[pct-l] Deep Survival

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

Altitude will do similar things to you as hypothermia. I hiked in  
Nepal and considered it the trip of a lifetime but up at 18,000 ft,  
my brain was telling me to conserve pictures (film at the time) and  
not take too many. What was I thinking? I should have burned the  
image of Everest into all the rest of my film and bought some more  
film later. When we descended it was like walking into a color movie  
again. That's how much the hypoxia affected me.

On the PCT, I experienced the same sensation after eating a big meal  
in town. Like waking up in a color movie. I guess that's how  
nutrition deprivation affected me, too.

I was like Day-Late in that as a solo hiker I was extra paranoid and  
took less risks than I would have if someone else were there. I not  
only wanted to protect my life and limbs, but I didn't want my hike  
to end. So I crossed creeks and descended steep places carefully, and  
tried my darndest to stay out of the rain and snow even if that meant  
splitting my hike into two years or hiking 30 mile days or hiding out  
in Seattle for a few days.

And yes, saying that hiking with a love relationship can cause  
problems, yes that is not universal. It happens to me frequently,  
however. I was glad I didn't have to deal with that on my big hikes  
and that when I got lost I could just handle things my own way.

Anyway, the possibility of ending up with a nut-case to hike with is  
not zero. I decided that after 3 days or so, it was best to say good- 
bye to whoever I was with and hike by myself again. I guess I'm a bit  
of a misanthrope, but even misanthropes are allowed to hike the PCT.


On Jan 27, 2010, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
> Day-Late wrote:
>>
> Hypothermia can rob you of your ability to think and to act - you  
> have to
> address the issues before it gets to that condition.
>>
>
> It's not just hypothermia - the human brain can do strange and bizarre
> things under stressful conditions that leave you scratching your  
> head later.