Bryson

If you ever get the chance to read, “A Walk in the Woods,” by Bill Bryson, do so. It is one of my favorites. I’ve read it twice just because it makes me laugh living through the saga of two middle-aged men ill prepared for the Appalachian Trail.

Since one of this month’s topics is wilderness first aid, I thought that the passage I’m about to share with you would be appropriate. I refer to it as: Chapter 17, Hypothermia: Bryson forgets his waterproofs.

Bryson hikes Mt. Lafayette with his friend, Bill Abdu. Abdu is an orthopedic surgeon and Bryson sees his occupation as a bonus and explains, “I didn’t suppose he’d be able to do much useful surgery up there, but if I fell and broke my back at least I’d know the Latin names for what was wrong with me.”

The Mt. Lafayette loop is a climb up Mt. Liberty and a traverse over Little Haystack and Mount Lincoln to Mt. Lafayette which stands 5,249 ft. By the time Bryson and Dr. Abdu reach the summit of Haystack, the temps plummet and the wind prevails. They proceed to pull of their waterproofs, however, Bryson has forgotten his.

He begins to think about the hypothermia horror stories of people being found after a blizzard halfway out of their sleeping bags with their shirts pulled off, or the canoe buddies who were found floating upright in the lake next to their canoe; one of the guys still had his glasses on.

It seems counterintuitive for hypothermic victims to remove their clothes or lower themselves into bone-chilling water but these victims get to a point where they feel like they are on fire, which usually marks the point of no return.

Bryson continues to hike in his jeans and cotton sweater which soon becomes saturated with moisture and he begins to shiver. He is too embarrassed to tell his friend since he is supposed to represent the conditioned and knowledgeable thru-hiker that he claims to be.  He glances at his watch and sees that it is 10:58am. When he regards his watch for a second time it still reads 10:58am. He thinks his sense of time is going. “How long would it be till I was dancing around half naked and trying to beat out flames,” thinks Bryson in his state of horror.

Obviously Bryson makes it over Mt. Lafayette and back to the car at which point he checks the time, 10:58, he taps the face and realizes the 2^nd hand had been stuck.

The take-home message is that, no matter what the season, the weather on tops of mountains is totally unpredictable, so it is pertinent that a hiker it prepared for all degrees at any time of the year.