Share stories of when you have hurt yourself or had to turn back, ask for help, or completely change plans. Close calls also welcome. Mistakes make us stronger if we learn from them and we can learn from eachother. Bonus points for greentexts.
Defeated by nature
I thought I was good at making fires. I've been making fires in shit conditions for quite a while - rain, snow, rain and snow on and off for a few days. But the last couple of times when I've been out I couldn't keep the fire going unless I was constantly maintaining it by adding kindling/fuel and blowing on it. It had been snowing a frick load then melting away then sub zero plus heavy snow again on repeat. I thought I was able to overcome this but not really. What should I do to make it?
wildland firemaking is bugged since the wednesday patch, just use propane heat until the hotfix
Sounds like damp firewood (moisture inside)
Lay some wood around (but not IN) the fire, to expedite drying. Might help
Find wood from a dead but still standing tree. Won’t be filled with water from laying on ze ground. If there’s any bugs in it, eat ze bugs.
I did and also stored logs close to the fire as another anon mentioned. The problem was that since it had been snowing very heavy then melted away then dropped below zero and snowed very heavy again, all within a few days, all logs were icy and wet on the inside. I think things would've gone better if I used medium sized sticks for way longer before moving on to logs. Those were kind of hard to find though.
Split some bigger pieces in half and use them to create a layer between the fire and the wet cold ground. The ground can mess with your fire.
I bought a sleeping bag that was rated for the temperature i was in, had wool clothing on and 2 blankets on top as backup, still froze. I stayed, but it sucked. Just purchased a Carinthia winter sleeping bag so that should be the end of my freezing adventures.
I have a suit for -40°c and still freeze at like -1°c if I'm not moving.
I think if you're not moving (trying to sleep) the only option is to have an external heat source like a fire.
I put hand warmers in my sleeping bag, eat a large dinner and drink whiskey before turning in. No fire, no problem.
one winter i hurt my back so bad i barely got my tent together and ate 1/4 of my meal cold soaked
during the night i went trough all my painkillers barely able to move and when the sun rose i called my friend to pick me up, luckily i was 3km away from the nearest road and there were people living at the end of it
those 3 kilometers were the hardest of my life, i cut branches to use as crutches and i even crawled begging for mercy and called for my friend
when i finally got into the car and he took me home i spent 2 weeks bedridden hoping i would not have to poop today because it means 5 meter trip to the bathroom
i admit it i was really afraid there and laying basically paralyzed trough the night might have been the worst experience of my life
Your friend lost all respect for you that day.
he is cool all he said maybe i should get some other hobbies besides walking trough the woods
my boss was pretty pissed and he also said i should get some more normal hobbies
snow gave away under my feet while i was taking off my backpack and i sprained my back when i lost my balance
It's always the weird small things that mess you up. Pulled a muscle by sneezing once and couldnt walk properly for 3 days
Same here. I got a life long injury from just laying down like 10 minutes on a cold bench and it fricked my shoulder up forever. All the dramatic falls and crashes never hurt me.
reminds me of link related;
what the frick did you do to hurt your back that bad?
I got bit by a venomous snake once and had to go to the hospital. Shit sucked.
I post this in everyone of these threads. but i nearly froze to death after wetting in my down sleeping bag in -10F. Im now very against down as insulation whenever possible and add a wool blanket to use as a liner when I do use a down sleeping bag. the same peopl chanting cotton kills are usually fitted head to toe in down gear. pretty silly.
I was mountaineering in the Tetons in the winter. Only people up there was me and a mountain guide and his client. Me and the guide had to save his clients life from hypothermia when he soaked his down altitude suit with sweat and got into his down sleeping bag. Frick down.
Down is fantastic if its paired with layers, my down Snow Mantra parka has saved me a few times from frick ups in the winter. Wearing only down is a good way to freeze.
packing an elk out of a ravine in sub-freezing, not sure the distance but it was at least a mile and hellishly steep. im a baby.
Long story but i promise you'll enjoy it
>climbing granite mountain with a friend
>college age dipshits
>don't look up trail heads and parking
shit, lets just drive up to the mother fricker and start hikin'
>find a trail head to park at
>like a mile from base of mountain
>reach base around 1pm
>1 hour in, a thunder storm rolls in
>Jesus gave us a rock formation we can hind in
>2 sec after entering "cave" lightning hits in immediate area
literally no delay between flash of light and the boom
>storm stops, keep moving
>come across a camping spot with tents
>call out
>no answer
>slowly approach
>notice tents are literally torn and shredded
>lots of gear left, no one there
>nope the frick out of that
>keep hiking up
>friend is ahead by 10 ft
>boulder is above us on this gravel incline
>he uses it to pull himself up and onto more solid ground
>i do the same and it starts fricking rolling
>friend pulls me out of way
>...
>yes we keep going
>its probably 5pm at this point
>reach a false peak as the sun is setting
>absolutely beautiful
>arizona has the best sunsets and rises
>friend is like lets keep going, the peak is right there
>frick no we should head back
>start heading down
>night falls
>terrain has a completely different feel
descent route had more bushes and trees because we chose to follow a washout
>reach a cliff
>a mother fricking cliff
>our dim ass flashlights let us barley see the bottom
>lower friend down
>use him to climb down
>eventually reach flatter terrain
>no fricking idea where the trail head is (we went off the trail at the beginning to head towards mountain)
>find the fence we climbed to start the hike towards mountain
>frick yes, we good
>shine flashlight at a bush...
>literally 6 pairs of eyes staring back at us, heart drops for the first time on this hike
>javelinas
>they leave us alone
>reach my shitty car
>go get taco bell
seriously, y'all. plan your hikes, even if its just a day hike
Followup
We did eventually reach the peak on our third attempt. The second attempt, we parked at same trail and walked across the entire front of granite mountain. it was about 15 miles. ended up walking back in the dark again and seeing more javelinas hiding in bushes.
third attempt we found the right trail head and had a nice hike to the top. Hiked to to top multiple times after.
I just call Granite Mountain Frick Mountain now. I hate that b***h.
>javelinas
What are those?
pig
Every free day i dont go out and pick the comforts of my home over the glorous outdoors, is a day ive defeated by nature.
Current score is like 100-6000 in nature's favour.
#deep #mindovermatter #dontjudge #realone #youdontknowme
I was going through some tough stuff and decided to go camping alone in the back acres of my family's property. It was nice to just sit on a log by a fire in the middle of thee forest far away from any people, houses, trails, etc. Around 9:45pm I started to get circled by a black bear, which I scared off. And then it came back and I scared it off again. And then it came back, and again, and again. By 2:45am it was getting bold and coming right into the firelight. I noped the frick out with all my lights and my hatchet in hand, a good 40min hike back to the house with the bear trailing me somewhere in the darkness. Frick that shit.
man i would have retreated after it left the first time. call me a pussy but i ain't gonna frick around with bears
Yeah I just didn't think I'd see it again and really didn't want to leave. Next morning I bought two cans of bear spray
I was squatting on BLM land from spring till late fall, had made an autistic version of wattle and daub between 2 fallen trees. Things were going great until it rained very hard for a week and a half. The river about 200ft away had rose up and water began seeping through my walls. Woke up one morning with my entrance having a foot deep puddle
Nothing really extreme like Le Boulder Amputation or anything but my gear was soaked, my firewood was useless, and my morale was destroyed. I ended up sleeping in my backup tent for a few days hoping the rain would stop but it never did. Ended up packing up and having my friend bring me back to town
I don't have pics of the aftermath anymore but here's a video of part of the structure. The roof was great water protection but I did not anticipate the river rising as high as it did or the rain lasting for so long
worst frick up I had to deal with was a buddies girl friend trying to cross a frozen creek in january and dunking herself on a 4km easy hike. The creek seemed frozen rock hard, but was still running in a few spots. She stepped in the wrong spot and sank up to her waist in water until we got her out. We got her dry pretty fast but she was going into hypothermia so we rushed her back to buddies truck where he buried her in a big down parka and blankets.
You're not supposed to climb up waterfalls. I tried to climb a series of 3x 20' -ish waterfalls. The first one was fine. Halfway up the second one my hand slipped and I fell, my left foot hit a big rock under the water, it didn't hurt though and I thought I was good. I climbed back up the second waterfall, then I climbed the third one, then I had to climb a small hill to get out of the gully. As soon as I got to the top of the gully I felt it, sharp shooting pain in my ankle.
I think my brain shut the pain out until it knew that I was in a safe location, because when it hit it was really bad.
I limped back to camp, I get there and there's a medivac helicopter parked next to the campgrounds. Turns out someone else fell out of a tree and had a compound fracture to their arm. Since they were already there, I asked the medic to take a look. Obviously he couldn't tell me anything because he's a fricking medic in the forest, not a doctor in a hospital with an x-ray machine, but he said I could fly out with the other guy since they were already there. I declined and limped back to my hammock. There was a dentist in the camp who was just there on vacation, but he had half of a pharmacy with him and he gave me some pain killers or muscle relaxants or something.
I wake up two days later in my hammock, there was some asian mom type there and she saw me get up so she brought me some food. I rested for like another week or so, mooching meals off of other campers, then I limp-hiked the 11 miles out.
That was 15 years ago. my ankle never healed properly and I have a slight club foot now, plus my jogging mile time went up by like 2 minutes.
I'm pretty sure my ankle had a slight fracture, I probably should have taken the medivac to the hospital, I even had SAR insurance at the time and it would have been free, at least the clubfoot isn't seriously debilitating though.
>be me, 23 yo outdoors gay
>Birthday comes around
>decide last minute venture into Absarokas for weekend
> grab basic necessities as my birthday is in August (about 5 cliff bars, can of soup, water+ filter, tarps, sleeping bag, bear spray, 10mm, socks and fishing pole)
> find trail head that seems pretty awesome
>sunny and warm, letsfrickinggo.jpg
>get up to this lake about 10 miles in
>been here an hour and a fricking storm runs in out of nowhere
>realize I didn’t check weather forecast because I’m a moron
> scurrying around to build my moron tarp shelter
>get setup and dry
>frickyounature.jpg
>set the one can of soup in fire to heat up
>I’m moronic so I forgot about it and didn’t open lid
>can fricking explodes all over my shit
>lovely
>go to bed feeling accomplished other than soup incident
>midnight comes
> Windy as frick and tarp system completely falls apart
> now wet, cold, and in the dark.
>all clothes are wet (entire backpack as well)
>suck it up and try to suffer through til morning.
>morning arrives after much shivering
>still pouring and windy
>move camp spot to timber line with dry spots
>catch some fish so I can eat something other than cliff bars
>didn’t bring pan to fry fish so smoke it on stick
>tastes terrible because smoked with pine and spruce
>run out of cliff bars
>still raining and windy as frick
> fish quit biting and only caught 2 so far
>sleeping bag and clothes still wet and fire isn’t drying them.
>sitting naked huddled by fire trying to dry clothes, bag and shoes
>put shoes too close to fire and they melt the front and shrink a size.
> still wet,
>no dry clothes
>shoes burnt
> did I mention everything is wet?
>rains harder because it knows I’m there
>”it will clear up eventually”
>doesn’t clear up
>stay one more night for no reason
>too cold and wet to sleep
>morning comes
>no food and fish aren’t biting
>finally give up and hike down in fricked up shoes and get the best blisters of my life
tried to do the timberline trail at mt. hood a few years ago, didn't do the requisite research. Whole sections of the trail were wiped out by treefall. Wasn't life or death, but wound up climbing through miles of downed trees, soaked by rain on a steep mountainside in the dark. horrible shit. happened to fall into a little pot that was just big enough and flat enough for my tent. Read about conditions if you can.
Also got dehydrated pretty badly during a 4 nighter in the grand canyon in between water spots that were about 7 miles apart. Ignored the early warning signs, nearly paid for it.