Kaze Uta Budo Kai Forum Archive

A frequent item in the news last week was a trio of climbers who disappeared on Mt. Hood in Oregon. Mt. Hood claimed the lives of three climbers in 2006 as well. I love spending time outdoors and visiting remote places, and things like this weigh heavily on me. I would prefer that my friends and I remain nice and safe in the wilderness.

Lawrence Gonzales outlines several things in his book Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why. This book is an amazing read, and is considered by many search and rescue folks to be like a bible. Our approach to things, what we do & how we do it, is based on these past experiences. These past experiences may include successes and failures. The human animal likes complex, complicated systems. Some enjoy risk taking. And sometimes we roll the dice and get away with it. When you get away with risky behavior, this will effect your decision making process on future events with no real understanding of the bad information.

For example, during my trip to the Pecos Wilderness in June 2009 we encountered a couple from Dallas along the trail. We were carrying 40 pound packs (down from near 80 the summer before). They were taking a dayhike to Katherine Lake. This is a 24 Km (15 miles) round trip. They carried no packs, no raingear, no navigation tools (map, compass, GPS), carried a small water bottle and wore cotton clothing. See anything wrong? Let's explore.

When cotton becomes wet, it pulls heat away from the body. Many search & rescue folks call cotton "death cloth". In many instances, you'd be better off to sit naked by a fire than wear your clothing by the fire. It's June. Showers in the mountains in summer months are quite common, yet neither carried raingear. Viola! Wet clothing. The trail was well marked; however, there are four junctions with other trails along the route. They had no means of determining how far it was back to camp. They had no light, so hiking in the dark would have been impossible. Which could mean a night, in the bush, with no shelter, no means of constructing an emergency shelter, no food, no sleeping bag, nada. Heck, they might not have even had a lighter to start a fire.

Now do you see anything wrong?


The latest incident on Mt. Hood is very similar from the information that has been released. Three experienced climbers take off for a 13 hour round trip to the summit. They were carrying ropes & helmets -- we know from pictures on a digital camera found with the only body recovered thus far. The current theory is the female of the group was somehow injured, one male stayed with her and the most experienced climber took off for help.

This is a sound course of action.

But, like the couple from Dallas, nobody expected anything to go wrong. They did not anticipate having to spend a night on the mountain, much less survive for a few days during an massive snowstorm that halted search & rescue efforts. They carried no PLB (personal locator beacon), which could have been rented at the lodge where they were staying. They carried no shovel for building a snow cave. It sounds as though they carried minimal gear to make a speedy assault on the mountain. Then, Mr. Murphy threw a monkey wrench into the works resulting in the tragic loss of three lives.