Mountain survival strategies for braving the snow
GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. - As one medical expert on Mount Hood says, missing climbers have a 1 percent chance of surviving beyond their first two days on the mountain. We take a look at the tools necessary to survive on the snowy slopes.
"You've got to be able to keep yourself alive," said one survival expert. "That means warm, hydrated and being able to take care of injuries that may occur."
Anthony Vietti, a 24 year old from Longview, and 29-year-old Katie Nolan of Portland have been missing since Friday. Despite whiteout conditions and a foot and a half of snow, rescue teams have not given up their search. They continued continued searching by snow shoe through Tuesday.
Survival expert Peter Kummerfeldt said the two would have to continually open ventilation tubes in a snow cave to vent exhaust from a camp stove with all the snow we have been getting.
Kummerfeldt made his introduction to KATU viewers in October when the Clackamas County Sheriff's department invited him to teach survival classes at a search and rescue conference on Mount Hood. There, the survival trainer for the Air Force Academy and world-renowned survival instructor was interviewed about what climbers would need to survive multiple days in the snow.
Kummerfeldt said food is one of the least of a lost climber's concerns. By phone from Colorado Tuesday, he said that if the climbers have water and have built a snow cave they could easily still be alive and waiting out the weather.
"Absolutely," Kummerfeldt said. "If we make the assumption that they were able to make a snow cave and get out of the wind, it's very probable that they have been snowed under."
But, he said, "you have got to have water, otherwise you dehydrate very rapidly. When you dehydrate the very best survival tool that you have - what's between your ears - begins to malfunction and you make bad mistakes that just compounds the situation."
Kummerfeldt said a shovel for building a snow cave is the most important tool for mountain climbers in winter conditions.
The big thing for these two, said Kummerfeldt, is fighting the urge to flee. He says if they leave a snow cave their chances for survival decrease drastically.
He says even after five days in freezing temperatures and high winds they could be alive and waiting for help. Obviously, the chances for survival decrease every day. He says they may be fighting a natural urge to stop waiting and start walking - something that he says could be deadly.
"The combination of wind and temperatures creates a wind-chill environment where they could not survive very long," said Kummerfeldt.
Kummerfeldt knows the situation is dire, but the expert who has been teaching and survival tricks since the 1960s says there's a chance the two are alive if they prepared.
"There's no substitute what-so-ever for having the right equipment with you when you are in trouble," he said.
In October, Kummerfeldt also taught a class on the 10 survival tools everyone needs to have in the outdoors even in the most severe conditions. He says if the climbers carried a good winter survival kit with a shovel, and they dug a cave, their chances are good.
Inside the cave he says the two should have some way to make fire, a small camp stove and a large plastic bag to stay dry.
A plastic bag "epitomizes versatility," he said. Climbers also need something to store and drink water, preferably something that is light and can deflate.
Kummerfeldt survived in a snow cave in the Arctic for two days after getting caught in a storm. He says if climbers stay inside a cave and wait for searchers - like four climbers did on Mount Hood in 1997 - they could live to tell their story.
"It gets a bit claustrophobic," he said. "But you have to remind yourself that you are a lot better off inside that snow cave than you are outside."
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