[pct-l] Hypothermia (was "Earthquake!")

[Eugene]

Absolutely.  On this day it was raining and windy most of the day.  There were 7 creeks crossings, so I opted to wear sneakers the whole way and to remove the calf section from my pants.  I used an umbrella to help deflect wind and rain from my upper body.  I knew I'd get wet from either the rain or sweat because I'm a sweaty pig, so I thought I'd be able to stay warm by jogging most of the way.  This worked brilliantly for most of the day, but then my energy levels suddenly plummeted as I near Mike Herrera's house.  I hadn't been making my normal diet of shakes that day because of the weather, and I guess I hadn't been eating enough snacks throughout the day.  I slowed from a jog to barely a hobble.  Regardless of energy levels, I wouldn't have been able to maintain my heat output with my greatly reduced work levels.  This only got worse as the wind seemed to markedly increase at about the same time.  I thought I would be able to quickly warm up at Mike's house.  I mean I have a thick down jacket, puffy pants, a zero degree cuben fiber quilt, a Ray Way bomber hat, hand warmers...  Surely I would get warm quickly right?  I'll get back to that.

 

I didn't realize it, but Evan was having a tough time staying warm too.  That day he decided to hike behind me.  He's a much faster hiker than me, so this made it difficult for him to stay warm, even though he was wearing a rain jacket all day.  A couple miles before Mike's house he decided to hike past me at a faster pace to get warm.  Unfortunately he didn't put on any additional layers, and worse, he waited for me at the road.  At the road he put on a down jacket, but the delay in putting on the additional layer and the time spent waiting for me meant it was already too late.  Now he was freezing too.  Now we get to the hiker shack.

 

I was so certain that we'd warm up quickly in a shelter that provided wind protection.  I took off my wet pants and put on my thick down jacket, puffy pants, bomber hat and crawled under my zero degree cuben fiber quilt.  I laid on the bottom bunk with an old cotton sleeping bag as my pad.  Evan kept on his down jacket, I think he put on his long underwear pants, put on some kind of balaclava, put his z-rest and sit pad on the floor and crawled into his 15 degree cuben fiber quilt inside of a bivy.  I think it took me about half an hour for me to stop shivering as much, although I was still shivering.  I took this opportunity to take out my 4-season sleeping pad and a couple hand warmers.  The hand warmers were absolutely worthless, but I gave Evan the one that seemed slightly less worthless.  I finally felt fine as the final remnants of daylight faded away.  It probably took Evan twice as long to warm up.  I didn't pay much attention to my watch, but I think it was about an hour between the time we crawled under our quilts until the time we were in the clear.  I still felt horrible the next day though.

 

Hikers Bo and Teach also stayed nearby.  I didn't get their full story, but they basically said they took too long to put on additional layers while hiking and also came really close to hypothermia that night.  From reading Freebird's journal, I think he may have done nearly the same thing we all did.

 

So yeah, all 4 hikers made pretty much the same mistake that day.  We all knew better, but for some reason we all individually decided to act stupidly.  Fortunately one fellow hiker was smarter than the rest of us and decided to bail at Warner Springs.

 

What would I do differently?  First, I'd eat more.  Secondly, I'd at least put on a rain jacket, even if I soak it in sweat.  I think that would have been enough for me.

 

Next "education" subject will probably be about snow conditions.  It seems that most of us in the Idyllwild area are having near death experiences in the San Jacintos.  So far no one has been able to traverse it.  Evan, Teach and the Magician are up there right now and I have my fingers crossed that they are safe and doing well.  At least one thru-hiker and partial thru-hiker has decided to hitch around it, another thru-hiker decided to go backwards to Julian until the snow melts.  Hopefully the situation improves a lot before the herd arrives. At least the past couple of days have been warm, and from Idyllwild it looks like the snow is melting quickly.

 

Sir Mix-a-lot
 
> CC: pct at fisler.ch; pct-l at backcountry.net
> From: gwtmp01 at mac.com
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Earthquake!
> Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 21:28:14 -0400
> To: atetuna at hotmail.com
> 
> 
> On Apr 8, 2010, at 7:53 PM, Eugene wrote:
> > 
> > We all got went to some extent, but it was the cold that was really bad. All 4 of us that camped in and around Mike Herrera's house all came too close to hypothermia.
> 
> Would you be willing to share your story re: hypothermia? I think it is good
> share these experiences in order to educate others who might find themselves
> in similar situations. What would you have done differently? 
> 
> Radar
 		 	   		  
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