Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 00:08:32 -0800
Reply-To: Robert Keezer <warmerwagen@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Robert Keezer <warmerwagen@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Fwd: OT-stranded in the wilderness with a westy what would
you do ?
In-Reply-To: <de48c0be0612071021l2b20e9ads5e9a4638821fdb85@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Mordo wrote:
"if everyone has stayed put the story would have
a happy ending "...
This can only be claimed in hindsight.
This is not the same in every case.
In that same area several years ago a man died
waiting in his camper for 2 weeks for help that
never came.
He had been snowed in , was on a road, and was
only 15 miles from help.
He had the comfort of the camper, propane for
heat, food, snow for water. When all of the fuel
and food was used up, he starved to death.
He could have improvised a pair of snowshoes, and
hiked out. He had a weeks worth a food, warm
clothing, maps. He was in a forested area where
he could have built a huge fire ,a forest fire
even, but apparently he assumed help was" on it's
way".
He had gasoline he could have easily built a fire
and kept it going with wood from the forest.
If you have ever flown in a helicopter or plane
over wilderness as I have it is very difficult to
spot a person.
Staying with a car makes sense when the odds a
very high someone will stop , lke a few miles
from a town or highway, but not if you know you
can get to help with a few miles.
If you hvae no warm clothing then staying with
the car is better, but you must keep mov ing to
stay warm if you don;t have a fire.
Recently a hiker was lost for three days in the
Washington Cascades. What saved her was she kept
moving, taking short breaks , but without the
ability to make a fire and no sleeping bag, she
kept moving for three days . It was 20-30 degree
weather .
I learned winter survival living in the bush of
Alaska. As John Rodgers says, the shortest
distance is critical without proper shoes or
clothing.
I made a similar mistake , walking from the
University in Fairbanks to my house, 1 mile away,
in 50 below zero.. without long-johns. My knees
hurt so bad I almost banged on someones front
door to let me in.
In that climate insulation is your main survival
tool and goose down is the best.
On the Discovery channel recently the story of
of a father and son stranded in the Alaskan bush
aired.
If the son had not hiked out looking for help,
both would most likely have never been found.
Another story of a plane crash in Africa the
same- if two men had not hiked out they all would
have died.
The young man who died this week in Oregon trying
to find help had spent 9 days with his family
staying put with the vehicle.
He was found several miles away in the woods, not
near a road. He had been shedding his clothes to
mark his path for rescures to follow the report
says.
This makes no sense, as everybit of clothing in
those temperatures is vital.
After nine days of waiting, eventually help came
for his family.
If you leave the vehicle , you should stay on the
road unless you can see a main highway or
town.Getting off the road only lessens your
chance of being found.
These were holiday travlers. Like most motorists
who drive on main roads, they carried few
survival items.
I collect road maps, and most of the older ones
have advice to bring a sleeping bag, water, food,
matches, flashlite, warm clothing on long
cross-country trips.
A CB radio for emergencies is very inexpensive.
Camper vehicles of any kind are great because
they have some built -in survival features.
They would be the safest place to stay if you
were certain because of your location that other
vehicles would soon pass that area.
But the idea that help is on the way can get you
into trouble.
Help may be on the way, but not in your
direction.
In winter conditions you can avoid hypothermia by
walking. If you have food and warm clothing, you
can walk back out on the road you came in on.
When I was in the Boy Scouts we had lots of
survival training. I remember making a pair of
snow shoes out of branches. They were very crude
but worked.
As long as you are in reasonable good health, and
have food, you can keep warm as long as you keep
moving.
The average person can walk a mile in 20 minutes.
In snow it might only be 1 mph or less.
With something you can strap to your feet to
spread your weight out over the snow and walk on
it, you can move over it.
In very cold weather , searching is the most
intense the first three days of searching.
After this, the odds that the lost person has
survived diminish.
Everyone should pack a basic survival kit in
their vehicle.
If you don't have a cell phone an older used one
that are available in thrift stores will work.
A CB radio will have a greater range at night and
the signals can bounce and skip long distances.
Hand held walkie-talkies use yet a different set
of frequencies. The EPIRB or ELT as suggested
would also be a good investment. It sends the
signal to sattelites and relays them to emergency
stations on the ground.
Other items like flares or guns can be useful.
The report of a large caliber rifle or pistol can
be heard a long distance.
If you see an aircraft, a flare , even a road
flare, is easy to see. A signalling mirror with a
sight hole can shine the brightest light of all,
sunlight, in to the sight of a pilot.
Having some kind of firestarter, old candle wax,
gelled fire starter, presto logs, charcoal
briquets, andthing that can get damp tinder and
wood dry enough to burn is mandatory if staying
with the vehicle is your only option.
How many times did you drive cross country in
the dead of winter with the heat up to 80 wearing
t-shirt and shorts? I see this all the time ,
always young people, crossing the state where in
the eastern half, it's very cold in the winter.
Your car can slide off the road, you can be
forced to walk in a t-shirt and shorts in 20
degrees with a 15 mile per hour wind .
I never leave home without my jacket, even in
summer. Since I am a dirt road addict, I have my
Westfalia fully stocked with supplies , extra
jerry cans of fuel on my trailer, radios, snow
shoes, survival gear.
Marine parachute flares, etc.
I make it a point to have maps for any
backcountry area I may be going to.
I was lost in the early 90's for three days in my
old bus in a very rugged part of Nothern
california. I could not find the road out, used
up 20 gallons of gas, and was bewildered that
every road I took dead-ended.
if I had a car-compass i could have stayed on a
course.
With a compass you can steer to a point in the
distance , and then take a bearing from that
point to the next one.
If you know you need to go West, a car compass
will tell you your are heading the wrong
direction. All long distance travelers should
have car compasses.
Robert
1982 Westfalia
--- mordo <helmut.blong@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> While it's not standard for terrestrial
> vehicles, EPIRB (*Emergency Position
> Indicating Radio Beacon) *would be a good
> locator.
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: TC <trclark@shaw.ca>
> Date: Dec 7, 2006 12:55 PM
> Subject: OT-stranded in the wilderness with a
> westy what would you do ?
> To: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
>
> I have been following that story of the SF
> family that got stranded in the
> Oregon coast mountains
> my son asked what we would do if our 2 wd westy
> got stuck/broke down in some
> remote winter area
>
> besides that fact we prolly have 2 weeks of
> food , propane, dual bats etc &
> some Garmin 2 way radios
> we would prolly just hole up & camp out :)
>
> The interesting aspect was that the attempt to
> make a cell phone call and
> the cdr records allowed
> the searchers to grid search a cell phone tower
> coverage grid this allowed
> them to be located
> if everyone has stayed put the story would have
> a happy ending ...
>
> I was curious the Garmin rino 530 i always have
> in the van is GPS enabled &
> allows other Garmin
> 2 ways to track to each other bu the coverage
> is only 2 miles in bad terrain
> Yet I can usually get a GPS fix as long as
> there is not much tree cover just
> about any remote locations..
>
> Are there any inexpensive devices that would
> send a gps fix to international
> emergency satalite
> the allow searches to home in on sone lost /
> stranded in the westy
> wilderness ?
>
>
> --
> mordo
> 1990 Carat
>
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