The 8 Most Dangerous Mistakes People Make in Remote Environments

8 of the most dangerous mistakes made in expeditions and how to rectify them.

1.- Underestimating weather windows

This can sometimes be hard depending on what kind of weather information you are receiving. For our Patagonia expedition – patagonia expedition – Welcome, we were given the weather as Monday – rain easing, slight wind, Tuesday Heavy rain, windy. This is not ideal as we had no information about when or how much rain/wind was coming or even the direction. We really had to use our knowledge of the weather to assess and make good decisions. We utilized weather windows to still gain some sort of ground during the rougher days. Waiting and reading the weather to figure out when and how far we think we can advance during that day. These small days still add up by the end of the trip, 5 small days of 10 km instead of having the full day off would be equal to 2 full days for us. This does come with risks – If you are trying to read the weather and time the windows there is a chance you can be wrong so it’s very important to make good decisions in regard to planning your route. Always have a backup. I also had good example of a weather window while trying to circumnavigate Stewart Island Kayaking Stewart Island: My Full Trip Recap (Storms, Wildlife, Lessons Learned) – Welcome. During this trip we had some horrendous weather, we had a section of coastline that had no safe places to land for 30km. Our forecasts for that section were all about 40knot winds and 3m swell. Apart from one day where it looked pretty good, still 2.5m swell and a 20-25knot tail wind. Turns out if we didn’t take that window our trip would have been very different.

 

2.-Poor decision making due to fatigue

Good decisions are never made while fatigued after a long day or even a long week. During my expeditions our plans for the day were normally made every morning. That way we were fresh, well rested and knew what the weather was doing. A terrible idea is to just get going and figure everything out as you go. I normally get a map out in the morning and find out the goal campsite to reach, then the backup camp which is normally about halfway between the goal camp. That way if the weather does turn bad, I know I have a backup camp and don’t need to get a map or gps out in rough weather to figure out a plan from there. It can be exhausting fighting through some big head winds; the last thing you want to do is lose ground and get pushed backwards while formulating a next plan. Most of the time these bad decisions caused from fatigue come from the thought of “let’s just get through it” or “surely it won’t be too much longer”. Realizing where you are and your backup plan/camp early could save a huge day on the water and possibly save a terrible accident.

 

3.- Lack of or incorrect comms/recue gear

This one is very important, if something were to go wrong in a remote environment and you had the wrong rescue gear or even none at all you would be wishing you had it. A good example of this is on our Patagonia expedition – patagonia expedition – Welcome. While doing our research for the trip we discovered that most personal locator beacons (plb’s) don’t work in that area. This meant we had to make sure we had gear that would 100% work in that certain area. We figured out that we could use a Garmin Inreach to contact the navy and our main land contact. We would do this every night, mainly because we had to for the permits as the navy needed to know exactly where we were every day. However, we would have still done this with our land contact either way. We also used handheld radios for contacting nearby ships or other people in the area if needed. An important factor to think about is any membership fees or servicing the equipment before any expeditions to make sure it all works well. There is no point bringing a piece of equipment that doesn’t work.

 

4.- Overpacking/Under packing

This one is hard because it mostly comes down to experience. You learn over time what is necessary and what is not. I still remember when I first started in the outdoors, I would always overpack. For example, a new pair of socks for every day. This may sound nice to have, but if I was on a long expedition then there would be much more efficient and useful ways to use that space of the extra socks. The extra weight of the unnecessary equipment adds extra effort into everything you do day to day, which in turn makes you more tired and sore every day. In regard to under packing, I haven’t seen it nearly as much as overpacking. I do however see it in lack of certain items or forgetting things, most commonly a headtorch. It is very important to have a gear list to pack with. I have also seen it with food which can be a major problem especially in longer trips. Over time you figure out how much you need and the best ways to pack it. A rough example I like to go off is take your normal calorie intake and add about 2000 calories per day. The ideal is to be perfectly packed but I’m still to this day unable to say that I have packed perfectly.

 

5.-Ignoring early signs of sickness, hypothermia, injury etc.

A hard one to make a decision on, should you push through or do you need a rest? Once again experience helps with this, but common sense also does. If you are clearly not paddling, walking or whatever your activity is comfortably within the conditions, then something might be wrong. You need to immediately communicate with your team, let them know how you are feeling. A slight tweak of you shoulder could be uncomfortable one day but if you keep pushing it, then it could mean the trip gets abandoned. Also be a good team member and check in on your buddies, ask them how they are, how is their body holding up etc. They might just open up a bit and potentially could save a worse injury or sickness.

 

6.- No turnaround time/point

Kind of mentioned above in number 2, this is critical in longer days or days that you are fighting bad weather. You need to have a point where you re-access how the day is going. Do you need a change of plan? Is the wind easing off or is it becoming stronger? If you don’t have this planned out beforehand then when the time comes you are under pressure and potentially in a bad situation. You should always have a spot that is planned out that is a backup, or a turnaround time – If you are not at this place by this time you need to… This has saved countless adventurers many times. For some people the hard part is committing to the back up as they see it as losing the day, this is not true at all. You could have saved an exhausting day that has effects for days after, saved a swim or even saved a life.

 

7.- Misjudging crossings

This applies for river crossings during hikes, and for big open water crossings for sea kayaking. You need to be sure you can make it and once again have a backup plan if you get halfway and realize you’re not making it. For big open water crossings, you need to be close enough to communicate to you team but not too close that you keep banging into each other, and keep your head on a swivel – keep looking around at your team and the weather etc. For river crossings you need to make sure you understand the depth and the force of the current, do you need to cross as one? What happens if it gets too deep? It all needs to be planned out and executed well. Any form of crossing is one of the most dangerous areas in the outdoors.

 

8.- Not planning on any gear failures

You need to make sure that all your bases are covered when it comes to repairs/gear failures. Our Patagonia expedition is a testament to this, we had a hole in our tent, ripped tarp, cracked hull of a kayak, cooker problems, holes in sleeping mats and skeg problems. Luckily, we were well prepared to solve these issues. A good idea is to figure out what items you need in your repair kit, ideally you want to be able to have multiple uses/options for those items. For example, we had spare fishing line which was used as intended but also used to makeshift sew our tarp back together. Seam seal was another good example; this was used for all the patching fixes to make sure the item was not leaking. If you didn’t plan for any gear failures while out on a big expedition you could end up in a serious predicament. The extra weight of a well packed and thorough repair kit is well worth the extra weight if it means that you can fix your gear and get to your end destination/goal.