Fatal Flaws: How to Avoid the Most Deadly Mistakes in the National Parks
Geena TrumanJuly 15, 2024
Have fun and be safe out there.
Every year, millions of North Americans shoulder a backpack and hit the trails of their favorite national park. Unfortunately, for a few thousand happy hikers, their trip ends with a search-and-rescue mission. National Parks in the United States and Canada make vast swathes of wilderness and incredible landscapes accessible to everyone.
However, the structured environment of many of these national parks, with their groomed trails and the promised presence of many other visitors, often lull park-goers into a false sense of security. The harsh reality is that everything that makes our parks spectacularly beautiful and worth protecting also makes them hazardous.
The biggest offenders are often our most popular parks: Yosemite, Zion, and Grand Canyon National Park. But how exactly do visitors require rescuing in the first place? According to a study done bySmokyMountain.com, most of those rescued (41%) lost the trail or wandered off the path. Bad weather (17%), falls and injury (23%), and getting separated from others in their group (8%) rounded out the other popular reasons for rescue within our parks system.
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While 97% of missing hiker cases are resolved in 24 hours, you might have to stay alive a little longer than that. Canadian Marco Lavoie was rescued after90 days in the wilderness following a bear encounter that destroyed his canoe and food supply. Warmth, shelter, food, and water are the four key components to consider when forced to be self-sufficient in the wilderness. Check those four boxes, and you, too, could last an entire season in the backcountry. Although I hope you never have to.
With survival expert Andrew Herrington’s advice provided to SmokyMountain.com, we will distill 100+ successful national park rescues into a handful of actionable tips to help you stay alive in the woods this summer.
Before Venturing Into the Wild: How to Prepare
“The number one mistake is lack of preparation,” Herrington insists. This is especially true of us day hikers. We hit the trail with a single granola bar and a 24 oz hydro flask of water, assuming our return to civilization by lunchtime. But nature makes no promises.
The most effective step to prevent injury or death in the woods is always carrying the 10 Essentials. Neal Peckens, lost for five days while on a backcountry trail in Glacier National Park, managed to stay warm due to his careful packing of an emergency blanket. You should also check the weather before you hike and download one of the numerous off-line trail maps. Alltrails is great for simple routes, but Sartopo is excellent for those looking to get further into the backcountry. Taking along a companion, furry or otherwise, can be helpful in numerous ways by providing warmth and security during forced overnights. Unfortunately, furry friends can also become a food source in desperate situations. These four steps alone are easily accessible to hikers of all backgrounds and can prevent you from needing to be rescued in the first place.
But mistakes happen, even to the most prepared. This is why it’s also a good idea to invest in a GPS App likeAvenza or look into personal locater beacons and satellite messengers so that you can ensure a swift rescue if need be. You should also leave a trip plan/confirm a check-in time with at least one responsible person back home. Alec Winters was a seasoned hiker who entered the Canadian Buntzen Lake wilderness well-prepared but ended up stranded on a rocky ledge for three days. Fortunately, he had told his family of his plans so they could direct rescuers to him.
Wilderness expert Herrington also recommends thoroughly studying your maps, identifying features, and deciding on the shortest “bailout direction.” Think of this as a fail-safe if you find yourself off the trail.
Staying on Track: How to Avoid Getting Lost in the Woods
As someone who has visited 43 (and counting) national parks in the United States, I can empathize with the momentary lapse of judgment that leads a hiker off-trail. An unexpected switch-back, an unclear or mismarked fork on a poorly maintained path, or perhaps a case of mistaken trail identity. These outdoor occurrences are not rare.
The biggest question lost hikers face is whether to stay put or attempt to find their way out of the woods. Herrington has a clear answer: If you told a responsible individual about your trip plan and you are on an established trail, old road, or creek, stay put. Only 35% of the rescues SmokyMountain.com studied stayed put, but had they done so, they might have been rescued earlier.
If you’ve told no one your plans and have no way to signal, you will have to try to self-rescue. In that case, you should navigate to a high-open area to search for a cell signal and mark your trail by “breaking branches in the direction you are traveling” as you go.Connie Yang and Suzanne Turell did just that when an unexpected ice storm locked them into the Colorado mountains for two days. Once they reached their family via text, rescuers could mobilize, but incredibly, they managed to sit out the storm with their gear and self-rescue when the worst had passed.
Staying Warm: How to Survive in Poor Weather
Hypothermia or exposure concerns all hikers forced to overnight in the woods. Whether hiking in the winter, at high elevations, or during an unexpected weather event, finding shelter and staying warm can make the difference between life and death.
Herrington’s top tips to keep warm include using your tarp or puffy jacket to create a cozy shelter, avoiding sweating in your clothing, building a bed 8 inches thick out of forest fodder like leaves or pine needles, and investing in quality gear like Merino Wool-based clothing rather than cotton. Around 22% of people rescued relied solely on their clothing and camping gear that they brought with them into the backcountry. Another 10% managed to build a fire. Consider adding petroleum jelly-soaked cotton balls and fatwood sticks to your packing list and practicing fire-making at home before hitting the trails.
17% of those rescued found man-made shelters, such as an abandoned cabin (like12-year-old Donn Fendler) or a cave (like 20-year-old Spencer Hunt). Others had to rely on nature for warmth by sleeping in hollowed-out logs, burying themselves in the sand, and covering their bodies in moss.
Staying Alive: Locating Food and Water Sources
The average human can survive around three days without water and one month without food. Water quickly becomes your highest priority when lost in the wild. While you should have come prepared with a water filter or some other purification device, rescued hikers describe various innovative ways they procured safe(ish) drinking water from desolate surroundings, including collecting rainwater oreating snow and harvesting scant moisture in energy bar wrappers. The tactic of drinking their urine, while undeniably vile, was used by about 6% of survivors.
If you cannot eke out enough water from the sky, find any water source and drink it regardless of potential toxins and bacteria. Statistically, you will be rescued before the effects of infection set in, making death by dehydration a far larger risk.
While you should always prioritize building a camp, staying warm, and keeping hydrated, food will creep into your slowly starving mind by day two. You should always pack high-calorie foods to ration them in the event of a disaster, prolonging your ability to think clearly. Once you’ve eaten your last nut bar, don’t waste precious calories trying to hunt or forage; this will only put you at risk for more significant injury. Just wait it out. That said, about 22% of people ateinsects like ants or moths, various plants, and berries or fruits to provide some semblance of sustenance. Snowboarder Eric LeMarque was missing for three days on the snowy slopes of Mammoth Mountain before he resorted to eating chunks of his own peeling flesh.
Getting Rescued: How to Get Yourself Help After a Fall or Injury
Be it a bear attack, falling rocks, or falls from precarious perches… injury can prove to be the most challenging obstacle for solo hikers. Without a hiking companion to send for help, you must employ other methods to alert rescuers to your location. Laying out brightly-colored tarps and clothing is helpful for aerial searches, and adding green plants to your fire increases smoke production. You should always attempt a 911 call on your cell phone, even if you don’t appear to have service, and if you hear a helicopter, movement is the key to being spotted.
While 77% of hikers in this study were ultimately rescued rather than muscling their way home on their own, there were many with harrowing tales of survival, often including traumatic injury, that required them to self-rescue.33-year-old Daniel Samuelson fashioned himself a splint when he fell and broke his leg in Utah. An Ohio man fell into a ravine and had to crawl himself to safety over four days. Paul Hanks crab-walked for over a mile with a broken pelvis in Joshua Tree National Park.
Proof that sheer determination can get you out of even the most dire circumstances in the wild.
Your takeaway? Stroll into your summer adventures with a little more preparation this year. After all, as survival expert Horace Kephart once said, “Who goes afoot, prepared to camp anywhere and in any weather, is the most independent fellow on earth.”
