Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Survival In The White Mountains

Some sage advice from Herschel Smith.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you sir, fine read. I had never heard of the 5X and that's a keeper gem for me.

Both the whites and greens in NE can kill you. Hell the Berkshires can under some conditions. I train in this environment frequently and I never take less than 40lbs (with all of herschel's recs and then some). What almost killed these asshatz was hubris. fListen to the mountain closely it will speak to you. Ignore it at your peril. One of my favorite quotes from the Art of Flight spoken by the owner of Ultima Thule lodge "The mountains will always be here, you however may not".

Anonymous said...

Having done most of my summits in winter in the Whites I agree 40lbs packs, some one has a shelter, some one a sleeping bag, stove, extra food just in case. It can get grim fast any time but when the trail markers are four feet below the snow and your breaking drifts you want experienced leaders cause your playing for keeps. Fire arms are just dead weight useless in that environment.Lots of high calorie energy food,water, proper gear, and leadership.