite," which was inside the bivy sack with a buddy. Although he was no longer in a panic, he was still visibly and audibly very scared.

Seeing someone stricken with panic was one of the scariest aspects of that night. It is a constant reminder to me of how fragile our lives are, and the importance of maintaining the ability to think rationally. It also started me thinking about the group dynamics of survival situations, which can be interesting in many other ways also.
 
When I was 16 I went on a dayhike with two friends. We were part of a larger group that was camped at a mountain lake in Western Washington. Since it was summer, one friend wore shorts and the other a short sleeved shirt. I brought a sweatshirt and some snacks.

We were heading to the base of a glacier that was not far away. On the way, we left the trail and started to climb a rocky gulley. It got steeper and the rock looser so we crawled out of it onto a spur. We kept going on our hands and knees up to a ridge. We were kind of freaked about going back down so we stayed where we were for the night. A fire and a thin plastic tube tent, from one of those survival kits, kept us warm that night, at least when it was our turn.

If it would have snowed or rained we would have been dead because the ridge was alpine.

The next morning we headed down the other side. I had brought a map and knew where we were and headed toward a road on the map. Halfway down a helo flew overhead looking for us but didn't see us. One of the group wanted to stay and even though me and the other guy wanted to push on we stayed together.

We spent another cold night without a fire. The guy with the shorts found a pair of pants that were still intact to help him keep warm. We made a blanket out of pine boughs that helped us not get to cold. The next day we made it to the road, via a big patch of huckleberry's (yum), and were "rescued" by some searcher's walking the road.

Live and Learn

[This message has been edited by Sgt. Fred (edited 04 December 1999).]

[This message has been edited by Sgt. Fred (edited 04 December 1999).]
 
In no particular order:

1. Having a black bear place his paw on my shoulder and "huff" in my face while I lay in a sleeping bag under the stars in Yosemite. (circa 1975)

2. Taking a short but nearly disastrous fall on Lizard Head glacier in the Wind River Range before attempting the summit. We were doing standing "boot" glissades without our ice axes when a piece of bad ice broke off from under me and sent me ass over tea kettle down the glacier. Luck prevented disaster.

3. Surviving a sudden white-out, lightning strikes and rock fall during a technical climb on East Temple Peak in the Wind Rivers. The rockfall partially severed the rappel rope on the way back down and resulted in its needing to be spliced.

4. Surviving sub -30 degree temperatures on Mt. Washington in New Hampshire while doing a Winter ascent up the Lions Head trail from Tuckerman's Ravine. We fashioned an igloo to shelter in the night before, but one of the party had been spooked, and it was a long night to get through. Two people (not in our party) died on the mountain that weekend from exposure and mistakes related to hypothermia.

Well, those are the first few to come to mind. Many more good experiences than the harrowing, but in many years of climbing and bacpacking wild places, the pucker factor is bound to take its pound of flesh.

Blues

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Live Free or Die


 
Great stuff, folks! Howard, thanks for the info on how you handled the panicker, and your choice if he didn't cooperate.

Just wanted to cross reference the thread by Greg called "The Will To Survive." It has a great discussion going that is closely related to this one, and I ended up posting my scary experience there.

Best,

Brian.
 
My humble wildlife scare was being lost for about 36 hours in Egland Airforce Base in north Florida. It is 360 thousand acres of management area. I was on my first whitetail hunting trip since moving to Florida. Got turned around and had to sleep out in the woods (a very comfortable oak tree if I remember correctly?). My overnight emergency kit consisted of a .308 rifle and some Levi Garret chewing tobacco. I know, I know but I was young and invincible then. On the second day I wandered so far south that I ended up on the bombing range where the Airforce practices bombing missions. I knew things were bad when I saw the tank with the big white "X" on it screaming " please blow me up!!".Finally walked over an A.P. sometime the following afternoon. I know,,not much of a survival story but what do you expect from a guy who grew up in Brooklyn? A real wildlife scare would be being lost on the subway between the south-Bronx and Harlem at around midnight. Try that one with a survival knife, a compass and one subway token!!
 
This one took a bit of thought since I've spent quite a bit of time in remote wilderness areas over the years and, as Blues said, the "pucker factor" has kicked in on more than one occasion. I guess the one that stands out most in my mind happened on a fly-in trip in NY's Adirondack State Park. (FYI for anyone who equates NY w/ NYC: the Adirondack SP is second in size only to Yellowstone among national & state parks in the lower 48.) Five of us had flown into middle Sergeant's Pond for a week of wilderness camping & fishing. As I recall, the nearest road was 20+ or so miles away. (Note: SP was later made part of NYS's "Forever Wild" wilderness area and no motorized transportation, including float planes, is permitted.)

One day, I set out on my own for some fishing in one of the two inflatable boats that we had packed in. I crossed the lake from our camp and drifted along, fishing the opposite shoreline until I came into a cove area behind a few islands. (See green dashed line.) I was having a great time both fishing & exploring & didn't have a care in the world… that is, until I tried getting back to camp
sp01.jpg

It had started to cloud up but what I hadn't noticed while I was behind the islands, was that a strong wind (yellow arrow) had developed & was blowing almost directly from the direction of our camp. Every time I would pull out from behind an island, the wind would take over & push me right back into the cove.

Now, this is so many years back that I can't state with any certainty what equipment I may have had with me. However, knowing myself, I can say with confidence that I had at least a couple of knives and a means of fire making, and possibly a Ruger .22 automatic pistol. Since water was readily available and I already had several fish on my stringer, the worst short-term case I was looking at was a lonely, possibly wet night on my own. Although it wasn't a life-threatening situation, I knew my friends would be very concerned if I didn't return & I certainly didn't relish the idea of making a bivouac out on my own.

I made several more futile attempts to pull past the islands before I realized that route was simply impossible. The swamp at the end of the lake precluded any idea of walking back to camp. After considering my options, and many "F**k me" moments, I decided to try to cross the lake in the inflatable via a different route (blue dashed line). To make a long story short, it worked but it was still quite a struggle to maneuver the inflatable across the direction of the wind. Even after I finally made the camp's shoreline, there was the constant danger of being caught by the wind and pushed back across the lake.
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Lessons learned: Regardless of how innocuous a short trip from a base camp may seem, bring along a small survival kit & BE PREPARED for any possibilities! Unpowered small inflatables w/o a keel may be suitable for the family pool and small ponds, not for an area with open water of any kind. We would have been much better off paying for an extra trip or two to have the pilot bring in canoes. If we were to do it today we would definitely have a few small TalkAbout-type radios along to maintain communications among party members.

This trip also gave rise to a few funny stories including: bakery string as a navigation device, the Brittany Spaniel & the red squirrels, and the famous "How many black flies can fit in a tablespoon?" contest. (On a serious note, one of the members of our group was hospitalized soon after the trip with a very serious illness.)

Hey Doc4570, as I recall, you took a little stroll on this same fly-in trip that had some interesting moments as well. Care to share the details?

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Cheers,

--+Brian+--

I may be goin' to hell in a bucket, Babe, but at least I'm enjoyin' the ride.




[This message has been edited by bcaffrey (edited 05 December 1999).]
 
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