Dad Joke CCCXXVII

I made a playlist for hiking.  It has music from Peanuts, The Cranberries, and Eminem.

I call it my trail mix.

The Universe doesn't care how nice you are

19 year old Emily Sotelo died of exposure on Mt. Lafayette, NH last month.  An avid hiker, she was trying to summit all 48 peaks over 4000 ft by her birthday.  It seems that she had only gotten into hiking a few years ago, and had no experience with winter hiking.  Here is a (partial) list of survival gear that she did not have:

• Hiking boots (she wore "off road" sneakers)
• Map
• Compass
• Matches
• Flashlight or headlamp
• Winter coat (she had a light jacket)

Not mentioned in the article from the UK Daily Mail, she almost certainly wasn't carrying a knife.  When the temperature drops to zero and the wind gusts to 60 mph, you can build a shelter of pine boughs covered with snow that will keep you alive - you burrow into the pine boughs and the snow will act as insulation.

If you have a knife.

Her mother had dropped her off at the trailhead before first light, planning on picking her up before noon.  When Emily was late, her mother reported this and a search party went out on a four day rescue effort.  They ultimately returned with her body.  The whole situation is a tragedy which - sadly - is entirely due to Miss Sotelo's woeful lack of preparation.

The mountains of New Hampshire are deadly, despite their low elevation.  The first weather station on the peak of Mt. Washington was chained to the rock to keep it from blowing away.  The new station looks like a medieval castle tower, built to resist 300 mph winds.  Its highest recorded wind speed of 231 mph was a world record until 25 years ago.

When I was a lad in Boy Scouts, winter (heck, and summer) survival readiness was hammered into us by the scoutmasters - all World War II veterans.  We always had all the equipment that Miss Sotelo left behind.  Heck, we would have winter campouts in February.  In Maine.  Everyone came home, with all their fingers and toes.

But we were ready, because our Scoutmasters made sure we were.  They knew that the Universe didn't care how nice we were.

Hiking the Appalachian Trail in 5 minutes

Usually it's ASM826 who posts hiking stuff, but via Chris Lynch here is a video of the entire trail in 5 minutes.  ASM826 has been on a bunch of this; I've been on less.

Green Tunnel from Kevin Gallagher on Vimeo.

Who knew?

The American Discovery Trail is a hiking trail that crosses the entire continental USA from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.

If you go, co-blogger ASM826 put up a great series of posts about backpacking.

Hat tip to Al Fin who has a lot more on hiking (and biking, and boating) routes.