better, a balaclava.
I have seen even the most seasoned outdoorsmen neglect to bring some crucial layer, usually the outer shell, knowing they will warm up just minutes after beginning strenuous activity. It is best to at least carry along all the clothes you might need in an emergency. You might be carrying more bulk and a little more weight, but if some unforeseen event keeps you in the weather longer than you expected, it could save your life.
Consider how many ways that could happen: A day hike could take much longer than expected and force an overnight bivouac; you could get lost; some member of the party might get sick or hurt, requiring that person and another to stay outdoors while someone else went for help; your friend who is to pick you up at the far end of a through hike might get delayed. These and more all happen.
Encourage all members of your group to learn the early warning signs of hypothermia, and watch for them in each other. Knowing the symptoms will help you take action before hypothermia advances past the early stages. Initial symptoms include shivering, numbness in limbs and some lack of coordination.
If you suspect even a mild case of hypothermia take it seriously. Find shelter and a heat source, remove all wet clothing and replace with dry, and help the person move around to warm his body. Offer the victim warm sweet drinks, non-alcoholic. If the victim begins to appear drunk, confused, or non-responsive, these are worse symptoms. You need to seek professional medical attention immediately, as the treatment changes in every stage of hypothermia. Hypothermia can rapidly become life-threatening.
No matter how prepared you are, a fall into cold water will bring on hypothermia even quicker. You will lose body heat about twenty-five percent faster than in cold air, and the longer you are in the water the lower your chances of survival.
Hikers head out on the slickrock in Zion National Park, Utah.
It’s worth knowing that disposable butane cigarette lighters will light even after being immersed several minutes in water, while traditional fluid-filled lighters, and of course matches, will not. And it’s worth knowing that a two-inch stub of ordinary dining-table candle, placed inside a miniature teepee built of wet twigs and then lit, will dry the wood enough to ignite it. Your teepee fire will sustain itself even in steady rain, burning from the sheltered inside and drying its own fuel as you add even wet wood to the outside.
Many years ago I was part of a group of four, out for what was supposed to be about ten hours of midwinter canyoneering. We had to take an unplanned yet necessary ten-minute swim in a canyon pool complete with small icebergs. After this, things went downhill quickly.
One disoriented person in our party wandered away and simply vanished. Unwilling to abandon our lost friend, the rest of us used up the daylight looking for him, and had to spend the night huddled together, uncertain that we ourselves would survive.
All of us heard voices that weren’t there, became delirious, and had trouble standing. If not for our essential emergency equipment, being properly dressed and in top physical condition, we probably wouldn’t have lived through it.
With much difficulty the next morning, two of us were able to stumble out many miles to seek help, and the two others, including the one who had become separated from the group, were rescued the following day. Some of us lost toenails, which seemed uncomfortably close to losing toes, and one of the survivors said he couldn’t feel the ends of his toes for years afterward.
Nowadays setting out on a hike, I’m no longer too shy to ask a casual acquaintance what kind of underwear she, or even he, is wearing.
Rattlesnakes
When it comes to rattlesnakes, the world is divided into two groups; those who have a healthy fear of them, and those who become completely unglued even seeing a picture of one.
Mojave green rattlesnake.
Since I moved to the West in the 1990s, I have come across a few dozen rattlers but only once, down by Lake Mohave, have I seen one try to attack. One of my daughters, who was twelve at the time, reached up on a rocky ledge, without looking first. This startled a rattlesnake, which lurched out at her without any warning.
To this day, I have never again seen my daughter fly, or felt the horror of seeing fangs come within an inch of a person’s face. Not surprisingly, she is still terrified of rattlesnakes.
The most important rule to avoid getting bitten is to never put any part of your body anywhere that you haven’t looked first.
Rattlers enjoy temperatures from seventy to ninety degrees, so in this region, late spring and fall are the times you’re most likely to encounter them. By day, you might stumble upon a snake sunning itself on a boulder or in a wash. Once the sun goes down your worries are not over; these creatures hunt at night.
Learn to recognize the rattlesnakes in the area you will be hiking. If you ever did get bitten, the doctors would want to know what kind bit you. In the more likely event you just see one, you’ll want to tell others what you saw, simply to share an outdoor experience.
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area at sunrise.
Around Southern Nevada there are the sidewinder, Mojave, speckled and the western diamondback, but throughout the areas covered in this book there are many other varieties. Identifying the different types is easiest from photographs, or a book like the National Audubon Society’s Field Guide to North American Reptiles & Amphibians.
Look at the unique patterns and colors, and keep in mind the adult size of each type. Of the four in southern Nevada the sidewinder is smallest, never more than a couple of feet long, but the western diamondback can grow to well over six feet. Mojave and speckled rattlers reach lengths somewhere in between.
Mojave rattlesnakes, which often have a green tinge to their skin, have a more dangerous poison than others, but are said to be more reclusive and therefore less frequently encountered.
Although people bitten by rattlesnakes sometimes die, most do not. One reason they don’t is that most bites are not charged with a full dose of poison, because one fang or the other often fails to penetrate. About half of bites are entirely dry ones, meaning no venom has been released. And most bites are to legs or hands, giving victims time to seek treatment before the poison spreads to vital organs. They have excellent chances of survival if they keep their heads and get to the nearest hospital promptly.
In getting there, however, they should avoid increasing blood circulation, because that will spread the venom quicker. That means the victim must not run a half-mile for help. Walk. Even better, if time and circumstance allow, is to bring a vehicle to the victim. Otherwise, if the person bitten is small enough, consider carrying him or her.
Never use the old-fashioned first-aid technique you see in Western movies — cutting the flesh and trying to suck the poison out. It’s ineffective.
According to many experts the best method is to use constriction bands, like tight Ace bandages, between the area of the bite and the heart. Do not make them as tight as a true tourniquet, which would cut off all the blood flow and possibly lead to losing the entire limb. You just want to constrict the flow somewhat.
The majority of my rattlesnake encounters have been while hiking in desert washes. Most
