PSA Dont be these idiots...

[Packin_packout]

I should feel offended by all this having lived in texas for way too long....but I cannot agree more.

I am not surprised by any of this in any way shape or form...they don't have any practical experience outside. Most texans never see anything below 70 degrees in the summer and don't get the weather can turn on a dime. Most people's idea of hiking in texas is 1 or 2 miles in a park that you can almost always hear a road from. It's different in west texas ( guadalupe peak etc ) but the vast majority of texans have no experience with big country.

I actually had a bunch of boy scouts go to valley forge in february for a trip...we explicitly told them the type of gear they would need from sleeping pad, sleeping bag and insulation layers. Had dad with two kids show up with a 40 degree bags and a hoodies. Forecast was lows around 0...after we had warned them repeatedly that it was going to be way cold. They did not seem to understand the whole GW crossing the delaware with ice in the river.

I work with a team in tucson and the manager there asked me to do a map navigation, GPS & survival course for his engineers. He'd had a few employees helicoptered out of the catalina's over the past few years and few other's get stuck out overnight. He did not one of them winning a darwin award and jeopardizing one of his schedules. The questions i was getting from guys who should be able to figure this out were priceless. Once you show them why they need to something they learn...it's getting them to think about what can go wrong.

I've definitely seen my fair share of texans show up in durango area ( poser ) on peaks out there w/o the necessary gear for september archery hunts and get dehydrated and cramped out. Seen a few get lost as well and had to give them ride back to their camps.

 

[Regalz]

It still blows my mind how in the internet age people can be so ignorant about the weather in the mountains and be so badly prepared:

MSN

I was actually scouting this hike a few days prior, got to 10k on the Lake Como road and didn’t like the weather so I got down fast. Based on the forecast for the week I decided to head back to Denver. I’m more of a hunter than a mountaineer, these guys were neither

 

[EastHumboldt]

A few years back, I was backpacking in the desolation wilderness near Lake Tahoe. We were at a lake that’s about a three hour hike from the trailhead And we ran into these three young women dressed in Sneakers, jogging shorts ,and halter tops. One of them had a tiny fanny pack. They were all carrying water bottles. They asked us where is the trail to pyramid peak? It was about 2 o’clock in the afternoon in August. They looked fantastic, but that’s not the point. They were asking me for directions to go kill themselves. I did not comply.

they did not understand a bunch of things. They didn’t know it gets cold at night in the Sierra. They didn’t know they weren’t gonna make it out of there before nightfall if they tried to summit Pyramid Peak. They didn’t know that our 75° Sunny temperatures could change on a dime. They didn’t know that rain can kill you. I succeeded in discouraging them from this fool’s errand, and sent them on an easier and doable little day hike instead. I may not have been doing the gene pool any favors though. They were all very attractive so you can assume they’re going to mate and produce 6.3 dumb children.

to be fair I don’t suppose I would understand some of the unspoken rules of New York City or LA, like what neighborhoods to stay out of etc. but I don’t think I’d wander in there like a wide-eyed fawn either.

 

[tony]

Yeah I regularly see people “hiking” in flip flops, face in the phone, string type packs.
I mean if your taking a mile stroll on a trail through a trail in a downtown I get it.
I’ve seen people dress above in the middle of some long trails with small kids carrying nothing.
If I’m out over a mile I’ve got a small Mountainsmith lumbar I carry the essentials in. GF made fun of me till she asked for a swig of water one day.
Now she has a pretty nice osprey day pack

 

[SuspiciousFish]

to be fair I don’t suppose I would understand some of the unspoken rules of New York City or LA, like what neighborhoods to stay out of etc. but I don’t think I’d wander in there like a wide-eyed fawn either.

We did a really cool Llama hike with an outfit down in New Mexico a few years ago and the guy was an avid outdoorsman. Once on the trail we started talking and I asked where he was from and he said downtown New York. He basically said urban areas have the exact same mindset as the wild. There are predators, opportunities and rules to follow and a lot of what he learned from the ghetto made him a proficient outdoorsman. It was an interesting perspective. Hiking with Llamas is awesome too, those things are characters for sure.

 

[fngTony]

Yeah I regularly see people “hiking” in flip flops, face in the phone, string type packs.
I mean if your taking a mile stroll on a trail through a trail in a downtown I get it.
I’ve seen people dress above in the middle of some long trails with small kids carrying nothing.
If I’m out over a mile I’ve got a small Mountainsmith lumbar I carry the essentials in. GF made fun of me till she asked for a swig of water one day.
Now she has a pretty nice osprey day pack

Me too. I was taking a trail through a valley floor and there’s a split half way that goes up to a 12k peak covered loose rock and vaguely marked trail. On my way back out I noticed SAR chopper circling above. Back at the split there was a group of 20 or so collage age people with string packs wearing track shorts, bikini tops or shirtless. I don’t think the packs had anything more than a T-shirt and water bottle in them and they all went up towards the peak. At my trail head was the SAR command post so I mentioned that group as the thunder and lightning started.

 

[SuspiciousFish]

Me too. I was taking a trail through a valley floor and there’s a split half way that goes up to a 12k peak covered loose rock and vaguely marked trail. On my way back out I noticed SAR chopper circling above. Back at the split there was a group of 20 or so collage age people with string packs wearing track shorts, bikini tops or shirtless. I don’t think the packs had anything more than a T-shirt and water bottle in them and they all went up towards the peak. At my trail head was the SAR command post so I mentioned that group as the thunder and lightning started.

The sad irony is when you walk past them they look at YOU like you are weird for being kitted out with actual hiking gear and a pack.

 

[mitchellmountain]

20 some years ago when I was just a boy from out east I pulled into Estes park Colorado to check in at the rangers station for a 3 nighter back pack trip, it was very early September. When we walked into the station it was around 75 degrees and while checking in the ranger told me I needed gaiters because there was a white out the day before on the mountain where we were going, luckily he had some for sale right there. I thought he was full of $$it but I bought them anyway and headed up the mountain to the trailhead. That night out water froze and the next day I thought I would need those gaiters as there was another white out but it didn't accumulate. Mountain weather is an animal unto itself, the people in the story were stupid but the only thing that separated me from them was a tent fly and a set of warm clothes.

 

[William Sublette]

 

[fngTony]

The sad irony is when you walk past them they look at YOU like you are weird for being kitted out with actual hiking gear and a pack.

In all fairness I had a string pack too , but at least there was essential stuff in there and I was dressed properly.

 

[SuspiciousFish]

View attachment 427209

Sounds like this 'agender' went into the woods and got his first taste of testosterone...

 

[Yarak]

The last time I was not prepared I was 16
Went hunting with my uncle and didnt take any toilet paper, any food, any water
Uncle asked me about having any of this and I said no and his reply was "its gonna be a long day"
I watched him eat and drink and enjoy his day with all he needed
He shared nothing with me
Some may think this is harsh but it wasnt but it was educational because I never forgot it and Ive never been unprepared since
That was almost 40 years ago

 

[mitchellmountain]

Yarak, your uncle's tactic doesn't sound harsh to me. I'm sure if you were truly starving, dehydrated or hypothermia was about to set in he would have helped you but most humans learn the best lessons through failure. It was a different time too, kids today have sooooo many more options for entertainment than we did. That being said, I may have used similar tactics with my boys a few times
.

 

[ChrisA]

The last time I was not prepared I was 16
Went hunting with my uncle and didnt take any toilet paper, any food, any water
Uncle asked me about having any of this and I said no and his reply was "its gonna be a long day"
I watched him eat and drink and enjoy his day with all he needed
He shared nothing with me
Some may think this is harsh but it wasnt but it was educational because I never forgot it and Ive never been unprepared since
That was almost 40 years ago

Did you have to cut your sleeves off or did you sacrifice a sock?

 

[Yarak]

Did you have to cut your sleeves off or did you sacrifice a sock?

Actually I used my underwear
I’d rather be commando than sockless or sleeveless

 

[KnuckleChild]

Did you have to cut your sleeves off or did you sacrifice a sock?

When we were younger my brother would have to drop one every single time he set foot in the swamp. Every time, no matter the time of day. Never failed. He never carried TP. He would cut squares off of his orange vest. My dad saw this eventually and of course berated him because he was now below the required square inches of blaze orange, since he had used so much of it for shit tickets.
Rather than carry TP, he got a new vest, kept the old vest in his pack, and would just continue to cut squares off his orange vest when nature called.

 

[Poser]

When we were younger my brother would have to drop one every single time he set foot in the swamp. Every time, no matter the time of day. Never failed. He never carried TP. He would cut squares off of his orange vest. My dad saw this eventually and of course berated him because he was now below the required square inches of blaze orange, since he had used so much of it for shit tickets.
Rather than carry TP, he got a new vest, kept the old vest in his pack, and would just continue to cut squares off his orange vest when nature called.

Defense against being a victim of the “Texas heart shot”

 

[tony]

agender? The F is that? They, them, he, she, it, was. I can’t keep with all these special names. Does this shit happen in other countries?

Zombies can’t get here fast enough

 

[wesfromky]

Another one...

Today at 11:30 a.m., WCSART received a 911 call for a hiker who was lost in the RRG area. The male subject had very limited cellular service and his phone battery was nearly depleted. He advised he became lost the day before and had spent the night along a creek. A team member was able walk him through how to provide a GPS coordinate from his mobile device. He was unable to provide where he had parked or what trail system he had utilized but he thought he had seen a sign that said "Wildcat".
The GPS coordinates identified the subject being located North of Wildcat Trail and just off Swift Camp Creek Trail (identified with a blue arrow on the attached map).
A hasty team was deployed to the area to hike into the subjects location. He was found near the coordinates on the opposite side of Swift Camp Creek, very tired and dehydrated. Team members hydrated the subject and provided some snacks and energy chews before starting the trek back out.
Team members located his vehicle along Hwy 715 (many miles away) near the "Welcome to the Daniel Boone National Forest" sign (identified with a Red arrow). The subject did not provide a clear explanation of how he ended up so far from his vehicles location.

 

[Ambush]

People die. Mental toughness can't be denied as the single most important quality. Read some mountaineering stories. Rain can't kill you. You kill you.