Don't get separated when hiking
Options
NorthCascades
Posts: 10,970 Member
This probably doesn't apply in city parks, but if there's any doubt stick together and if that doesn't happen it's a problem immediately, don't just hope to meet back up at the car or anything. Bring more gear then you think you need, too.
A snowshoer got lost in a winter storm last week on Mount Rainier. He had come in with a friend, they split up so one could ski and one could snowshoe, and planned to meet up later. The hiker got lost in a whiteout. After several days of fierce winds and 15* F (-10 C) temperatures, Search and Rescue and Harborview literally pulled off a miracle.
SAR found him, barely alive; a helicopter plucked him off the mountain and rushed him to the nearest trauma center; his heart failed as they arrived.
"He died while he was in the ER, which gave us the unique opportunity to try and save his life by basically bypassing his heart and lungs, which is the most advanced form of artificial life support that we have in the world,” Badulak said.
He remained dead for about 45 minutes, while teams repeatedly administered CPR and hooked him up to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine, she said. In that process, blood is pumped outside of the body to a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back to tissues in the body.
After they restarted his heart, the medical team spent the entire night at his side making sure he continued to stabilize, said Dr. Nick Johnson, who’s part of Harborview’s ECMO team.
Two days later, Knapinski opened his eyes.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/he-came-back-from-the-dead-mount-rainier-missing-hiker-starts-to-recover-after-getting-rescued-amid-whiteout-conditions/
A snowshoer got lost in a winter storm last week on Mount Rainier. He had come in with a friend, they split up so one could ski and one could snowshoe, and planned to meet up later. The hiker got lost in a whiteout. After several days of fierce winds and 15* F (-10 C) temperatures, Search and Rescue and Harborview literally pulled off a miracle.
SAR found him, barely alive; a helicopter plucked him off the mountain and rushed him to the nearest trauma center; his heart failed as they arrived.
"He died while he was in the ER, which gave us the unique opportunity to try and save his life by basically bypassing his heart and lungs, which is the most advanced form of artificial life support that we have in the world,” Badulak said.
He remained dead for about 45 minutes, while teams repeatedly administered CPR and hooked him up to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine, she said. In that process, blood is pumped outside of the body to a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back to tissues in the body.
After they restarted his heart, the medical team spent the entire night at his side making sure he continued to stabilize, said Dr. Nick Johnson, who’s part of Harborview’s ECMO team.
Two days later, Knapinski opened his eyes.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/he-came-back-from-the-dead-mount-rainier-missing-hiker-starts-to-recover-after-getting-rescued-amid-whiteout-conditions/
11
Replies
-
Wow!1
-
2 -
Dead 4 45 mins?
Amazing!
Thought u could only survive a few mins w/o O2 to the brain. Cold must have preserved the brain and muscle tissue.
Should make 4 a great movie, if s/he can remember any of it.
I always go alone in the wilderness but carry a SAT phone and PLB w/me.4 -
I hope the cold preserved the brain. Cautionary tale, thanks for sharing.2
-
Sounds like ECMO preserved the brain, because it was delivering the brain oxygen while the heart was taking a timeout. Miracles of modern medical science!4
-
Sounds like ECMO preserved the brain, because it was delivering the brain oxygen while the heart was taking a timeout. Miracles of modern medical science!
Yes, looks like it. And CPR beforehand.
Which just shows how important it is that people actually do a first aider course and learn this. Bit of a fact: Did you know that your chance of survival for sudden cardiac arrest is higher in Germany than in the UK for example? In Germany, in order to get your driving license you have to take a first aider course. Thus nearly everyone did one once. This is not a requirement in the UK, and very few people actually ever did (I read something about a rollout in schools last year, but covid might have changed that)4 -
My husband hikes alone with our dogs all the time (I can only go on weekends). He doesn’t go anywhere as risky as the above, but he does always let me know where he goes just in case he were to get injured. Many of the locations near us, while not inherently dangerous, have 0 cell service. So if you step in a hole and break an ankle, you can’t use your cell phone to get help.2
-
Well.. I live alone, thus I can only go out alone. Fortunately, most of Europe is not too much of a problem. I did have my little scares though. About 5km distance from my car at over 40C in the shade I dropped my water bottle. Those 5km were quite intense. Another time I fell near the top of a volcano on which I was all alone. But nothing really bad happened, and I could walk on to the top, and back down again.3
-
Yikes!
My OH's nephew used to do Search & Rescue in nearby Oregon.2 -
Wow. Crazy story. I know you can share your location via whatsapp for an hour or something, but not sure whether that would work somewhere so remote.2
-
Well.. I live alone, thus I can only go out alone. Fortunately, most of Europe is not too much of a problem. I did have my little scares though. About 5km distance from my car at over 40C in the shade I dropped my water bottle. Those 5km were quite intense. Another time I fell near the top of a volcano on which I was all alone. But nothing really bad happened, and I could walk on to the top, and back down again.
I don't want to make it sound like people shouldn't hike alone. What I'm saying is if you're hiking with another person and you get separated, you need to deal with it immediately. That other person might have been relying on you to find the way back, or help them if they twist an ankle or lose their water or something.3 -
Wow! I read this story and was astonished this guy survived. He was lucky.
I want to agree that if you hike with other people it isn’t every person for themself. I’ve seen this play out numerous times as I started going on meetup hikes in Southern California. One time a woman fell behind my group in the front, was isolated and felt lost. She stopped, blew her whistle and waited until three other hikers in our group came upon her. She did the right thing. But then the other hikers blew by her and just kept hiking! She found her way down the mountain but those three hikers that didn’t ask her anything, even speak to her, would have been responsible if she had lost her way after that.
I personally had an issue where it was really hot( 90 degrees) and I was hiking in the middle. The front group was ahead but everyone behind me dropped out because it was too difficult ( I did not know they turned around). When I summited I didn’t see anyone. They had actually gone over the mountain and circled around on a fire road. Three others of the group came up to the summit after me but left and went ahead of me never looking back. I fell behind but had my AllTrails map so I could find my way back.
Since my international trips were cancelled I still hike with different groups, sometimes alone, but I always have a way out where I hopefully do not have to depend on people. I wish the meetup groups would take more responsibility but they won’t. I can only say that if I came upon someone who needed help I would help them off the mountain and not just leave them.
3 -
Group travel can be iffy that way. We ran into a man backpacking in Yellowstone several years ago. He was part of a group, but he was obese and very slow, so the group would just send him off alone ahead of the rest, pass him, then leave him behind to make his own way to camp. It was an area with a lot of trails, not well marked. It was also grizzly country, so not really safe to be hiking solo. When we met the group we told them that we had seen the man about 20 minutes before and they just made a disparaging remark about how slow he was. It made me angry that nobody stuck with him to make sure he was okay.2
-
Dogmom1978 wrote: »My husband hikes alone with our dogs all the time (I can only go on weekends). He doesn’t go anywhere as risky as the above, but he does always let me know where he goes just in case he were to get injured. Many of the locations near us, while not inherently dangerous, have 0 cell service. So if you step in a hole and break an ankle, you can’t use your cell phone to get help.
This is why I carry a SAT phone and PLB.
If u can see the sky, the SAT phone will work as long as the battery is chsrged. Just need to also carry a GPS for coordinates and the locate Sheriff search & rescue and or Park or Forest Service office #s.
You can get by w/only a PLB that's registered w/NOAA but it's a 1way comm device that should only be used in life threatening situstions when no other comm method is available, because when you activate the beacon, NOAA will just notify the closet available resource to initiate a search & rescue operation.
3 -
Amazing story and glad he survived! I fail to understand why remote adventurers don’t carry PLBs. We carry one and we don’t go anywhere nearly that remote. It’s not that hard to get injured or ill and unable to get out on your own. 🤷🏻♀️2
-
Amazing story and glad he survived! I fail to understand why remote adventurers don’t carry PLBs. We carry one and we don’t go anywhere nearly that remote. It’s not that hard to get injured or ill and unable to get out on your own. 🤷🏻♀️
Not everyone can afford one. It only costs gas to drive to the location to hike so it’s a wonderful low cost adventure. I can always let the park rangers know the general location of my husband if needed since he tells me where he’s going.1 -
Dogmom1978 wrote: »Amazing story and glad he survived! I fail to understand why remote adventurers don’t carry PLBs. We carry one and we don’t go anywhere nearly that remote. It’s not that hard to get injured or ill and unable to get out on your own. 🤷🏻♀️
Not everyone can afford one. It only costs gas to drive to the location to hike so it’s a wonderful low cost adventure. I can always let the park rangers know the general location of my husband if needed since he tells me where he’s going.
SAT phones and service cost a lot but PLBs are cheap.
If you can afford a car and the gas to drive to a park or forest, the gas to get there, any park fees and the food/gear you wear/carry on the trail, you can afford a PLB.3 -
Dogmom1978 wrote: »Amazing story and glad he survived! I fail to understand why remote adventurers don’t carry PLBs. We carry one and we don’t go anywhere nearly that remote. It’s not that hard to get injured or ill and unable to get out on your own. 🤷🏻♀️
Not everyone can afford one. It only costs gas to drive to the location to hike so it’s a wonderful low cost adventure. I can always let the park rangers know the general location of my husband if needed since he tells me where he’s going.
SAT phones and service cost a lot but PLBs are cheap.
If you can afford a car and the gas to drive to a park or forest, the gas to get there, any park fees and the food/gear you wear/carry on the trail, you can afford a PLB.
Sorry, but I spend about $3 in gas to go to the state park that is free. I have to have said car to get to my job so that I can pay my mortgage, etc.
$3 gas is a cheap way to enjoy a day off. Snacks for the hike are pb&j. You want to spend money on a PLB, go for it. Not everyone has the expendable income for one (nor the desire to spend what expendable income they do have on one).2 -
Looks like new PLBs are $100 (being a little generous on the low end) and up, mostly $200 and up. I assume the really low end ones involve some compromise, capability-wise. Whether that's cheap is an individual, situational thing.
Just my opinion (and not a comment on my personal situation), $200+ being cheap is not a thing, for a lot of people I know. 🤷♀️
I would hope that people who go to remote areas (with no cell service) a lot, would give it a think, consider sharing one with friends, etc. Lives are important.4 -
Consider selecting your adventures to coincide with your budget. Appropriate safety gear is perhaps part of the budget/ cost for an activity. Maybe not for a simple hike in a well trafficked area, but for remote areas, yes. How much is a life worth?2
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.5K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 391 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 926 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions