[at-l] Re: freezing one's cookies... Damascus, VA 05/18/02

[Deb" <mtnrunner@monad.net (Deb)]

I agree, great story...I've spent a few nasty hours in the cold and wet
myself, and could actually FEEL the cold as I was reading.
Deb,
glad to be inside by the wood stove today, looking OUT at the cold and
wet...
and happy to resort to the treadmill in the basement (my excuse is the
grandbaby, and can't take her out in the baby jogger in this nasty stuff)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Erickson, Mike R" <EricksonMR@navair.navy.mil>
To: "Sloetoe" <sloetoe@yahoo.com>; <ultra@LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU>
Cc: <at-l@backcountry.net>
Sent: Friday, November 22, 2002 10:38 AM
Subject: RE: freezing one's cookies... Damascus, VA 05/18/02


> Great report! Good point of view also in that you carried all the right
gear
> and were pretty much prepared for anything and yet still had a 'sporting
> time of it'.
> I DO want to hear more about the night spent in the loft with your
impromtu
> trail buddies...
> ...*that* is the stuff of legends!
>
> Mike; thinking of starting a new List...call it "UltraForum"
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sloetoe [mailto:sloetoe@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 4:48 PM
> To: ultra@listserv.dartmouth.edu
> Cc: at-l@backcountry.net
> Subject: freezing one's cookies... Damascus, VA 05/18/02
>
>
> OK, a little late for a run report but... here's my contribution
> to the "Hypothermia Made Easy" thread.
>
> It was a dark and stormy night.... but wait...
> PROLOGUE:
> The "Damascus Red-Eye" 50 mile run of the Appalachian Trail over
> Mount Rogers, Grayson Highlands, Elk Garden, WhiteTop, Buzzard
> Rock, etc..., was originally to take place starting around
> midnight on Friday night May 17th and finish at noon on Saturday
> wayyyyyy down in the town of Damascus, during their annual Trail
> Days celebration. Departure times were racheted back to
> accomodate runner(s) training for the ill-fated 2002 Hardrock,
> so that they gained more dark-running hours: 20:00 Hours leave
> time from the Troutdale road crossing. I was there on time, but
> no one else was -- and no note or other indication of their
> passing did I see. Turned out they'd left at 17:00 hours, and
> took the party with 'em!
> Tut-Tut! I'm prepared!
> Off I go! Damascus, Ho!
>
> (So in a well-fitted running pack, I have
> - 100wt. fleece vest
> - Gore-Tex mountain shell [circa 1979... uh-ohhhh.]
> - thin supplex-type cap w/brim
> - lycra beenie-thing
> - mylar blankie courtesy of the 1998 NYC Marathon [Thank you,
>   Ready!]
> - 20 oz bottle
> - Princeton Tec "Impact" 3 LED/4AA (lithium) waterproof light
> - neato Lowe Alpine fleece gloves [courtesy of my resigned
>   subscription to Trail Runner mag. Know the gloves?]
> - 2 kitchen-sized trash bags
> - 2 CLIP2 maltodextrin mixes
> - 4-5? Power Bars
> - 3-4 Power Gels
> - Succeed electrolyte caps, 8hr naproxin sodium, asthma puffer
> - 2-3oz first aid kit (a few band aids, small neosporin, etc.)
>
> READER'S DIGEST Version:
> (As best my memory recalls at this point)
> 20:00 I left the first highway, upward bound.
>
> 21:00 Flashlight comes out of pack.
>
> 22:00 Rain starts for real, as I'm coming out on the exposed
> ridges near The Scales. Winds gust, but no big deal. I can't
> see, though, due to rain on glasses. Off comes lycra beenie, on
> goes brimmed hat. Rain no problem.
>
> 23:30 Rain now comes sideways due to wind; comes under hat brim.
> Can't see; trail runs between frequent forest breaks and exposed
> meadows/ridges; treadway full of off-kilter rocks to trip over;
> must slow. Removing glasses (minor perscription) improves things
> vision-wise, safety-wise, pace-wise.
>
> 00:30 Slowed WAY down; parka shell failed and leaking; running
> tights and long-sleeve coolmax top soaked; vest, gloves, and
> beenie are on, hat over beenie, parka hood over hat. Quicker
> pace slowed again by fog: can't see but 30-40 feet; blazing
> "uneven" and indistinct; am forced to retrace the bleak Massey
> Gap/Wilburn Ridge->southbound stretch three times to find AT in
> fence break. No speed and pervading wetness (and no caffiene
> [planning mistake] means pace is insufficient to maintain
> warmth. I am in trouble. Thinking is clear, but terribly slow.
> The world swirls grey inside the Impact's blue tube of light.
> The scene is surreal -- green/yellow grass swept by waves of
> 20-30mph wind, blotches of sleet sailing by, blue-green lichens
> aglow and warning of wet steely gray rock. And the wind: I am
> now immersed in an angry wind -- constant buffeting and roaring
> and changes of direction. I am a drunken man stumbling down the
> street, except there is no lane or streetlight. Just me and
> noise; me and maelstrom. And insufficient food. -- I am
> freezing. But to stop is to freeze. But to go on is stupid.
>
> I am now barely making a fast walk. And there are enough
> crossing paths in the treadway to confuse me. I count it a
> victory when I can perceive a trail blaze that clearly marks me
> as 'on route'. I eye the nooks and crannies in the moonscape
> with envy [toward whom???], looking for a hole big enough to
> crash in. I am in "escape mode."
>
> 02:00 I arrive at Thomas Knob Shelter to find it empty, but with
> a couple of food bags hung from one corner. I walk around the
> shelter with the flashlight shining out, but perceive no sign of
> life in the 30' hemisphere I can illuminate. Motion is my
> savior, yet my hands are 'thick' with cold, and I know that if I
> fall and am injured, I could be in deep [deeper] trouble. But
> staying in the shelter seems suicidal: if I don't keep moving, I
> will for *sure* freeze -- I find I have to prance at the edge of
> the shelter, just out of the rain, to work up the warmth to step
> back into the driving, pelting sleet to pee. My hands, though
> strangely functional, have little feeling. YUCK. I am shivering
> magNIFicently. Uncontrollably. Yuck AGAIN.
>
> Motion is surely my savior, but the sleeting rain is ROBBING me
> of heat, and the fog and rain are DENYING me forward motion. I
> notice that in my brief break to down a PowerBar, I have gotten
> no colder in not moving: perhaps getting out of the thieving
> wind and rain is the better idea.
>
> Although the front of the leanto faces nearly head-on into the
> wind, I notice in amazement that the shelter floor remains dry.
> From the pack I pull water (which I force down, although I've
> not been exactly *thirsty* for a while), the mylar [Thank Ready
> for That'un!] and the two garbage bags. I doff my shoes [brand
> new NB805's] and set them at an angle to drain a pretty puddle
> on the floor -- suddenly wildly concerned that it might drain on
> me in the darkness and... get me WET??? Ha! I stand and squeegie
> my tights, and make a new puddle with the effort. The wind roars
> 20 feet in front of me, uncaring.
>
> Feet in a garbage bag, a garbage bag under my torso, and the
> pack under my head, I am arranging the noisy-crunchy mylar
> around my legs and shoulders when a clear female voice announces
> above my head "You know, it's a lot warmer up here."
>
> Huh? Turns out that Thomas Knob Shelter has a sleeping loft
> across the whole top of it. Two hikers were up there, asleep. I
> accept the invitation, and pick up my "kit" and climb up the
> ladder shadowed in the leanto corner. As I'm just about settled
> down, the gal askes "Where were you camped?" "Nowheres," I
> answered, "I'm running overnight into Damascus, and I can't move
> fast enough to keep warm." No response. I wanted to explain
> about the dark and the rain and the glasses and the hat and the
> wind and the fog and the failed parka and such, but I wanted to
> wait till I stopped shivering underneath the noisy mylar that so
> loudly announced each shiver. ........
>
> 06:00 It's still pitch dark in the loft, but I know that
> somewhere above the noise of the storm is a peaceful sunrise.
> I'm shivering still, but feel a ferocious need to press on.
> Perhaps I don't want to have my shelter mates set eyes on me in
> daylight; fingers pointing.... "J'Accuse!!!" I lite out quickly
> into the lifting darkness.
>
> 06:30 Light is replaced in backpack. I am not warm, but I am no
> colder. I am now running in the lifting fog; I can see 100' with
> regularity. Sometimes.
>
> 07:30??? I pass Buzzard Rock and start down into the hardwoods,
> leaving the exposed highlands finally behind. I should warm with
> each loss of altitude, and am warmed by the thought.
>
> EPILOGUE:
> I hit Damascus (I think) about noon or after, having spent about
> 4 hours shivering at Thomas Knob. 36 hours later, I warm up. My
> food, budgeted for 10-12 hours, ran ... thin at the end,
> *really* slowing me up more. I was a basket-case that day......
>
> THINGS I MISSED: caffiene and food for delayed passage. Also, no
> excuses, I should have had a newer shell... a big surprise and
> disappointment to find my ol' reliable failed.
>
> THINGS I HIT: had I kept dry, the clothing and the emergency
> gear were quite versatile and well-suited. Great flashlight. And
> the only things that didn't ache when I hit the bottom were my
> feet: LOVE those NB805s.
>
> COULD I HAVE *DIED* OUT THERE? I had a number of people tell me
> how nasty the storm was down in Damascus, blowing and cold.
> Knowing how nasty things can get up on Rogers and the Highlands
> and such, they said many a prayer for me overnight. I am
> grateful. But I kept my head, too, and having been in somewhat
> similar situations (in one degree or another) really helps one
> not loose their cool. That said, I would not discount that, if
> someone suffered a shock-inducing trauma, or became lost and
> compounded it by continuing to move, or if the temperature had
> dropped another 5-10 degrees (a big deal, at that point), there
> might be a shorter, sadder tale to tell. That's about all I'll
> say.
>
> Sloetoe
>
> =====
> Spatior! Nitor! Nitor! Tempero!
>    Pro Pondera Et Meliora.
>
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