View Full Version : Open your hip belts during river crossings please!
SnowWhite
07-18-2017, 20:04
I was just watching a video in you tube where group of people did river crossing and none of them had their hip belt open when they got out from the water. Please do open it! It might be life and death difference if something happens, even if you do the crossing part of a group. The rivers are powerful on this year and if one of them sweeps you out from your legs, you may not have a time to open the hip belt to save yourself. So please people open the darn belt. And if you see someone start to cross the river with their hip belt closed, please tell them to open it. Take care of you hiking buddy before stepping into the river. Water is not very forgiving element if something goes wrong.
Rex Clifton
07-18-2017, 20:41
Hip let and sternum strap. Lose the pack, not your life.
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gwschenk
07-19-2017, 10:29
Do you really want a pack flopping around as you delicately tip-toe across a stream?
Feral Bill
07-19-2017, 13:25
Do you really want a pack flopping around as you delicately tip-toe across a stream?
Yes, as the alternative is having a float on my back forcing my face under if i fall in.
SkeeterPee
07-19-2017, 13:49
Yes, as the alternative is having a float on my back forcing my face under if i fall in.At what point do people practice this. I would think not for a small stream, but deeper water / fast flowing? i.e. knee high? waste high? Depends on other factors?
SkeeterPee
07-19-2017, 13:51
waist high :datz
Old Hillwalker
07-19-2017, 14:10
waist high :datz
Depends upon the degree of pollution whether it is waste high or waist high:rolleyes:
Back in The Land Before Time, Colin Fletcher explained the "backpack as raft" technique for places like the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.
Wayne
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MuddyWaters
07-19-2017, 14:57
At what point do people practice this. I would think not for a small stream, but deeper water / fast flowing? i.e. knee high? waste high? Depends on other factors?
When the o-$hit meter says this is somewhat sketchy..
Never under knee deep for me
After that depends on flow, etc
DuneElliot
07-19-2017, 17:18
If it's more than knee high, I undo everything. I pull my dogs' packs off too as at that point they are swimming (maybe, if they aren't being stubborn about it).
Feral Bill
07-19-2017, 19:51
If it's more than knee high, I undo everything. I pull my dogs' packs off too as at that point they are swimming (maybe, if they aren't being stubborn about it). That's about right for me.
DuneElliot
07-19-2017, 20:26
Of course I'm short and very light too, which makes a slight difference to my limits compared to others
lonehiker
07-29-2017, 15:34
I was just watching a video in you tube where group of people did river crossing and none of them had their hip belt open when they got out from the water. Please do open it! It might be life and death difference if something happens, even if you do the crossing part of a group. The rivers are powerful on this year and if one of them sweeps you out from your legs, you may not have a time to open the hip belt to save yourself. So please people open the darn belt. And if you see someone start to cross the river with their hip belt closed, please tell them to open it. Take care of you hiking buddy before stepping into the river. Water is not very forgiving element if something goes wrong.
I think people are responsible for their own actions.
Education leads to more informed and better choices.
imscotty
07-29-2017, 16:17
Too often you think it is just knee deep, and then you step in a hole. Better safe than sorry.
lonehiker
07-29-2017, 17:30
I'm all for education but I'm not going to preach to everyone, on the trail, that I think is doing something "wrong".
Traveler
07-30-2017, 07:09
"If there's a doubt there is no doubt", words to survive by. If you feel knee deep water is running fast enough to take your feet out from under you, or rocks are algae covered, it may be time to consider adjusting the pack so it can be removed quickly if necessary. There are no hard and fast rules on this, just the inner voice of Robbie the Robot, "Danger, Will Robinson, danger".
Y'all do know who published this wisdom and when?
Colin Fletcher. The Complete Walker. 1968.
Yes, Wilma, it was possible to backpack prior to the Internet.
Wayne
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rocketsocks
07-30-2017, 19:59
Y'all do know who published this wisdom and when?
Colin Fletcher. The Complete Walker. 1968.
Yes, Wilma, it was possible to backpack prior to the Internet.
Wayne
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkYup...the bible of all thing hiking and a damn funny book as well. Recently a hiker drowned crossing a river, I'd be curious to know if she unfastened her pack.
Yup...the bible of all thing hiking and a damn funny book as well. Recently a hiker drowned crossing a river, I'd be curious to know if she unfastened her pack.
Recently TWO hikers drown.
rocketsocks
07-30-2017, 21:07
Recently TWO hikers drown.I hadn't heard.
This is the second one that occurred in N Yosemite.
39978
MuddyWaters
07-30-2017, 21:48
Sad
Why are these people crossing dangerous crossings alone apparently , that they can go missing?
Hikingjim
07-31-2017, 07:59
Sad
Why are these people crossing dangerous crossings alone apparently , that they can go missing?
Too many people are willing to take risks where there is a chance of death if they make a mistake. I don't have to go far in the spring to find someone crossing raging rocky whitewater on a questionable log.
Pretty cool the 499 out of 500 times it works. The other 1/500 times you make the news
rocketsocks
07-31-2017, 09:18
Too many people are willing to take risks where there is a chance of death if they make a mistake. I don't have to go far in the spring to find someone crossing raging rocky whitewater on a questionable log.
Pretty cool the 499 out of 500 times it works. The other 1/500 times you make the newsYes, it's a risk, but I gotta wonder if it's more about ignorance or inexperience.
MuddyWaters
07-31-2017, 09:49
Falling off log bridge would be one thing..
But fording dangerously swollen streams shoukd be done in morning, and so youd think a few hikers should be stacked up waiting
"It worked for the people in the video I watched on my phone."
2-3 months ago here at WhiteBlaze I expressed my opinion that stream crossings would be more dangerous than the deep snow.
Apparently I was right.
Wayne
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Another reason why I am planning to backpack in Wyoming in September.
Wayne
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Another Kevin
07-31-2017, 14:49
Why is this in the PCT forum specifically? It's good advice on any trail, says a guy who's personally wiped out at a ford. (Fetched up on a rock in seconds, didn't even have time to ditch my pack and get my feet downstream. Lucky.)
MuddyWaters
07-31-2017, 18:02
The polished granite from eons of raging snowmelt is covered with slick algae too. Slick as goose $__t. If you go into a strong flow, its really hard to get a hold on anything to stop. Which is why 50 people have gone over falls in yosemite.
SnowWhite
08-14-2017, 20:47
Yes people are responsible from themselves, but it just was so alarming how nobody seemed to open their straps and hip belt on the videos that I was watching in you tube so just felt the need to say something. And this forum is not only place where I have talked about this. And it was heart breaking to hear from those ladies in same week who drowned. They both though had also disadvantage of size when crossing rivers and it takes just one miscalculation to go from safe to deadly when you are in middle of river when there is current. And that is also why this forum. This wasn't generally but for those who are hiking PCT on this year since those are who I follow in hopes to make the journey by myself on one day. The rivers were deadly on this year. I saw one local say that there has been also 8 kayakers lost on this year. From I have read it should start to get back more normal on these days with the water levels.