OTATS TIPS FOR A SAFER ADVENTURE
How often have you felt unprepared and said to yourself, I should have done that or I should have thought of this, during an adventure. I know you just answered a yes, often to that in your head, we’ve all done it !
Adventures, especially here in Scotland can enrich and energise us, both physically and emotionally. It’s a great way to shed the stress of everyday life as well as build confidence and self esteem. Equally though, getting it wrong can have the exact opposite effect and can be deeply damaging to your confidence!
When you are sat dreaming up your next Adventure alway keep in mind the realities of what you are planning. Remember, very rarely does your dream trip go the way you envisage it. I’d like to suggest that as long as you have a “What If” plan parked next to your adventure plan you can start to realistically and safely enjoy the experience.
A real life lesson that I learned when I was young, inexperienced and full of big ideas was during a trip up Bidean nam Bian, Glencoe. The day started off very well, weather was great and we got an early start up the mountain. As you know, time just disappears when you are having fun. It was getting to around 3pm and we were on our way back down towards he lost valley. It had began to rain fairly heavily and the cloud had suddenly cloaked all around us. Fatigue was setting in just as quick as the bad weather, before we knew it we found ourselves disoriented, tired and feeling very vulnerable. We managed to misplace the path and the only way we could see to get to safety was by crossing a river! The rain was well and truly tipping it down and the rivers were in full flow. We had effectively, in our minds, found ourselves boxed in by rivers. Feeling a degree of fear and anxiety coupled with the fatigue, we found ourselves making a potentially fatal decision to cross the raging river. In the end, we managed to cross the river and then move to safety. It was later over a pint that the moment of realisation became pretty overwhelming. “That could have gone so very wrong”.
What did we do wrong:
- Didn’t anticipate and understand how quickly the weather can change in the mountains.
- Making a proper and realistic time appreciation was never in our thoughts.
- Understand and be able to interpret the information on a map and visualise what it translates to in real terms. It’s all well and good having a map and compass, if you know how to use them, be able to navigate!
- Decision making was done with poor risk appreciation. When you are cold, wet and tired decisions need to be thought through carefully.
- If something had gone wrong, we hadn’t left word with anyone as to where we were and what we were doing.
- We totally underestimated the power of Mother Nature !
ON THE ADVENTURE TRAILS - Top Tips
⚠️ 1. OTATS TIP: Your perfect adventure doesn’t always turn out how you imagined so make sure you are prepared with the correct kit, know how to use the kit, basic skills knowledge and have a realistic emergency plan.
⚠️ 2. OTATS TIP: Before heading into cloud or low visibility, STOP, check your position and begin actively navigating. Disorientation can come quickly and easily.
⚠️ 3. OTATS TIP: Do I need it! You are better looking at it, than for it! That said, tailor the kit to the Adventure. There are some basics that are a given. Communications, map and compass, first aid kit, etc.
⚠️ 4. OTATS TIP: Always ask yourself the “What If” question, and answer it - truthfully and realistically !
Q. What if I loose my compass?
A. John has his compass also as a spare and we also have digital mapping, as a back up to REAL map reading, only! That’s a whole other Blog!
Q. What if we run out of daylight?
A. Time, distance, speed, it will take us 4 hours to get to the main path for an easy route to follow out, but we will add an hour. We also have 2 escape routes with cutoff times maked on the map. Finally, we will plan to finish at least an hour before sunset.
Be prepared!
There are endless ideas and recommendations that can be made to make your adventure safer but each and every adventure has its own requirements! Don’t forget, a true adventure has an element of uncertainty, and dare I say it, danger!
Stay safe and let us know your top tips ⁉️
