In another thread there was some short discussion of hypthermia and I thought it might be helplful to some if I shared a couple "near misses" I have had. Let me preface this with the fact that both of these showed glaring error judgments on my part, but I survived. Also both occurred during my AT thru hike. At the time of the first instance, I had already hiked over 600 miles and in the second instance over 1600. Prior to starting my thru hike, I had done over 800 miles of backpacking in the southeast. So, I thought I knew what I was doing.

In Central VA, the weather warmed up in mid April and I swapped out my rain suit for a poncho. Within two days, I found myself on a 3800 ft ridge in a driving, windy rainstorm, with temps that had dropped into the mid-40's. Ponchos usually only cover the tops of your forearms so any long sleeve top must be pulled up or it will get wet and soaked. I hiked in the cold rain for about 3 hours. I had tentatively planned to get a shuttle at VA 623 to a nearby hostel for the night. I could feel my body getting very cold and losing all dexterity in my fingers. I knew if I stopped, I would get cold very quickly, so I kept moving as fast as I could to keep my body temp as high as possible. I did have all my gear, so stopping to pitch a tent and get in my bag was an option, even though the terrain did not afford me any open spots. I recall waiting on the shuttle by pacing around on the edge of the road and shivering. When I got in the pickup truck, I begged the driver to turn the heat up to "high".

Bad move to go for the poncho that early. Within two days, I bought a Frog Togs set at Trents Grocery. I ended up sending my rain pants home within a month, but kept the rain jacket and poncho the rest of the way. Ponchos are for warm weather.

My second bout with Hypothermia occurred outside Bennington, VT in early June. I was hiking with another guy and it rained constantly for about 20 hours going into town and our first night staying there. We decided to slack pack a 21 mile section north of Bennington, and end up back at the trailhead outside of town for another night in a motel. We got dropped off and the rain started again. It rained constantly all day. As we were slack packing we only had rain jackets, baseball hats, snacks, maps and trekking poles. Our usual slack pack gear. The temps never got out of the mid-40's and we stayed on a ridge around 3000 ft.

Within 45 minutes we knew it was a bad idea, but there was not a single road crossing or bail out point. There was no cell service back at the remote trailhead where we had been dropped off. We didn't have much choice. We kept moving. Both of us lost manual dexterity off and on throughout the day. My hiking partner actually urinated on himself as he walked because he knew he couldn't get his zipper down with his fingers. We spent over 7 hours out there. We never stopped, because we couldn't. We saw several AT and Long Trail thrus, who shut it down in shelters along that stretch and later told us it was the worst day of the entire hike for them. We did not have that luxury. Around the 15 mile mark we had to ford a swollen brook. It typically would have been a breeze, but with over 24 hours of constant rain, it was rocking and rolling. We went up and down the bank for about 25 minutes and finally just crossed at the AT. It was sketchy, but we made it.

By the time we got down to the trail head, I didn't have enough manual dexterity to use my phone. Once again, we shivered in the lot waiting for our ride. That night we both talked about lessons learned.

Two long stories, but a couple thoughts. Be careful out there. You may have some experience, but you can easily get yourself in a dicey situation. Be especially careful of getting cold and wet at the same time. Make sure you keep your sleeping bag dry and good to have a dry change of clothes. As I like to say, Mother Nature is indifferent about outcomes.