Outdoor sports are a relatively dangerous sport. In fact, the law of immortality does not exist at all. Even the gold medal for immunity from death cannot protect everyone. However, it is obviously unreasonable for accidents with excessive casualties or unreasonable accidents to occur frequently. These casualties always remind me that it is very beneficial to do more popularization work on outdoor safety, so this article is here, which is these 13 outdoor "gold medals to avoid death."
1. Rules of individual combat
This is the first gold medal to avoid death and the most important outdoor safety rule. A certain amount of teamwork ability is important, but individual combat ability is more important!
From a conventional logic point of view, there seems to be a certain basis for a tent for every two people, or a set of cooking utensils for every two people, or even a group of several people sharing equipment. Reasonableness, but in fact this superficial rationality is based on everything going smoothly and without any surprises. Once this smooth situation is broken, everything becomes illogical, and you will find risks everywhere.
I strictly follow this rule when traveling together with every hero! Almost all of the people I travel with are top outdoor UL masters, but they are also masters of individual combat. There will be full division of labor and cooperation between each of us. If we are traveling with two people, although each person will carry a full set of equipment for personal use, in most cases only one tent will be supported, and moisture-proof pads will often be used. Work together and mix in various ways for maximum comfort and optimal warmth. In order to better prevent condensation, two tents were used. The two people have different recipes and different tastes, but this does not prevent them from fully sharing the food. These are all manifestations of teamwork and the rational use of equipment in good times.
The problem is that if any one of us is in danger, on some of the unmanned routes we take, it usually takes four or five days, or even longer, from calling for help to the arrival of rescuers, and during this period we must rely on a full set of personal equipment. Only with military equipment can you survive.
2. The law of reliable equipment
includes the following four aspects, all of which are important and indispensable.
1 Reliable equipment performance.
The equipment you buy doesn’t have to be expensive, but it must be reliable. Carefully consider the reliability of the equipment's performance, not the merchant's propaganda. But it is really difficult to achieve this. It definitely depends on talent. The reliability of equipment obtained through formal channels will be higher, but it is not absolute. In any case, although the appearance of a knock-off jacket that costs one to two hundred yuan looks similar to the original one, its performance is far behind.
2 Sufficient equipment backup.
The general principle regarding equipment backup is that important things should be backed up.
3. Reliable experience in using equipment.
You should familiarize yourself with the new equipment you buy before using it. Don’t even unpack the new equipment when you get it. All important new equipment must be tried in a simulated environment. You may discover product defects or other problems during the process. Especially for tents that are more difficult to build, you must be familiar with them in advance!
4. Develop a good habit of never leaving your equipment.
No matter how good the equipment is, it will not be effective if it is not around. Tragedies caused by equipment leaving the body are not uncommon. The Lingshan mountain disaster in the past few years is the most typical one. Even if you are climbing to the top, you should carry some necessary life-saving equipment. In addition, using caravans to carry equipment is not worth advocating unless you are visiting a mature tourist area.
3. Safe drinking water rules
. Without food, people can survive for many days just by drinking water, but without water, they cannot survive for long. In deserts and other water-scarce areas of the north, water acquisition and use skills are critical.
1 Access to water.
In desert areas or other dry areas in the north, it is unreliable to temporarily search for water sources. Even recorded water sources may dry up due to various reasons. Traveling with water on your back is sometimes the only option. In some areas, such as the Northern Tibetan Plateau, water is not difficult to find, but due to problems such as salinity and alkalinity, it may not be drinkable even if you find it. Pay attention to screening. If there is a water source that is not directly drinkable, drinking water sufficient to sustain life can be obtained through some simple distillation methods. This aspect is covered in many outdoor survival manuals.
2 Water treatment.
Filtration and boiling are the most common methods. Filtration can remove floating dust and impurities from the water. Most bacteria can also be filtered out, but smaller viruses usually cannot be filtered out. In mountainous areas in the south, if you can find a source of clean water flowing from the side of the mountain, drinking it directly is not a big problem. However, it is best to filter it before drinking it. Do not use low-end filtration products with a simple activated carbon filter element as the main structure. Products using ceramic filter elements or ultrafiltration membrane filter elements can be used, with the latter being preferred, but you cannot expect to use it to filter saline water or sea water. Boiling can destroy most living bacteria and viruses, but it cannot kill bacterial spores in a short time. For a practical method, please refer to my previous article.
The method of treating water with chemical disinfection is now relatively less used, and the treatment of floating dust now inevitably requires the use of such methods. Basically, various types of floc sedimentation methods are used.
4. Calorie protection rules
Calorie protection includes at least the following aspects, and is also one of the core death-free gold medal rules:
1 Adequate food and calorie protection are the prerequisites for safe travel.
Ultralight travel may reduce energy consumption to a certain extent, but don’t expect too much. The body's heat requirements increase significantly during heavy hiking, especially in extreme cold climates. Don't expect to burn off excess fat in your body during outdoor activities, because the body's energy transmission and conversion are not based on simple speculation. The diet configuration of the female victims of the Aotai Mountain disaster this time was pitiful and could not guarantee the energy consumption of the body at all, which ultimately led to the tragedy.
2 Fuel and heating methods also have a significant impact on the body's heat conservation.
Drinking cold water and eating cold food are the worst habits, unless you have the habit of eating cold food at home. A portion of the calories used to heat food can be equal to the calories you consume, it makes no difference at all, and the conservation of energy does not fail in classical physics. In this sense, part of the fuel you carry is also your food, with the added comfort that comes with it.
3 Reducing heat loss is also crucial outdoors, where cold is the biggest threat.
The low temperature of the air in the environment is not terrible. What is terrible is that the air flows. If the temperature is a few degrees below zero and there are several levels of strong winds, problems will arise. The physical temperature and lethality of minus 10 degrees Celsius plus Category 5 winds are equivalent to minus 20 degrees Celsius. This is called the wind chill effect.
4 The most serious consequence of heat loss is hypothermia.
In fact, the direct cause of death in most mountain disasters is hypothermia. In addition to the wind-cooling effect mentioned above, getting wet all over the body is also the biggest factor, which can lead to rapid loss of body heat. From a physical point of view, the specific heat capacity of water is too large, and water will take away a lot of heat from the body. In addition, don’t think that only these two factors are the most dangerous. In fact, there is an invisible factor that can also lead to the occurrence of hypothermia. This factor is physical exhaustion! Hypothermia is more likely to occur when physical exhaustion occurs. The above factors complement each other and often work together, but the most fundamental reason is that the caloric supply cannot reach the level of body expenditure.
5. The rule of direction determination.
If you are talented in finding roads, just like Caiyun Guide Hero, you will basically not find the wrong direction just by relying on your rich sense of the road. The problem is that most people fail to accumulate more experience when finding their way in the wild, and must rely on high-tech equipment such as GPS navigators and electronic maps with contour lines to determine directions.
There are many types of GPS positioning equipment, but the reliability of the equipment must be ensured. Simple mobile phone GPS navigation functions sometimes cause problems, especially at high altitudes. Here, the issue of battery safety cannot be ignored. Any form of GPS equipment will consume a lot of power. Especially under low temperature conditions, the performance of the equipment is even worse. It is best to keep it in your underwear pocket to keep it warm when not in use. Basically no power outage. You can back up a GPS device in case of emergency, but in any case, the traditional mechanical compass is the last line of safety, a navigation device that is difficult to make mistakes, and although its functions are limited, it is absolutely reliable.
6. Maintain communication rule
1: Communication within the team.
Someone has said that not leaving the main force is a principle to ensure safety. This is true, but in some cases it simply cannot be done. Have you read the detailed description of the Aotai Mountain disaster? Hydropower insists that communication within the team must at least be supported by walkie-talkies. Even a low-power transmitting product in the 0.5-watt civilian band is basically enough in the mountains. When traveling with friends, in addition to satellite phones, communication within the team mainly relies on walkie-talkies. Whenever there is a need for path exploration, the team must turn on the device when they have to separate, so that everyone knows their specific location and can understand each other's status in a timely manner.
2 External communication.
The cost of external communication is relatively high, and we basically rely on satellite phones, but this device is worth the cost. Recently, the Beidou box is also a piece of equipment that can be considered. The cost is relatively small, but it is not as convenient as a satellite phone. Hydropower found that none of the teams involved in the accident seemed to have satellite phones, otherwise the tragedy might not have happened if they called the police for help as soon as possible. In places prone to mountain disasters, the communication function of mobile phones is basically useless, because there is basically no mobile phone signal in difficult and dangerous places. In addition, as long as you have an external communication tool, you can entrust people outside to transmit the weather conditions near your trip in time, so that you can make a comprehensive judgment based on the specific local weather conditions and decide whether to advance or retreat, avoiding the suffering of bad weather.
7. The Rule of Avoiding Overwork:
Avoiding overwork is another golden rule for avoiding death. At this time, I couldn't help but think of the poor Tsinghua students in Yan Dongdong. Xitian Mountain is not a dangerous place, so why did they just fail? After reading the accident report, I found out that I was eager to return to camp after descending. The fact that it was getting dark was not the direct cause. Excessive fatigue was the culprit. In the mountaineering world, there are many mountain disasters that occur during the descent after climbing to the top. Maybe it is because you feel that going down the mountain does not require physical strength, or maybe you want to get rid of altitude sickness as soon as possible and try to return to a relatively lower camp or base camp. I put This condition is called "compulsive descent syndrome" and few people can avoid this mentality.
A similar situation occurs during the process of escaping from a dangerous situation. People often rush to their destination, camp or other safe areas regardless of physical fatigue, and as a result, they really run for their lives. Not only for mountain climbing or outdoor activities, but also for ordinary long-distance self-driving trips, when they are about to get home, most people tend to rush as fast as possible, and getting home as soon as possible is the best way. It is also inevitable that there will be a high accident rate due to overwork.
By the way, hydropower usually enjoys the slow process of going down the mountain. It is almost the same as the process of going up the mountain, and it is more relaxed. It is really a kind of enjoyment!
8. Risk avoidance law
. Avalanches, slips, rockfalls, flash floods and other factors are all specific Big risk, but relatively easy to prevent because there are fixed routines and prevention methods.
If the slope is steep enough and the snow slope is covered with multiple layers of snow, it would be tantamount to seeking death if you cross the snow slope to save effort when the weather warms up. The same is true when walking through rocky sections in valleys in the rain; when flash floods may pass through Setting up a tent on the road or camping under a snow-covered bluff can have disastrous consequences.
9. The pessimistic combat rule
is very important, and it is also one of the most important death-free gold medal rules!
Whenever danger is imminent and a wise judgment needs to be made, absolute safety must be the premise, and there cannot be any luck. Sometimes When a great achievement is about to be accomplished, you will be like a gambler, betting on whether it will be good or bad. This mentality is called "obsessive optimism syndrome" in psychology. You always feel that you can win this game, but the result is not what you expected.
It is a good habit to estimate the risks of the route before traveling. No matter how much homework you have done or how many guides you have read, due to differences in time, routes and weather factors, many variables may occur during the trip. You must make the best decision. Make bad plans, such as how to deal with extreme weather, formulate several plans for evacuation midway, and even plan to return the same way.
10. Speedy hedging rule
The ability to quickly set up camp is particularly important. When encountering bad weather, the ability to set up camp quickly and avoid danger at high speed can be equated. The ability to camp here includes finding ready-made shelters, such as caves, tree holes, and natural shelters under protruding rocks, as well as snow caves that can be quickly built by humans. But the most reliable thing is the tent you carry. The speed of setting up can sometimes determine the life or death of a life. The recent incident of someone freezing to death while setting up a tent is by no means just an accident! Let me
emphasize one point, An equipment user must be aware of the equipment he holds. Even if he is familiar with the installation procedures, whether you can set up the tent independently in strong winds of level 8 or 9 is still a question. Moreover, the type of tent you choose is also extremely important!
Under certain weather conditions in certain areas, you have nowhere to evacuate. Time is life. If you do not have the equipment and skills suitable for speedy escape, it is often a dead end! Here, I suggest that you review the entire description of the Aotai Mountain disaster that occurred earlier this month.
11. Safety margin law:
Leave a margin for everything, especially in outdoor activities.
If this problem is specifically implemented in terms of food preparation, for a week-long crossing route, it is best to have two or three days in reserve. The same principle must be followed when it comes to electricity. The battery capacity must be sufficient, and it is best to have some type of power supply device, such as high-efficiency solar panels. In cold areas, the weight of the sleeping bag should be too little but not too much, and generally there will be no loss.
In addition to equipment and food, you must also leave room for time planning, otherwise the danger will be doubled due to the rush. Physical fitness also needs to be treated. Don't overextend your physical fitness every day, and leave a certain amount of room. This is of great benefit. Unfortunately, many people find it difficult to do this in practice and need to be vigilant.
12. Calm Survival Law
Danger usually occurs when you are not calm!
When encountering extremely bad weather, staying in place to repair will usually bring the best results instead of escaping from the danger quickly, even if there is a relative shortage of food. This should be the case, the consequences of irrational escape will only be worse!
In a ghost place like Nanmenguan Gorge, I was trapped near the top of a steep side moraine embankment of a huge glacier, unable to move. The moment I was trapped was the clearest moment in my life. Instead, I would comfort my companions and think After I matured, I carried out self-rescue step by step, and successfully tried out my new invention "flexible rock safety point", which was the only safety equipment that could save my life under the conditions at that time. Then I used a double rope and a descender to achieve a perfect landing.
13. Medical security rules
A good medical configuration can easily save a life at a critical moment.
In my medical bag, there are all kinds of antispasmodics, analgesics, antidotes, antibiotics, hormones, antacids, diuretics and anti-allergic drugs, as well as injections, scalpels and anesthetics, which are almost equivalent to A mobile outdoor hospital, another real gold medal to avoid death!
In general, the thirteen gold medals listed above may not guarantee life under outdoor conditions. The reason why it is called a gold medal to avoid death is just to emphasize that it is The importance of the outdoors, but if you ignore these factors, your life is very likely to be lost, or at least the risk will increase exponentially.
