Here we discussed Dan Becker’s experience trying to do a rim-to-rim hike of the Grand Canyon in bad conditions (use of snow shoes) while climbing the North Rim. I was fairly hard on his team mates – they let him down by not stopping him and doing the things they needed to do (hydrate him, get food energy into him, get him rest, and most of all, stopping the physical exertion).
I feel that I was justified to be so hard on his team mates. Here is another video of the same trip told by Dan himself. Pay close attention to the 10:57 and 11:46 marks. He says, “I was having severe chest pains,” and when asked if he was okay, he said an unequivocal “no.” The rest of the team should have been with him the whole way. The first sign of a little bit of chest pain should have stopped the entire group.
That’s it for me. You don’t split up on the trail. You just don’t. Medical conditions of team members remain unknown to the rest of the team, you have less protection against predators, and so many other reasons. Don’t … split … up. If you’re going slower than you wanted to, tough. That’s all part of the being on a team. Deal with it.
Rather than picking up Dan’s backpack, the team should have stopped right then and there to assist Dan and get him healthy again. I’m willing to bet there would have been no need for rescue if they had done that.
This is a captivating tale, and a true one, told by the apparent leader of the group. There are a number of good lessons in it, most or all of which we’ve discussed before in painful detail. But let’s cover them again for the sake of education.
When the party crossed into the climb of the North Rim, I knew that one or both of them were going to suffer from Rhabdomylosis. I knew that without being told, without having to watch the rest of the video (I did watch the rest of it to confirm by thoughts), and without reading the video description. I knew it with certainty.
Do you recall journalist Sebastian Junger’s hard work at Restrepo? The soldiers would come back smelling of ammonia. It was in their sweat, and it was indicative of hydration and kidney problems. More to the point, hydration is only one part of the story.
In Rhabdomylosis, the body no longer has energy stores to power the physical exertion and must burn muscle to propel itself. The kidneys then have to remove that protein from the system. This will cause kidney failure if not addressed quickly.
One method to address it is hydration. The most important method is to stop the exertion. The leader of the group wasn’t very wise. He continued the climb forward for several reasons, one legitimate, and one not. The only legitimate reason to have continued the climb was that rescue would have been nearly impossible if they didn’t reach the rim. The irony is that the only reason this is a legitimate concern is because they didn’t stop when they should have, and this brings up the illegitimate reason to have continued: panic. He even says so in the video. They panicked.
We’ve discussed this before. Panic is a killer in the bush. It’s deadly. The best option would have been to suspect what was about to happen, and find a place to make camp, get Mr. Becker warm, hydrate him, and get him food energy and rest. As it was, they pushed until he vomited, only dehydrating him more.
Sure enough, according to the medical professionals, Mr. Becker was suffering from Rhabdomylosis. He said in the video that this was a “rare” occurrence. That’s not true. It’s not rare among people who undergo extreme physical exertion. It also may happen to people whose body has undergone extreme exertion for reasons other than climbing from rim to rim in the Grand Canyon. I’m imagining a “fictitious” conversion between a certain NP and a patient: “How long have you been on this meth bender?” “Oh, three days.” “Well congratulations, you’re now in Rhabdo and I need to push fluids to try to save your kidneys.”
I also don’t believe that this necessarily happens to the weaker among a group. It may happen just because it happens, for whatever reason: genetics, what a person ate several days ago, whether a person hydrated enough before the exertion, or for no particular reason that can be pinpointed.
The point is that a leader needs to be wise enough to recognize that this is a possibility and stop before it happens. Waiting until it happens is too late.
Make the decision early enough to prevent injury and death. Find a decent place to camp for the night. Find firewood, and if there is no firewood, get people inside tents or a tarp and start isobutane stoves. If there is no tent or tarp, know how to fabricate a shelter in the bush, or some sort of debris hut. Find a source of hydration, and if you didn’t carry enough water with you, make sure you brought filtration. Get food energy into your body. Rest. But most of all, just stop the physical exertion. That’s imperative if you want to survive. One warning sign is that your piss will be colored brown, but if it’s gone that far, you’re probably too late. Stop before that happens.
Everybody can find a way or two to make and keep fire from this video. We’ve had some nice days here lately in parts of the country. Don’t slack off; winter isn’t over. Keep your kit handy and up to date.
I just found out about these guys last night. The video has only one of them in it. Their humility is encouraging. They have the willingness to admit ignorance and seek necessary knowledge. They don’t have a catalog of videos yet, but they’ve indicated more to come.
A list of gear used in the video is here on the Dirty Civilian page.
It has become a mantra here at TCJ. You know what can happen in the bush without a side arm. The bush has bears, Coyotes, dogs, snakes, feral hogs, big cats and potentially two-legged predators. This report is simply disheartening when it could have been prevented.
A Georgia man sustained serious injuries to his legs, arms, and hands after a pack of loose dogs attacked him while he was relocating a deer stand. The 61-year-old hunter ended up with 298 puncture wounds and a severed ligament in his hand after an attack that lasted upwards of 15 minutes. Once he escaped, the man managed to flag down a passing driver who helped transport him to a nearby hospital.
He was attacked by three dogs. The story continues.
Scott tried screaming for help, but no one was around to come to his aid. Because he’d left his cell phone on his ATV more than 150 yards away from the scene of the attack, he was unable to phone authorities while the dogs were mauling him. Eventually, he managed to fight them off by wheeling around a large stick in circular motion. As he spun with the stick, Scott made his way toward another ladder stand that he knew of on an adjoining piece of property.
[ … ]
He stayed in the stand for about 30 minutes, waiting for the dogs to leave the area. When it seemed like the coast was clear, he climbed down. But the dogs heard him moving through the dry leaves and quickly returned. He scrambled back into the stand and waited out the dogs for another half hour. Then he made a run for a nearby highway.
[ … ]
According to the Athens Banner-Herald, all three dogs were euthanized after the mandatory quarantine, and the woman who owned them received a citation for being in possession of dangerous animals.
While the attack was both physically and mentally traumatizing, Scott said he won’t let it keep him out of the woods for good. “I’m going to start carrying a side arm again, and I already bought a collapsible steel baton and a canister of bear spray,” he said. “When I do go back, it’ll have to be with my son, at least for the first few times.”
The pictures at the link are remarkable. Go to the link to see what three dogs can do in a big hurry to the human body.
In the mean time, he should have been reading TCJ. He got slack and paid a huge price for it. Never, never go into the bush without a large bore pistol.
If you move a rock from one place to the next you may have inadvertently disturbed the home of a tiny critter living beneath it. Moving stones can also contribute to soil erosion or destroy the delicate microhabitats plants and animals need to survive. Also, moving a rock to add to the top of a cairn could cause the whole thing to come down, rather defeating the object.
[ … ]
So what should you do if you see a rock cairn? Well, the advice from the National Parks Service is to leave them well alone, no tampering, building, or adding to existing ones. Don’t be tempted to kick them over either. If that won’t convince you, maybe the law will: the practice of moving the rocks could be seen as vandalism which is illegal.
Yea whatever. The NPS doesn’t own the earth or any part of it. “The cattle on a thousand hills” and all of creation belongs to God.
I wouldn’t like it very much if a vandal built a rock cairn to mislead me on the trail. But some of them are needful as long as they are located correctly. As for that little critter who might get disturbed if I move one, he can find another place to live.
If I need to collect rocks to build a fire ring, that’s what I’ll do.
Well, whatever. I don’t have to try to treat the one who just tried to kill me. And the set of downsides to not carrying a trauma kit only has to have one member: you’re unable to stop bleeding of you or a loved one. There. That’s it. Case closed for me.
At All Outdoor they have published a list of reading materials, which is necessary for me at least. It’ll be a good way to spend a rainy day or four. The Ham Radio Guide: UV-5R Basic Ham Radio Setup. It lists four articles on this subject.
Private security is a fast-growing business in the US. As America becomes a third-world country, one future aspect will be private militia, walled cities, and economic security zones. Many envision a return to the city-state model.
Detriot:
Lima Peru:
Security concerns are increasingly paramount. Government law enforcement continues to devolve into a political tool of oppression to prop up the corrupt regime. Nowhere is this more evident than leftist controlled major cities being evacuated by anybody that has the money to get out.
In these impacts of electrical blackout posts, Practical Engineering has several power grid outage videos. Power will be a premium commodity in the near future. Plan accordingly.
Electricity is not just a luxury. It is a necessity of modern life. Even ignoring our own direct use of it, almost everything we depend on in our daily lives, and indeed the orderly conduct of a civil society, is undergirded by a functioning electrical grid. Of course, life as we know it doesn’t break down as soon as the lights go out. Having gone without power for three days myself during the Texas winter storm, I have seen first hand how kind and generous neighbors can be in the face of a difficult situation. But it was a difficult situation, and a lot of people didn’t come through on the other side of those three days quite as unscathed as I did.
2 years, 6 months ago
