Hiker Safety: The Ten Essentials

Overview

Most hiking accidents aren’t dramatic Hollywood-type events. Hikers get into trouble when something unexpected happens to the unprepared, often something as simple as underestimating how long it will take to get back to the trailhead, misjudging a forecast (or ignoring it all together), or twisting an ankle on a loose rock. These things can happen to anybody, but the difference between a good hike and a bad hike when something unexpected happens is how prepared you are. Here’s a couple examples:

• What happens if this hike takes longer than planned? Will you be able to find your way back to the trailhead after dark?
• What happens if you slip into an icy creek and get completely soaked? Do you know how to warm yourself back up again in sopping wet clothing?
• What happens if your cell phone dies and you lose your mapping software? Do you know how to use a map and/or compass to find your way back?

These are basic errors and accidents that happen to hikers all the time. The course works through the Ten Essentials — an emergency system developed by an organization called the Mountaineers around 1974. It’s an easy list of gear to find, and it’s not a secret.

The problem isn’t knowing what the ten essentials are, it’s understanding how to use them and why they’re important. Being prepared means planning well and assuming that, if you spend enough time outside, something unexpected will eventually happen.

What you’ll learn in this course:

• How to plan a route, check the weather and permit requirements, and make sure someone knows where you are before you go
• The Ten Essentials: navigation, sun protection, layering, light, first aid, fire, repair, food and water, and emergency shelter options
• How to understand and avoid the wildlife most likely to cross your path
• The basics of wilderness medical response: blisters, sprains, cuts, heat illness, falls, allergic reactions, and when your best move is calling for help rather than pushing through
• What cell signal actually does and doesn’t cover, and where tools like satellite messengers fit in

You’ll build your own Ten Essentials kit as the course progresses — probably using gear you already have — and you’ll end the final session with a toolkit you actually know how to use.

Our time together will be based on presentations, discussions, examples of ideal things to keep in your kit, as well as possible alternatives. You will end this course as a more capable, self-reliant, and confident hiker, knowing you’re ready to see what’s over that next hill.

Though this course will cover some basics of wilderness medicine, it is not a certification course.

Timeline

Event Details