Outdoor Safety Essentials Guide

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Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are venturing outdoors to take in natures wonders. Some of them get into trouble on the trail.

Imagine trying to find a person in trouble, that has had to call for help, over miles of backcountry.

Making things more difficult yet, America's Search and Rescue volunteer groups are in a State of Emergency themselves. That means it’s more important for all of us to own responsible best practices for outdoor preparedness. We’ll explore all of that in the next few minutes.

Being prepared for the unexpected can keep the fun happening on a fun outing. Being able to take care of a foot blister, insect sting, or any number of other maladies, can save a great hike from turning into a downer. And what if things go seriously bad?

No one begins an outdoor adventure thinking that the outing is going to involve search and rescue before they get back home. But as we’ll see, for quite a number of people – that is how their experience ended. But it didn’t always have to be -

More people are being drawn to outdoor experiences

If you’ve done more outdoor activity since the pandemic started, you know you are not alone. National Parks visitor numbers are an all time high. Like, Acadia National Park in Maine were up 74%. Canyonlands National Park in Utah were up 30%.

Last year more than half of the U.S. population, 160.7 million Americans, participated in outdoor recreation activities including outback mountain biking, hiking, camping, fishing, backpacking. Some are first timers and others - for the first time in many years.

But, there’s a wind of change too – The number of hardcore outdoor devotees are being eclipsed by more casual ones. That translates to a greater amount of less experienced people. People who need to nurture, their outdoor skill levels.

What you should know about SAR

More casual outdoor time also means more opportunity for the less experienced to find themselves unprepared for the unexpected. The need for SAR is growing, but at the same time – the number of volunteer responders are not growing.

So what is SAR and what does it do?

Nearly all search and rescue missions in the United States are handled by volunteer teams, who mostly pay for their own equipment.

SAR leaders say they often have to rescue hikers who become lost when their phone loses its signal or the power dies, or who try to summit a mountain they saw on Instagram without researching the terrain or weather.

Above is a look at SAR calls in just the state of Wyoming. In recent years, rescue crews in Boulder, Colorado, have seen their call volumes climb by about 20% annually. Rescues in the Seattle area have nearly doubled over the past 10 years, reaching nearly 200 last year. In southwest Utah, crews that were taking around 50 calls a decade ago took 130 last year.

Why SAR is in trouble is related to the Covid pandemic. SAR groups needed to postpone or cancel in-person training which means fewer new volunteers.

“The person who volunteers has to have a job that allows them go at a moment’s notice. They have to be able to spare time for own training, buy their own uniforms, and their own gas.” Organizations are loosing member volunteers over the sustained heavy workload pressure.

What we can do is our best to not be a SAR headline news story.

Enjoying outdoor adventures more, realizing that you’ve done what you need to do to be prepared.

Leveling-up the essentials – Outdoor Gear’s Current Events

Lets look at Leveling-up the essentials

Becoming anal obsessive about leveling-up your essential outdoor equipment and learning best practices never has a “best time” … but your dollars and knowledge opportunity do go farther in late winter. Late winter is usually a find for extra time – using the time for blogs, books or audibles’ doubles as a cure for cabin fever set on by winters bad weather days. Too, the outdoor industry heavily uses February and March for introducing new products. This is also when they schedule big sales, and expo events, with the best equipment manufacturers. They also invite outdoor lifestyle leaders to speak in mini-seminars. A lot of information gets passed around whether you attend in person, virtually, or catch up later on web content.

The Essential Outdoor Gear Annual Check-Up Guide

Lets dig into the The Essential Outdoor Gear Annual Check-Up Guide

The useful life for outdoor gear isn’t as long as you might think.

Most people replace gear items about every three years. But essentials don’t actually start with a physical item. They begin with what you do before heading out for the trailhead … one such thing is …

· The Itinerary … leaving your plan with someone so they can pass that information to authorities if need be …

· Secondly is the Three Day Weather forecast … knowing what mother nature has in store for conditions is important

· Next is Area Research (scoping trail maps, topographic maps, region anomalies … )

· Lastly is … Power Management (packing a mini-phone charger, phone in airplane mode, warm pocket in cold weather)

After those actions first, come the other gear essentials:

The 10 Essentials: * Annual Check

1. 1st Aid Kit

Expiration dates on meds

2. Fire Kit (& backup)

Aging components

3. Illumination (with extra batteries & backup)

Replace batteries with new

4. Insulation (rain jacket, extra clothing layers)

Weather resistant coatings (DWR)

5. Knife

Functionality

6. Navigation (waterproof map, compass, GPS)

Waterproofness; software updates

7. Nutrition (energy dense foods)

Expiration dates; latest products

8. Protection (sunscreen, insect repellant)

Replace sunscreen; repellant quantity

9. Shelter (poncho, survival bivy or blanket)

10. Water (and water treatment)

Here’s a chart that shows the ten essentials and what might be a minimum annual check for each item. All of these should constantly be looked over for wear, functionality, and for rechargeable devices have a full charge before each outing.

The first item is a small first aid kit that has basic bandages and helpful medications to have on hand. You’ll want to keep track of the medications age/expiration date as many of them have a specific shelf life.

Second is whatever you choose for a main fire kit, and backup. Generally looking these over for aging issues.

Third, is a main and backup illumination system, and if battery powered, replacing running and backup batteries.

In the fourth category of insulation, the rain gear needs to keep you dry. Gore-tex liners are common and they do get brittle and worn out over time. Liners in good shape still wont keep you dry if the water repellant on the outside isn’t refreshed annually. The DWR coating, Durable Water Repelant chemical application, is what prevents the jackets outter layer from soaking through. The inner waterproof liner, for it to work properly, needs this outter layer to shed water. Aside from rain jackets, a lot of other technical clothing and gear uses the DWR coating to repel water also.

Next item, the knife, if a folding style has it’s weakest feature at the blade pivot point. Otherwise, just maintaining a sharp edge is all that’s normally checked.

Navigation these days is heavily reliant on GPS devices, because it’s common for backcountry areas not to have cell phone signal. But even GPS units and signals can fail at times, so maps and a compass act as an important backup. At least annually, it’s good to make sure your GPS software is up to date.

Nutrition is a highly personal choice, though keeping an emergency stash of energy may help one power through an event if the main nutrition you choose to bring along, runs out. It’s good to review new products at least annually, because compact energy dense products are being constantly improved.

Number 8 … bug dope and sunscreen – Bug repellants have a loose shelf life of three years, and it’s often recommended to replace sunscreen annually.

Number 9 - Shelter like poncho, survival bivy or survival blankets don’t need any maintenance

And lastly … water containers – bladders usually get at least an annual light bleach mix cleaning, and chemical based treatments do have a shelf life.

Enjoy your outdoor adventures more, realizing that you’ve done what you need to do to be prepared.