PHYSICAL CAPABILITY
The considerable vertical distances travelled on most hikes in the West Kootenay require good physical conditioning. The best way to get fit is to hike and increase elevation gain and weight carried. Going downhill can be more difficult for some individuals with bad knees or quads that are not strong enough to handle the descent. Walking around town for exercise may not prepare one for hiking. For someone who doesn’t hike regularly, an 11 km round-trip day hike or a hike with more than 1400 feet of elevation gain will be very challenging.
LEAVE YOUR ITINERARY
Even if you’re hiking in a group or going solo, leave a written itinerary with someone reliable. Agree on when they should alert the authorities if you have not returned or called. Be sure to follow through and notify your contact person on completion of the trip. Rescue teams often rescue them to find you.
I would strongly advise against promising to communicate with friends and relatives daily. Running out of battery power could prompt needless search and rescue operations.
ESSENTIALS
There are many lists but this is mine. They are arranged in a relative order of importance and would allow one to survive overnight if necessary (imagine that you have broken your leg, can’t be rescued that day, and have to spend the night outside – what would you need to survive in relative comfort?). That should determine the essence of any list.
1. Water. It is hard to survive without a water source. One can go several days without eating.
2. Signalling mirror/Emergency Locator Beacon. A mirror is the best simple way to signal help as it can be seen from a long distance especially from the air. Whistles are of less use as sound does not travel well. Emergency locator beacons are obviously the best things to have if help is needed and SAR will respond. They generally have an SOS button you can push to indicate that you are in distress. The alert includes your GPS coordinates. The InReach is a 2 way satellite communicator with 2 way texting. It sends up to three pre-loaded messages, SOS in emergencies, and has automatic location tracking every 10 minutes. Cell phones, UHF Radios, walkie talkies and satellite phones (very heavy and thus impractical) have value depending on location. Lighting a safe fire is useful 24 hours a day.
3. Large garbage bag. A large orange leaf bag can serve as an emergency shelter and increase visibility. A bivy sack may be a better option, but it is much heavier. The Integral Designs 8’x10’ Siltarp 2 is another great choice.
4. Warm clothing. The amount varies with the season but every pack should have a warm jacket (down is light and warm but shouldn’t get wet), rain jacket and pants, long underwear, touque, gloves, and neck warmer. A light sleeping bag would be nice (the Western Mountaineering Ultralite weighs less than one pound).
5. Seat cushion. Keeps your bottom warm and off the ground. Thermarest seats are best but closed cell foam pads also work well.
6. Map and compass. If your GPS fails (batteries run out), a compass is invaluable. It is worthless if the declination is not known. 1:50,000 topographical maps should be carried on every hike.
7. Fire. Fire starter, matches, lighter
8. Food. Ideally should carry an extra day’s food, 1000 extra calories over and above that days food would be a minimum.
9. First Aid Kit. Athletic tape, pain killers and steristrips with bandaids would be a minimum.
10. Insect Repellent. DEET is safe and the best consistently effective repellent.
11. Flashlight. LED headlamp best. Spare batteries. A must if you have to walk in the dark which is not unusual.
12. Knife. Multipurpose tool like a Leatherman with pliers may be better than a Swiss Army Knife but are very heavy and may not have many actual uses (cutting off arm if trapped by a rock). Keep blade sharp.
13. Sun protection. Sunglasses, sunscreen and lip protector with sunscreen.
14. Nylon cord. Useful for many things.
15. Keys and Identification.
16. Pack. One large enough to hold all this stuff. I like the 38 liter Deuter Futura.
17. Common Sense.
SEARCH AND RESCUE and EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION
by Bruce Gardave, Nelson Search and Rescue
Search and Rescue in the province of BC is different than other provinces. Within the national parks, Parks Canada does its own SAR.
BC SAR teams work for the provincial government, and are coordinated by the Emergency Coordination Centre (ECC) in Victoria. SAR members are all volunteers. There is no charge to the public for a rescue.
Search & Rescue has changed a lot over the years. It’s not like the old days. There are now mandates and protocols that need to be followed, high levels of training and qualifications, specialized gear … generally, it’s much less haphazard. Available SAR capabilities include ground search and rescue, winter and avalanche response, long line rescues, mountain rescue, rope rescue, search dog teams, swift water rescue and first aid. Many of these require teams with specialized expertise.
Tasking agencies that can initiate a call out include Nelson RCMP, Nelson City Police, Nelson Fire, BC Ambulance, etc. It’s a big organization!
In the most common scenario, SAR is called out in response to a 911 call made to the RCMP. However, the RCMP don’t actually go out on rescues these days. It’s not part of their mandate. Instead, they will contact Victoria’s Emergency Coordination Centre, which will in turn contact SAR.
When you call for help. Make sure you are safe first before trying to rescue others; that’s paramount.
Provide responders with as much information as possible. The more details, the faster and more efficient the rescue will be. This info might include: name and address, nature and time of incident, location (GPS location using latitude and longitude is best, because those are the coordinates that helicopter companies use), number of people involved, their ages, nature of the emergency (missing person? medical emergency?), medical condition, terrain, hazards (such as avalanche or water hazards), weather information (wind direction?) and so on. Contact information — family members at home might shed light on a medical condition. Indicate what kind of response will be needed — the type of rescue situation and what gear SAR will need to bring. Without this information, SAR will just bring everything, but that will slow down a response.
Call out communications
Phone. If you have a cellular connection (which is often not the case in our back country) you may be able to use your phone to dial 911. That call goes to the 911 operators centre in Kelowna. They will want to know what the emergency is – a medical emergency, fire, or police response. It’s best to say you need a police response and you need a backcountry rescue. That’s better than saying it’s a medical emergency because you might be talking to someone who has no idea about country conditions, and they might call out an ambulance, which is not what’s needed. Emphasise that you need a back country rescue. Dispatch will phone the ECC in Victoria. They will figure out where you are and dispatch the appropriate SAR team to your location.
Pinging a cell phone location requires using several nearby cell towers to triangulate the location of the cell phone, so it could work in the middle of New York City but not in the Kootenay back country.
Satellite linking devices. These handheld devices include InReach, Spot, Zoleo, and newer iPhones with satellite linking capability. Usually, there’s a monthly subscription fee for this service. They generally have an SOS button you can push to indicate that you are in distress. The alert includes your GPS coordinates, and it automatically goes to a dispatch centre in Houston, TX. They will phone the ECC in Victoria to say that they’ve had this activation and its location. The ECC will then contact the appropriate SAR group. If there’s an SOS activation, SAR will respond no matter what. You hit that button, and they will come.
However, with InReach, there is a great feature that allows the SAR manager to link it to the device from their end, track its owner’s movements and set up a two-way text communication. SAR can then ask for more details about the incident. However, SAR will respond even without this extra clarification.
Earlier InReach devices sometimes had an issue with accidental activation when something pressed the SOS button in the pack. That seems to have been resolved.
Satellite phones. There are different kinds in Canada. Satellite phones don’t have the ability to make a 911 call, so you’ll need to phone a direct phone number. That’s a bit hit and miss, as you might phone Kaslo police directly, for instance, only to find out they are all out of the office. Sat phones can be used to phone an emergency contact at home, assuming they are home when you call. That person can then call 911 to initiate the rescue. This works best if you’ve set up the scenario beforehand so that your emergency contact has relevant information on hand such as names, trip plans, and medical information. Satellite phones are bulkier to carry than small satellite devices. Also, it can take time to find a satellite signal, which is frustrating if you are in the middle of dealing with a medical emergency. With a device like an InReach, you can hit the SOS button and then go back to attending to the critical incident.
HYPOTHERMIA
Excessive loss of body heat can occur surprisingly quickly, even in relatively mild weather. Cool temperatures, wetness (such as perspiration or rain), wind, or fatigue, and usually a combination of these, sap the body’s warmth. Chills, shivering, poor coordination, slurred speech, sluggish thinking and memory loss are next.
Wear synthetic clothing that wicks moisture, and bring proper clothing equipment and emergency food on hikes. If you can’t stay warm and dry, escape the wind and rain, turn back, keep moving, eat snacks, and seek shelter. Remove wet clothing, insulate yourself from the ground, lie naked next to each other, build a fire, and consume sweets, carbohydrates, and warm liquids.
Keeping Warm. When Inuit are asked how they manage to stay warm outdoors in the Arctic in winter, the reply is: “Don’t sweat.” That makes good sense. When you sweat, your clothes become damp, and they are less effective insulators. Additionally, the moisture continues to evaporate after sweating has stopped, which causes further cooling.
The trick is to exercise at a rate where you stay warm without sweating, which essentially involves adjusting your speed and clothing. In this matter, an individual has more flexibility than a group, where everyone should proceed at about the same speed. If you can’t adjust speed, you must adapt clothing, but that, in turn, involves stopping at times and possibly fragmenting the group. Additionally, rest stops should be considered carefully.
In a heated shelter, one can relax and dry any wet clothes; likewise, if it is warm, calm and sunny outdoors. Otherwise, stops should be short and frequent, so that one does not cool off too much. Bonfires used to stay warm are no longer considered environmentally acceptable.
Firestarter Recipe. Fill a cardboard egg carton with shredded paper, sawdust, and/ or clothes dryer lint. Melt some old candle nubs in a clean soup can on the stove. Pour into the egg carton cups over the tinder, to about 3/4 full (put some newspaper underneath for spills). For extra power, place a small stick or two into the wax, sticking out about 1″; small splits of kindling work very well. Once cooled/ hardened, cut each cup out individually and wrap the cardboard corners over the top.
Store a couple in the bottom of your pack all winter in a plastic bag (keep the cardboard dry). To use: prepare more kindling and small splits of firewood, make a lovely teepee with the firestarter at the centre, and light the cardboard.
Stay warm and toasty all night for that unplanned bivy, or light the wood stove at the hut to cook your lunch! You can facilitate the whole fire by having a snow saw that also cuts wood, or consider adding a small chainsaw, such as Coglan’s, to your emergency kit. It’s tiny, cheap, neat and works. Available at Walmart, Canadian Tire, or wherever Coghlan’s camping supplies are sold.
