How to get in trouble

[scottmiller]

I sometimes hear an off-trail route described as "Doable, but you might get in trouble." So, what are the ways you can get in trouble off trail? For example:
- Going up a steep slope and it gets so steep you can't go up, and then getting down is scary as hell.
- Dropping your pack and not being able to climb down to it.
- Convincing yourself that you absolutely cannot under any circumstances turn around and go back the way you came which makes you do something stupid.

[balzaccom]

I think it can just mean that you can spend three hours bushwhacking only to realize that you're not going to make it to the lake, and you've got three more hours of the same to get back out again...

[oleander]

It's the route-finding aspect. Ever spoken to two different parties who did the same pass, but have dramatically different reports about the difficulty? One found the easiest route; the other went too far left or too far right and wound up in a highly unstable or exposed area. And since each such pass actually requires not just one single good decision, but a series of good mini-decisions - mini-turns - to stay on a good route...This optimal route may be hard to describe or recall exactly, and challenging to intuit if you are inexperienced or just having a bad day.

[Gogd]

No actual harm done in the above, just mostly scary ride stuff, that should have been nipped in the bud before you let things get tot that point.

Finding your self in a previously quiescent gully that becomes active with rock fall has lots of potential for harm beyond your control. But again this is only potentially bad.

Trouble is actually breaking an ankle, cracking your skull, getting caught unprepared for the weather, and a very popular way to die: going up the steep snow when its soft, then turning back too late and discover you cannot safely move even a foot without risking a human toboggan ride to eternity. Now we're talking...

Ed

[sgodgreeneyed]

Yeah, that's where things can get dicey.

[maxr22]

It's the route-finding aspect. Ever spoken to two different parties who did the same pass, but have dramatically different reports about the difficulty? One found the easiest route; the other went too far left or too far right and wound up in a highly unstable or exposed area. And since each such pass actually requires not just one single good decision, but a series of good mini-decisions - mini-turns - to stay on a good route...This optimal route may be hard to describe or recall exactly, and challenging to intuit if you are inexperienced or just having a bad day.

Experienced this exactly this past weekend on university pass. Thought it would be nice to follow the contour instead of just going "straight up" but it ended up being straight up anyway. It didn't help that there were tracks going both ways! I should have taken the blue route but by the time I realized my mistake it felt like it was too late, and that the only way out was up.

InkedIMG_5020.jpg

[kpeter]

One of the ways people get in trouble is to plan one-way routes that have uncertain safety concerns along the way, such as fords, passes, difficult micro navigation, etc. One should always be able to turn around when facing a hazard that is beyond your ability. But we can put enormous pressure on ourselves to push the envelope too far if the hazard is more than halfway along a one-way trip. Turning back just seems so inconvenient and possibly even dangerous if you do not have enough food.

Best to put the uncertain hazards as early in the trip as possible so an early decision can be made. For example, when doing the Hetch Hetchy/Tiltill/Vernon loop, go counterclockwise so you can encounter the bridge at Wapama Falls early in the circuit. Several years ago there were deaths at that bridge when a party came to it at the very end of their circuit, and tried to cross it when it was unsafe, given that retreating all the way around the loop seemed unthinkable to them.

[oldranger]

I think micro route selection is the key. Several experienced people have described issues that they have encountered on a particular route but when I did the same route did not encounter the same issues. This is not to say I have always taken the best route but that is exactly the point--just a slight variation can result in an easy class 2 turning into a section of class 3 moves. Sometimes the problem stems from lack of information about any route to a particular location. The best example is Adair lake in Yosemite. I have hiked there 4 times via 3 different routes. it wasn't until the 3rd time that I found what I consider the best route. Even then another person took a 4th route, more direct than mine that worked for them. I had contemplated that route but for me it looked a little dicey and had the potential to challenge my abilities.

[Gogd]

Going out when you are in no condition to travel. This tale became known as Paul got Bunions.

TLDR: Trouble often is the result of a string of bad decisions, sometimes tracing back to choices made months before the trip.

I had a coworker who had a knack for making really bad choices in all things considered. I swear Mr. Bean has nothing on Paul. As the title of my post indicates, this is about a foot issue. Over the span of almost a year Paul developed some sort of foot problem that was bad enough he started getting a hitch in his stride. But he put off seeing the doctor, for no particular reason. He plans a week long trip with his 15 yo son to hike somewhere in the Emigrant Wilderness. Neither have trained for this hike, nor are they athletic. They don't get out on the trail until 11am, on a hot August day, having started out from LA at midnight of the previous day. Their destiny is reached via a six mile ascent on a steep, exposed trail that lacks a water source along the way. At some point Paul's (heretofore undiagnosed bunions) become so painful, he considers turning back, but decides to mush on, as he thinks it would be too painful to descend, given the pressure it would place on his toes. WTF! So they sally forth into the mid day heat, slowed to a crawl by physical exhaustion and foot problems. In short order they exhaust their water supply, which totaled two 12oz water bottles for the entire party. Altitude sickness driven by dehydration starts kicking in. They did not make it to their destiny until 7pm.

By the time they reached the lake where they chose as the camp, they were so exhausted neither had the will to fetch water, let alone prepare something to eat, so they spent the evening cramping from dehydration and exertion, vomiting and dry heaving from AMS. The next morning son manages to crawl tooth and nail to the lake and get water, but both remained so depleted that they did not eat anything until sometime in the afternoon. So they laid there, enervated in the heat when an afternoon monsoon starts dumping. They go from cooking in the heat, to soaked and freezing in rain, because they lacked the energy to pitch a shelter. (Yea they had no rain gear...) They eventually erect their tent. This sort of debacle rinses and repeats over the course of the week. Both remained invalid for the duration of their stay, leaving camp only to fetch water and go to the latrine. Paul's bunions remain too tender to consider hiking out.

The last day of their scheduled trip they flag down a passer by, and implore them to send a rescue party. The ranger enlists the help of an outfitter, and by the end of the day they are horse backed out to the ranger station. At this point the ranger mandates they visit the local clinic and find out what is going on with the feet. Back at work his hard chiseled facial features and tottering about earns Paul the nickname "Tin Man". To make a long story short, he eventually gets corrective surgery, but not until getting in a traffic accident on the freeway, because it hurt too much to stomp on the brakes. He could have gotten both feet done at once, but for reasons too long to explain, chose to do them one at a time. The recovery time doing both at once should have been 2 weeks, but each foot ultimately required five or six weeks away from work. There is more to this story, it is a Shaggy Dog classic tale, but we'll stop here as it gets off topic. In fact I could write a movie script based on the time Paul worked at our company.

You can't make this s_ _ t up!

Ed

[dbargaehr1]

It's the route-finding aspect. Ever spoken to two different parties who did the same pass, but have dramatically different reports about the difficulty? One found the easiest route; the other went too far left or too far right and wound up in a highly unstable or exposed area. And since each such pass actually requires not just one single good decision, but a series of good mini-decisions - mini-turns - to stay on a good route...This optimal route may be hard to describe or recall exactly, and challenging to intuit if you are inexperienced or just having a bad day.

100% this. My brother and I did Bench Canyon in late July. They typical route is on the north side of Blue Creek, but we were unable to cross it due to the high flows. the south side of the creek is SO MUCH HARDER and we definitely had to practice some risk management. In addition, getting there required some pretty significant XC because Hemlock Crossing was down and we couldn't cross Long Creek to stay on the east side of NF San Joaquin.

I'm fortunate that I was with my brother, who was a backpacking guide in the Sierra and canyoneering guide in Zion, as his routefinding capabilities are pretty well-honed, he came prepared, and I trusted him to know if we were in over our heads - particularly in the avalanche remainders near the San Joaquin and Blue Creek where poor traction and a failure to arrest meant plummeting into the creek and almost certain death in a few short sections. We never really got to anything hairy enough to backtrack, but after we managed to get to the other side of Blue Creek our lives got MUCH EASIER. Getting up the left side all the way until the Upper Bench "wall" was really tough, and the snow/water year made it WAY harder.