Injured hiker crawls 4 days before being rescued

by Kraig Becker on

A solo hiker at the Canyonlands National Park in Utah was injured in a fall last week and was forced to crawl for four days before eventually being rescued. Ironically, the incident took place not far from where hiker Aron Ralston famously cut off his own arm after becoming trapped under a large boulder.

64-year old Amos Richards was visiting the national park while on vacation from his home in North Carolina when he decided to go hiking in the Blue John Canyon area. At some point on his trek, while trying to scramble down to a lower section of trail, he fell approximately 10 feet, fracturing his right leg in the process. After the fall, Richards discovered that he was unable to support his weight on his injured leg, and so he proceeded to crawl out of the remote area in which he was stranded.

An injury of this kind would be difficult to overcome in any environment, but in the remote backcountry of the Canyonlands, it was especially challenging. To add to the complications, Richards hadn’t bothered to tell anyone where he was going, nor was he properly equipped for extended stays in the wilderness. For instance, he carried no extra clothing, had no map, nor any kind of overnight gear. Fortunately, he did have five liters of water and a couple of power bars in his daypack.

Despite his determination to reach safety, this story could have had a potentially disastrous ending. However, park rangers came across an abandoned campsite that Richards had used, and suspected that someone was in the area. The began a search and rescue operation, and Richards was eventually spotted by helicopter. Later he was airlifted to a local hospital where he was treated for the injuries to his leg, as well as internal trauma and dehydration.

Obviously Richards hadn’t seen 127 Hours, the movie about Ralston’s ordeal, or he would have learned to never go into the backcountry without first letting someone know where you are going and when you expect to be back. He was also woefully unprepared for any kind of emergency as well, leaving behind important items that could have been the difference between life and death. Perhaps he should have reviewed the ten essentials of hiking before setting out. Lucky for him, he is expected to make a full recovery, but this is an important lesson to all of us on being smart about our outdoor adventures.

Tasty trail food and thoughts on trail food

by Elizabeth Seward on


Enertia Trail Foods isn’t like most things that come out of my hometown. Not a lot of things come from where I come from. Marietta, Ohio is a town tucked away alongside the border of West Virginia. Downtown is centered around a convergence of the Ohio River and Muskingum River. Because of this, Marietta is a bona fide river town. Boats meander casually up and down the waters on weekends and the Ohio River Sternwheel Festival draws in thousands of visitors each year. And that makes a big economical and cultural impact on a small town like Marietta. According to the 2010 census, 14,085 people call Marietta home. I still do. But for all of the reasons I look fondly upon my hometown, booming, promising business isn’t usually at the top of the list. There are businesses in Marietta–there are some great ones. But not many. So when an old high school friend and fellow vagrant let me know that he is now working for a trail foods company based out of Marietta, he immediately had me interested.Familiar with my roughing-it-much-of-the-time travel style, he asked if I wanted to try the stuff. And of course I did want to try it. But I was, admittedly, half expecting plastic baggies filled with nuts and dried fruit, sealed shut with a bread tie. I would have loved that too, but what showed up at my front door was definitely trail food; not trail mix.

He sent me:

  • New River Granola with Milk
  • Veggie Pizza Pasta
  • Pinnacle Pasta
  • El Captain 3 Bean Chili
  • Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding
  • Grand Canyon Cheesecake

“… and I was all like, whaaaaaa? I can take this kind of stuff into the woods with me? On the road with me? How come I didn’t know about this stuff back when I was spending the night in Wal-Mart parking lots and graciously accepting free hot water from gas stations for my OATMEAL PACKETS???…”

The answer is, it doesn’t matter. I couldn’t have afforded it back then anyway. Not that it is exorbitantly expensive (most of them cost $4-$5), but I couldn’t have afforded it back then. But these days? I’d be hard-pressed to not splurge for the sake of having something other than peanut butter and bread while out in the wilderness. And by splurge, I mean, at least have some of this stuff packed away for the extra tough days. I’ve done just fine on peanut butter for a few days at a time, mind you, but after a few days, I find that I lose focus and start dreaming about things like… macaroni and cheese.

As it turns out, Enertia Trail Foods has now teamed up with Coleman and their packets of food are becoming increasingly popular and therefore available. And I know why: they’re actually really good. I’m not just getting behind them because they’re based in my hometown. I know about them because they’re based in my hometown. But, with that said, if you visited my hometown, you’d be impressed that a company with products this tasty is coming out of a town so small. It just doesn’t usually work that way. But it’s so very nice when it does.

In addition to Enertia’s curious home base, Enertia has a another attention-grabbing quality: ingredients. Whole wheat couscous, whole wheat bulgur, organic maple granules, sunflower seeds, organic rolled oats, organic pumpkin seeds, West Virginia honey, toasted almonds, organic peanut butter, ginger, fresh ground basil leaves… there’s some good stuff in these packets.

But here are some questions I leave you with:

How much does trail food like this actually enhance the overall experience? Do you find that varying your food like this provides more mental clarity, better morale, stronger determination, or an increase in satisfaction throughout and after the trip regarding the adventure? Since trail food isn’t usually cheap, at least not compared to it’s trail-friendly competitors (peanut butter, bread, cheese, nuts, dried fruit, etc.), how worth it is trail food like this for you? Are you getting more bang for your buck? Alternatively, do you find that you focus and perform better without the distraction of varying food options?

Photo of the day: Pyrenees camping

by Elizabeth Seward on

Camping in the Pyrenees Mountains. Backpacking in the Pyrenees Mountains. This image transports you there. It shows you what it’s like to tuck yourself and your tent into a valley and to wake up there in the mist in the morning. It’s beautiful.

The Pyrenees Mountain Range is in southwest Europe. The mountains form a natural border between France and Spain. The small country of Andorra is also witness to these beautiful mountains. The Pyrenees are popular for winter sports, but plenty of people flock to them during warmer months, as well. Photographer Christoph Sahle spent part of his summer a couple of years ago exploring the mountain range on foot, with his tent and camera in tow. His photos from this trip can be found on his Flickr and they’re breathtaking. I’d love to visit these mountains.

Have you visited the Pyrenees? What was your experience like?

And, as always, if you’d like to submit a photo to us for our Photo of The Day, just upload it to the Gadling Flickr Pool.

Ukranian teens capture illegal bridge climbing on video

by Kraig Becker on

I’ve seen some crazy urban climbing videos in my time, but this one takes the cake. It was captured on a helmet cam and follows four teenagers as they scramble up the Moskovskyi (Moscow) Bridge in Kiev, while traffic rushes by below. After a brief conversation in Russian at the beginning of the video, the teens simply begin scaling the steel cables that hold the bridge in place, without the use of any kind of climbing gear or safety equipment. Eventually they reach the top, and even climb inside the main tower, which stands some 377-feet in height.

Judging from the final shots of the video, I don’t know what would be scarier. Climbing the bridge, or making your way back down.


Bear spray accidentally discharged inside Grand Tetons visitor center

by Kraig Becker on

Visitors to the Grand Tetons National Park visitor center got a very unpleasant surprise recently when a can of bear spray was inadvertently discharged inside the building. The incident prompted an immediate evacuation of the entire facility, as the potent pepper spray soon spread throughout the center.

Apparently, one of the park’s rangers was preparing for a morning program in the visitor center’s auditorium when a man entered the room and quickly grabbed a seat without first taking a look at the chair. In doing so, he sat down directly on the can of bear spray, releasing its contents throughout the room, and sending the occupants scrambling for the emergency exits.

The powerful chemical didn’t stay contained to the auditorium for long however, as the ventilation system soon pumped it throughout the rest of the building. By the time an emergency response team arrived on scene, more than 20 people were suffering side effects from exposure to the pepper spray.

Bear spray is an incredibly potent version of the same pepper spray that is commonly used by police or for self defense by individuals. In this case however, it has to be strong enough to take down a 500 pound bear rather than a 200 pound person. The spray is actually an oil that is blasted out via an aerosol, and when this particular can went off inside the visitor center, it not only spread throughout the facility, itended up contaminating merchandise in the gift shop, including t-shirts and stuffed animals.

Anyone who has done any hiking in the American west knows that bears are a potential danger, particularly in national parks such as the Grand Tetons or Yellowstone. In many places, bear spray is actually mandatory gear before heading into the backcountry, and the ranger in this story was likely preparing to instruct visitors on its use. Unfortunately, they received first hand experience in just how powerful the spray actually is in a way that is usually only reserved for the bears.