It is hard to understand an "experienced" hiker going on an all day hike with virtually nothing in the way of gear to deal with the normal things that happen when you are out hiking especially this time of the year.

and actually suck at shooting, especially if put on the timer

...But not someone who misses their target many times at a higher rate of speed, flailing around in an unsafe manner, but still managing to beat some arbitrary timer in the process.

What perplexes me is that the guy was Air Force. I figured he should have had training in survival, however basic.

Once would hope so but in actuality, the Air Force doesn't run around in the woods in the mud and the rain so there's little need for such training except for aircrew who might find themselves shelled out of their warm cocoon and landing almost anywhere.

IlBob - you might add a secondary thing to fear to your excellent and simple list:

A nice weather forecast that's wrong.

Trusting a weather forecast is sometimes necessary but don't bet your life on it if you can help it.

...But building a fire could have been quite tough in the downpour that was described...

...I'm sure that once hypothermia set in his judgement was affected, and perhaps they didn't realize how much trouble they were in til it was too late...

This is why I always hike with a small backpack. Its got a 'few things' inside. Usually a poncho/ jacket, food bars, phone, survival/comfort/first aid kit, light & water.

Figure 3-4 pounds w/o water.

I have two boys myself, I am a Scout Master. I could not imagine allowing anything like this to happen. I will read this article to the troop, and use it to justify why I make them all carry a poncho, survival kit and bottle of water even if they are only going 100 yards from the camp.

Children do not tough it out. One of the BO issues most people with children seriously overestimate is how well children will hold up in a BO situation, especially on foot in bad weather. The just don't do well. He might have been able to tough it out and walk himself out of the woods (although this is not as easy as it may sound) but he would have had to leave the kids to die.

I don't know what happened to this guy but I can relate to how fast the weather can change. I walk the dog every morning. These days we leave about 4:30 and go about 3.25 miles. Typical suburban type streets and sidewalks. An easy walk.

One time I was about 3 blocks from home when it started to sprinkle. I decided to just walk faster. It was in the upper 40s and I am close to home walking on a paved street. How bad can it get? I leave my poncho that I had in a fanny pack in the pack. Shortly thereafter the sprinkles turn to a torrential downpour. I was wearing a more or less rain resistant nylon jacket. Within maybe 30 seconds I am soaked to the skin. It is raining so hard I cannot see the surface of the street I am walking on more than a few feet away. No wind to speak of, but I am just drenched. In the few additional minutes it takes me to get home I get pretty chilly. Nothing real serious, but if it had happened out in the woods 20 minutes from the car, I might well have been in trouble.

It was a good object lesson about having some protection from the elements and that if you get any warning at all that it is going to rain soon, damn well better put on the rain gear now rather than wait until I am soaked through. Now I see a few drops of rain and the poncho comes out of the pack and if not on me, it gets out of the pouch and in my pocket where I can put it on in about ten seconds.

If you have never been outside when a storm like this brews up, it is hard to realize just how fast it can go from a nice walk in the woods to a life threatening situation.

Another time I was walking the same route and it started to sprinkle so on goes my poncho. The wind picks up and I mean some serious wind. Again, I am only a few blocks from home on a paved street (actually the street is made of concrete pavers, but that is not an important part of the story). The serious rain held off until I made it home but the wind blew my poncho all over the place. If I had been out in the woods in that storm I would have been in trouble and soaked from the waist down.

People forget too how fast hiking conditions can change. Many trails are not well marked and when it gets dark or there is rain so you can't see more than 20 feet in front of you even with a flashlight, it can be easy to miss turn offs. If you have a paper map and it gets wet it is useless.

I was out a few weeks ago hiking and came across a couple on the trail. The gal was dressed appropriately. The guy was wearing blue jeans, a light windbreaker, no hat, no gloves, and low cut canvas shoes. He was obviously cold as he had his hands jammed in his jeans and had his shoulders hunched up. I don't know if he thought he looked cool for walking around in the cold shivering or what. I don't go out this time of the year without hat and gloves. I keep a snap ring on a pack strap so that I can hang them from the strap if I want to take them off as often happens once I start walking and warm up. But even if it is warm enough when I set out to walk without them, they are hooked to my strap. I also keep a spare pair of light weight gloves in an inner jacket pocket along with a balaclava.

I sometimes see guys on bikes out 2 or 3 miles from anywhere in the winter with nothing in the way of gear and dressed like it is summer. They are fine as long as they are humping it, but if they have to stop (say they get a flat), they are in trouble.

Something I wrote about this on another forum.

We get funny looks when going even on a short hike on a nice summer day. Everyone else in short shorts, tank tops, and no pack. And we have our convertable hiking pants, shirt, Camelbak packs, etc.

I have a bunch of those Banana Bags for the same purpose. They're quite heavy duty and the bright yellow is a plus.

The Heatsheets Bivvy and Blanket look great. These are the ones from Adventure Medical, yes? The price is right. Are they reasonably durable?

"HJ - Could I ask why you decided to pack a small child?"

My theory is that he's testing his ability to do extreme hiking while being in a totally sleep-deprived state. That method also worked for me in the past :-)

I don't know what switch gets flipped making some people more aware of their own safety and security, while most others live in blissful ignorance.

Yes to both. Durability is much higher than a thin Mylar "space" blanket but somewhat less than the sportsmans "space" blanket that I use as a small tarp.

I wouldn't care to carry a poncho made of this material -- I'd think the bivvy would be better for resting still, and a poncho would undoubtedly be pretty warm for moving around. You can improvise a poncho from a blanket at need.

So just as the survival blanket we are talking about above is a good quality item at a very reasonable price, what sort of emergency poncho would be its equivalent?

It really is tragic.

It is also a cautionary tale -- a good reminder to us all to go over our gear lists one more time.

When people tease me about carrying the 10,000 essentials,


I should hand them a copy of the article in the original post of this thread.

HJ

I poked around a bit on Amazon, and found these, which got decent reviews:

http://tinyurl.com/bghgbjy

I emailed the company asking the weight, and they replied "about 1/2 a pound".

So I might order a couple.

David

YMMV, but I find these slightly more robust ones and little better than the $2 disposables. If you want something that will hold up for more than one use, I'd step up to these. They cheap ones can even rip while you're trying to get them out of the package, but they're great in a pinch.