After spending three months adrift on the Pacific Ocean, Australian sailor Timothy Shaddock was rescued by a group of Mexican tuna fisherman on July 12, the Associated Press reports. Stepping on dry land for the first time since April, Shaddock recounted on July 18 how he and his “amazing” dog Bella survived the ordeal by eating raw fish and drinking rainwater.

“I’m feeling all right. I’m feeling a lot better than I was,” Shaddock told reporters during a welcome ceremony in Manzanillo on Tuesday. “To the captain and fishing company that saved my life, I’m just so grateful.”

The 54-year-old sailor added that there were times when he didn’t think he’d survive. But thanks to his perseverance and ingenuity, he’ll be returning to Australia soon to reunite with his family.

“There were many, many, many bad days and many good days,” Shaddock said of his time adrift at sea.

The First Bad Day

Shaddock set sail in April from the Mexican city of La Paz, which is located in Baja on the Sea of Cortez. He was joined on his small catamaran, named the Aloha Toa, by Bella, a stray dog that he’d picked up during his travels in Mexico.

“She’s the spirit of the middle of the country and she wouldn’t let me go,” he said of his newfound companion. “I tried to find a home for her three times, and she just kept following me onto the water. She’s a lot braver than I am, that’s for sure.”

Shaddock originally planned to sail across the Pacific to French Polynesia, but that plan fell apart just weeks into the journey. He ran into bad weather in early May after sailing out of the Sea of Cortez and into the Pacific, and his catamaran was badly damaged in a storm. Without any electronics or the ability to cook, he and Bella found themselves adrift in a crippled vessel.

Survival at Sea

Fortunately, Shaddock had some fishing gear onboard. He spent the following weeks, which soon turned into months, catching fish, eating them raw, and sharing the meat with his dog.

While it’s unknown what kind of fish he was catching, the Sea of Cortez and South Pacific are known as some of the most fertile fishing grounds on the planet. They’re home to large numbers of billfish, dolphin, bonito, tuna, and other saltwater species that can be eaten raw. (Some of these species carry parasites and there is always a risk when eating uncooked fish straight from the ocean.)

As for how they stayed hydrated, Shaddock said he collected rainwater the whole time. He didn’t explain how, but there are a few different ways he could have done this—like using a tarp or one of his sails to catch and funnel the water into a receptacle.

Read Next: 10 Primitive Survival Skills that Will Keep You Alive

Of course, physical needs are only part of the equation when trying to survive in the open ocean. And Shaddock said he was able to stay sane all those months by tinkering with his boat and taking the occasional swim, which allowed him to “just enjoy being in the water.”

Saved by Fish, Rescued by Fishermen     

Shaddock has Grupo Mar, a Manzanillo-based commercial tuna fishing fleet, to thank for his eventual rescue. A helicopter pilot that was scouting for the fleet spotted his small catamaran roughly 1,200 miles from land. The pilot then returned with the María Delia, one of Grupo Mar’s tuna boats.

The crew did what they could to help Shaddock and his dog, who were both in a “precarious” state, according to the company. They gave them food, water, and medical attention before bringing them back to port on July 18. One of the crew members also agreed to adopt Bella and promised Shaddock that he’d take good care of the dog.

Shaddock has since been cleared by doctors and local governments to return to his native country. And when an AP reporter asked him what meal he was looking forward to the most when he got home, he gave an unexpected answer.

“Tuna,” he replied. “Sushi.”

The post Sailor and His Dog Survive 3 Months at Sea by Eating Raw Fish and Drinking Rainwater appeared first on Outdoor Life.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Everything we know about tick bite symptoms seems to have been watered down to a single telltale warning sign: the bullseye rash. If no red rings show up around the site of your tick bite, then you’re fine, right? Not necessarily, according to the experts.

There are plenty of tick bite symptoms that warrant a visit to your doctor’s office. While increasingly common (and now of concern year-round in some parts of the country), tick bites are not something to take lightly. The health consequences can range from an irritated bite mark that lasts a few weeks to a serious illness that lands you in the hospital or with chronic complaints.

We spoke with public health entomology expert Phurchhoki Sherpa, coordinator for the Purdue University Public Health Entomology Program. Medical entomology is a fancy term for the area of medicine concerning insect-borne diseases like Lyme and malaria. Sherpa has spent countless hours in the field collecting ticks for research purposes, and she knows more than her fair share about what can happen when a tick bites you.

What to Do When a Tick Bites You

If you find a tick latched onto your skin, first you should review how to remove a tick and follow that procedure. (Quick refresher: grab your tweezers or tick removal tool, grasp the tick as close to your skin as possible, and pull until it releases.) The best immediate tick bite treatment options involve cleaning the bite with some sort of disinfectant—hydrogen peroxide or rubbing alcohol are good options—and applying an antibiotic ointment of your choosing. Your tick bite may look and feel like a chigger bite or any other bug bite in the days that follow, or you may find that an angry, itchy bump persists for weeks as it heals.

“It can look as benign as a mosquito bite, like a little itchy welt, especially if the tick has fallen off without you realizing you had it,” Sherpa tells Outdoor Life. She notes that such circumstances are common with tiny, immature ticks that are hard to see. “It can also look kind of scary, with a scab on the bite mark. It varies.”

Common Tick Bite Symptoms

Sherpa is referring to the rashes, scabs, and swelling that can accompany a tick bite. Always keep an eye out for a bullseye rash (the traditional symptom that is present in some, though not all, Lyme disease cases). A bullseye rash can appear not just around the bite mark, but anywhere on the body. Small, hard scabs might form around the bite. If they’re dark and crusty, this might be an early sign of a type of tick-borne disease known as spotted fever (more on this in a minute). If the bite mark exhibits other signs of infection, like extreme swelling, pustules, blistering, or anything else abnormal, seek medical treatment immediately. 

Beyond the early, visible symptoms of a tick bite, be on the lookout for these more systemic symptoms that most or all tick-borne illnesses share. These symptoms might pop up anywhere from a day to a few weeks after the bite: 

• Fever
• Chills
• Headache
• Muscle ache
• Fatigue
• Nausea/vomiting
• Joint aches/arthritic pain

Tick-Borne Illnesses You Should Know About

Most tick bites will not cause you any further trauma than a mosquito bite would. After all, half or fewer of all ticks are infected with transmissible diseases. If the tick wasn’t latched deep into your skin or wasn’t engorged with blood yet, it probably didn’t get the chance to transmit anything. For example, it usually takes at least 36 hours for an attached tick to transmit Lyme disease to its human host. 

But if your tick bite does transform into something of concern, it’s good to know about the various tick-borne illnesses you could develop. The risk of each tick-borne illness changes depending on where in North America you picked up the tick, Sherpa says. This is because different types of ticks carry different diseases. 

This is not an exhaustive list of all possible tick-borne illnesses. But here are eight tick-borne diseases that you should absolutely know about.

Tick Bite Prevention

Fortunately, with proper tick bite prevention, there’s no reason to avoid the outdoors—especially not during the most enjoyable months of the year.

Dress, Treat, and Check

Tick bite prevention goes beyond simply drowning yourself in the best tick repellent. It also involves wearing the right clothes, treating your gear with permethrin, and doing multiple tick checks in the field and after the day is over. 

“I tell [hikers] to wear light-colored clothing so they can detect ticks earlier and faster, especially the ones that would go unnoticed if we wore patterns or dark clothing,” Sherpa says. “Tuck your shirt into your pants, tuck your pant legs into your socks, always wear close-toed shoes with long socks when you’re outdoors.” 

Sherpa also acknowledges that hunters have to do things a little differently if they want to avoid tick bites and the scary symptoms that can come with them. We spend more time bushwhacking than we do on trails, we wear dark and patterned clothing (hello camouflage), and we’re outside for a long time.

“When you’re hunting, you’re in the field for a while. You’re waiting, walking around. So do a tick check every few hours. The faster you can find the tick and get rid of it, the better,” she says. “When you get home, check yourself and your camo clothing. If you have a dryer, put your clothes in the dryer on high heat for about 20 minutes. The heat will decimate the ticks. And the sooner you can take a shower, the better.” 

If showers and dryers are unavailable back at camp, or you refuse to put your expensive merino wool or rain gear in a dryer, treating your clothes with permethrin is the best line of defense. Make sure to follow the instructions on the bottle and wear gloves to avoid getting any on your skin.

Parts of the Body Likely to Get Tick Bites

When it comes to tick checks, close attention to detail makes all the difference. Check under your armpits, behind your ears, along your hairline, in your groin area, between your toes, behind your knees, and even in your belly button. Sherpa highlights all these spots as dark, easy-to-overlook hiding holes for ticks of all sizes.

If your legs and arms are bare, not only is there a chance they bite your ankles or inside your elbows, but they could also crawl under your shirt or shorts. By wearing long sleeves and pants and tucking in all your layers, you limit a tick’s chances of accessing any skin, let alone skin in a hard-to-reach place.

Tick Bite FAQs

Final Thoughts

Tick bite symptoms can range from a small, itchy welt to a series of flu-like ailments that could land you in the hospital if left untreated. That’s why it’s crucial to know what types of ticks live in your area and what diseases they might carry. 

Read Next: How to Remove a Tick From a Dog

The good news is that these scary tick-borne diseases with their array of side effects are all avoidable, thanks to the time-tested prevention strategies outdoorswomen and men now swear by. The age-old adage about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure holds true, Sherpa says.

“We as humans are lazy. We don’t like dealing with that extra work. But prevention goes a long way when it comes to tick bites and tick-borne diseases. It is really important to take preventative measures when you go out,” Sherpa says. “If people aren’t sure about the worthiness of prevention measures, they should talk to someone who has had a tick-borne disease before.”

The post Tick Bite Symptoms appeared first on Outdoor Life.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Captain Alex Rogers will always remember the worst day of his sportfishing career. It was when he watched his 33-foot offshore fishing boat sink to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Rogers captured footage of the aptly named “disaster at sea” in July 2022 and shared the series of videos to his TikTok page, where they’ve been seen by millions of viewers.

@fishcabo Im gonna Ride her down! #fishprotocol #fishcabo #sinkingboat #liferaft #cabo #surrender #protocolsportfishing #winslowliferaft ♬ Surrender – Natalie Taylor

To get the full story behind the videos, Outdoor Life caught up with Rogers over the phone. From his home base in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, the 52-year-old charter captain shared the story of how his boat went down, and how he and his crew survived 12 hours in a life raft before they were rescued by one of his fishing buddies.

A Sinking Feeling

It all started the morning of July 18 with a 500-pound marlin, says Rogers, a California native who moved south to Cabo several years ago and started running offshore trips from a 33-foot Rampage he named the Protocol.

“The only reason I had a camera running that morning is because we were about 45 to 50 minutes into fighting a 500-pound blue marlin, and I wanted a video of the fight and catch,” Rogers says. “I was backing down hard on the fish, which washes big waves of water over the transom.”

Read Next: Hard-Fighting Marlin Punches Hole in Boat Engine, Strands Anglers in Open Ocean

He says this is something that all bluewater captains do when trying to land a huge fish like a marlin. And he’d backed down on other billfish in the Protocol countless times before. But unknown to Rogers, his first mate Cristian Balderas, and the four paying anglers on board, one of the through-hull fittings for the motor’s exhaust pipe had failed, which opened a giant hole in the boat’s stern.

“I noticed water was still on the stern deck and we hadn’t been backing down on the fish and taking water over the transom for awhile,” he explains. “That didn’t make sense. Then my starboard engine went dead.”

@fishcabo My guys stayed focused! #fishprotocol #fishcabo #cabo #sinkingboat #liferaft #billfish #lostatsea #yousay @Pure Okie ♬ You Say – Lauren Daigle

At that point, around 10 a.m., Rogers climbed down from the tuna tower and opened the engine compartment. It was overflowing with water. His clients were still hooked up with the marlin and trying to land it, but Rogers had to pull them off the rod as the boat kept sinking lower.

“We got a bucket brigade working with the anglers, trying to pitch water out of the cockpit, but to no avail. At that point the scupper holes were underwater, and the boat was filling faster with water,” Rogers says. “I knew something bad was happening.”

Mayday

Now realizing that the Protocol was beyond saving, Rogers climbed back in the tuna tower and used his radio to call in a mayday.

“I was on the radio broadcasting our location when my electronics died,” Rogers says. “I was clueless the boat would sink that fast, [but] when I realized we were going down, I tossed down the life raft box. By that time my boat was really going under, and I just stepped off the bridge and into the warm Pacific.”

@fishcabo Replying to @walnutcafe8 #fishprotocol #sinkingboat #liferaft #cabo #billfish #winslowliferaft #jacksparrow #captainjacksparrow #fishcabo ♬ Addicted – KING COLE

His crew had already grabbed life jackets, and they swam away from the sinking boat to deploy the life raft. Rogers, meanwhile, kept filming as he watched his boat sink down in 10,000 feet of clear blue water.

“That’s when I realized the real challenge was ahead of us.”

12 Hours in a Raft

The Winslow life raft had a roof, along with basic emergency gear like water, flares, and fishing tackle. But it was rated for five people, and they had six adult men on board.

“The guys were distressed,” Rogers recalls. “We were cramped inside the raft with our legs entangled. It was pretty bad for the long hours we spent bobbing on the ocean.”

@fishcabo Sorry! Here is the sound! #fishprotocol #sinkingboat #fishcabo #winslowliferaft #billfish #protocolsportfishing #survival #aftco #jacksparrow #lostatsea ♬ original sound – Alex Rogers

With a hurricane brewing 200 miles away, the waves were rough and most of the men got seasick. Some puked over the side of the raft. Even going to the bathroom was difficult as they had to jump into the ocean to relieve themselves.

“It’s traumatic to be adrift in a raft on the open water. We had a range of emotions. Despair, hope, anger, frustration. I prayed to God. Apologized to God. Made promises to God.”

In between prayers, Rogers tried to stay positive. He says he was confident that one of his friends from Cabo’s close-knit fishing community would come save them.

What he didn’t realize at the time was that his GPS coordinates weren’t accurately received when he called in the mayday. This meant that some of his friends were searching more than 25 miles away from where the Protocol actually sank. High waves and strong currents made it harder to pinpoint their location, and even the Mexican Navy was unable to find them.

Read Next: Hawaiian Angler Missing at Sea After Being Pulled Overboard by a Giant Tuna

“The Navy quit looking for us at 7 p.m., and they closed the harbor down for boats because the hurricane was bearing down on us,” says Rogers, who credits his wife Brandi for coordinating with the U.S. Coast Guard, the American Consulate, and the charter captains they knew in Cabo. “But the offshore fishing community headed out anyways [and looked] for us long after sundown.”

Finally, around 11 p.m., after 12 hours adrift in the Pacific, someone in the raft said they thought they heard a boat engine.

“I could see a boat’s running lights almost a mile away, and I started jumping and signaling to it,” Rogers says. “I watched the boat turn, then spotted its red-and-green navigation lights coming to us.”

Pancho Bojorquez, a local charter captain and one of Rogers’ friends, was at the wheel of the 35-foot Viking. He was joined by eight or 10 others, who were almost as happy to see the anglers as the anglers were to be rescued.  

“I knew then we were going to be saved,” Rogers says. “And all of us just started going nuts in the raft.”

@fishcabo Replying to @gecko.rau #fishcabo #fishprotocol #survival #lostatsea #protocolsportfishing #pro2col #billfish #winslowliferaft ♬ original sound – Alex Rogers

Back on shore, the fishermen reunited with their friends and families. And within two months’ time, Rogers bought a new 38-foot Egg Harbor boat, which he named the Right Rigger. He’s since replaced the roughly $60,000 worth of offshore tackle that sunk along with the Protocol. But he says the most important item on the new boat is a brand-new life raft.

“Those rafts are pricey, some up to about $5,000, but that’s the best money anyone can spend who fishes open water,” Rogers says. “When I bought the Protocol, my friend the late Ted Barta told me to buy a good Winslow raft for the boat because one day it might save my life. “Best advice I ever got from a legend in the offshore fishing world. That raft saved all our lives.”

The post Watch a ‘Disaster at Sea’ Unfold as a Fishing Boat Sinks Off the Coast of Mexico appeared first on Outdoor Life.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Traveling in bear country calls for a heightened sense of awareness and a basic understanding of how to defend yourself from an aggressive black bear or grizzly. Carrying and knowing how to use bear spray is one of the most important and effective safety measures you can take. Studies have shown that using bear spray can reduce both the likelihood and the severity of a bear attack, and more than a few near victims have seen its effectiveness firsthand.

This includes Alan Townsend, the dean of the University of Montana’s Forestry School, and Scott Ferrenberg, Associate Director of UM’s Lubrecht Experimental Forest—both of whom crossed paths with a grizzly bear years ago in northwest Montana. Ferrenberg tells Outdoor Life that he and Townsend were surveying a patch of forest near Ovando when they unknowingly roused a large male grizzly from its nap. The boar announced its presence with a growl and charged the two men through the brush.

“One of the things that stood out to me was just how large it was,” Ferrenberg says. “I’m a tall man, about 6-foot-4, but that bear … if it stood next to me [on all fours], its snout would have leveled with my sternum.”

The bear made a bluff charge at Ferrenberg and then wheeled away, turning toward Townsend instead. This gave Ferrenberg enough time to draw his own bear spray canister and spray the bear mid-charge as it closed in on Townsend. The charging grizzly spun around and retreated immediately.

“Despite the fact that my spray was deployed at the side-shoulder-head area of the bear, it was immediately effective,” Ferrenberg says. “Which impressed me.”

With that close call in mind, here’s everything you need to know about bear spray and how to use it.

What Is Bear Spray?

Bear spray is a non-lethal deterrent designed to stop a charging bear in its tracks. The active ingredient is capsicum oleoresin, which is derived from chili peppers. 

When triggered, a canister of bear spray releases a dense cloud of the pepper oil. This burning blast of pressurized spice temporarily reduces a bear’s ability to breathe, see, and smell, often running it off or buying you valuable time to haul ass out of there.

Is Bear Spray Effective?

Tom Smith is an associate professor at Brigham Young University and a prominent researcher who has studied thousands of incidents that involved the use of bear spray. In a study that he published in The Journal of Wildlife Management in 2010, Smith analyzed a number of incidents that took place in Alaska. This included 61 cases involving brown bears and 20 cases involving black bears.

The study concluded that bear spray was effective 92 percent of the time against brown bear attacks and 90 percent of the time against black bears. Most importantly, it found that 98 percent of people who used bear spray during an encounter walked away uninjured. The remaining two percent of people only received minor injuries, which means the bear spray could have helped reduce the severity of these attacks.

“You have no business in bear country if you do not have a deterrent with you,” Smith says.

No deterrent is 100 percent effective, however. And in roughly 20 percent of the incidents analyzed in the study, wind either interfered with the accuracy of the spray or caused it to blow back in the sprayer’s face. This doesn’t necessarily mean that bear spray can fail, as there were no mechanical failures reported in any of these cases. It simply proves that any deterrent must be used properly in order to be effective against a charging bear.

How Do You Properly Use Bear Spray?

Bear spray should be used as a deterrent and not a bear repellent. Only use it when a bear shows aggressive behavior or gets too close. If that happens: 

• Remove the safety clip. Before using bear spray, you need to remove the safety clip as swiftly as possible. It’s there to prevent accidental discharge, but when a bear is charging toward you, you need it gone pronto. Remove this clip quickly by wrapping your thumb over the clip and pulling it back.
• Aim. You are trying to create a barrier of spray between you and the bear. Aiming slightly below and toward the bear’s head will help ensure the bear runs into the spray. Use both hands to steady your aim.
• Consider the wind direction. Wind influences the bear spray’s direction. If you’re lucky, the wind will be at your back. If there’s a crosswind, aim slightly into the wind so the wind will carry the spray in front of the bear. If there’s a strong headwind, try to reposition yourself so you don’t end up with a face full of spray. 
• Spray. When the charging bear is 20 to 30 feet away, spray a one- to two-second burst. Remember to aim slightly downward and toward the bear’s head. If you miss or spray in the wrong direction, spray again.
• Leave the area. When the bear stops or retreats, back away slowly. Do not run. Keep an eye on the bear to make sure it’s not following you. Most bears will run away once sprayed, but in some cases, bears have returned to the scene, so hustle (slowly and carefully) to safety. 

“Our cans empty fast,” says Tim Lynch, the general manager of UDAP Industries, which is one of the leading manufacturers of bear spray in the U.S. “We have a high-volume, powerful spray, so with ours, you want to use short bursts.” 

UDAP’s Pepper Power canisters come in different sizes, all of which have a range of 30 feet or more and a continuous spray time of five to seven seconds. Wind and temperature can affect the spray distance, and Lynch says their spray is most effective when the bear is about 15 feet away.

“If you have time and you see a bear charging in, you want to get a burst in when the bear is around 50 to 60 feet from you,” Lynch says. “If you don’t have that time, or if the bear keeps charging in, you want to spray again when the bear is quite close and just let the bear have it.”

Lynch likens the bear spray’s dispersal to a shotgun blast, and he says it’s better to aim the can in one spot rather than waving it side to side.  

“We’ve been trying to correct misinformation someone put out that is recommending people do this zigzag pattern. That just destroys the push on the bear spray and then you create this huge fog cloud in front of you that would be hard to get away from if the wind changed.”

Other reputable manufacturers include Counter Assault, Mace, and SABRE. These companies make some of the best bear spray on the market, and many of their canisters come with holsters so you can keep them close at hand.

Practice Before You Visit Bear Country

Using bear spray is fairly straightforward, but an adrenaline-filled grizzly encounter is not the time to familiarize yourself with it. Practice reaching for your bear spray canister, removing it from your holster or side pocket, and quickly removing the safety clip until it becomes second nature. 

“The biggest problem people have with bear spray is getting it out and getting safety off so that they can use it,” Smith says. “They fumble around or they’re looking at the bear so they can’t figure out how the safety comes off.”

Ferrenberg agrees, pointing out that he was quick to react when he sprayed the massive grizzly because he had plenty of practice.

“Take it seriously and get your practice in like any other part of getting ready for the outdoors,” says Ferrenberg. “People will practice setting up a tent many times before they go backpacking, but it’s somehow a joke to practice pulling your bear spray. It needs to be something people take as part of the routine.”

Smith strongly advises against testing the same can of spray that you plan to carry in bear country to avoid weakening the spray’s propellant. Instead, one of the best ways to practice is by using inert cans of bear spray. These are harmless, water-filled canisters that are readily available from manufacturers, and they let you test your aim in various conditions. Many bear safety classes also incorporate these inert cans into their training sessions.

Tips for Using Bear Spray

We spoke with several experts to learn more about bear spray. Here are some tips on how to use it in bear country:

• Be bear aware: Stay vigilant. Always be aware of your surroundings and look for signs of bear activity such as tracks or bear scat. Pay special attention to dense brush, tall grass, and other areas that provide cover for bears. Also note the wind direction when you’re walking.
• Keep it accessible: Always stash your bear spray within arm’s reach, like in a chest or belt holster. If a bear is charging you, you won’t have time to dig through your backpack to find a canister. Bears can reach top speeds of 35 miles per hour.

“The biggest mistake that people can make with bear spray is to put it somewhere where they can’t get to it, like putting it in your pack,” says Chris Servheen, a bear biologist who spent three and half decades as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s grizzly recovery coordinator. 

In denser brush, where visibility is limited, you should carry your bear spray in hand, ready to deploy. 

• Make sure everyone in the group has bear spray. “Everybody should carry it, not just one person,” Servheen says. 
• Don’t use it like insect repellent. Never apply bear spray on your skin, clothing, or gear. It’s only effective when airborne and can cause serious injury if used like insect repellent. 
• Check the expiration date. Bear spray does expire. Check the date and replace as needed. 
  “Normally, the expiration date is three to four years out from when they’re sold,” Servheen says. “It’s worth it to just save up and buy a new can.”
• Make sure your bear spray is EPA-approved. Look for canisters with an EPA registration, 1 to 2 percent capsaicin, and a range of 25 feet or more. 
• Store bear spray in a cool, dry place. The inside of a hot vehicle or direct sunlight can heat a can of bear spray to a dangerous 120 degrees Fahrenheit, at which point it could explode.

Bear Spray vs. Firearms

The bear spray vs. gun debate is a divisive one. More than a few hunters have credited their firearm for saving their skin, and plenty of folks would opt for a gun over a can of bear spray every time. (Whether that’s a rifle chambered in a reliable bear cartridge, a 12-gauge loaded with slugs, or a bear defense handgun depends on the shooter and the setting.) But while guns can certainly kill a bear, their effectiveness as a defensive tool boils down to the shooter’s ability to maintain accuracy in a high-adrenaline situation.

Smith and other researchers took a closer look at this in another study that was published in 2012. After examining 269 encounters between 357 bears (brown, black, and polar) and 444 humans, the study concluded that people who used firearms for self-defense against bears “suffered the same injury rates in close encounters with bears whether they used their firearms or not.” 

The study did not indicate how well trained those people were with their firearms. But it concluded that most people traveling in bear country are better off using bear spray. Smith and other bear experts have all reached the same conclusion, and they emphasize the challenges of being safe and accurate with a firearm during an attack.

“The vast majority of people are much better off with bear spray than they are with a firearm,” Smith says. “The problem is [shot] placement under extraordinary duress. Most people I’ve talked to train at firing ranges. That’s different than when the paper target jumps down off the rack and chases you with a threat of killing you.”

When Townsend and Ferrenberg were charged by the grizzly in Montana, both men were carrying sidearms and cans of bear spray. Townsend debated which one to reach for, then caught his hand in the straps of his binoculars when he reached across his body for his sidearm. The bear was only a few feet away from him when Ferrenberg sprayed it. 

“One of the mistakes I made was not having the absolute quick instinct of which I was going to go for first and why,” Townsend says. “It was just so fast and out of nowhere. I just instinctively reached for the firearm instead.”

Townsend says that he and Ferrenberg still carry both firearms and bear spray. But the two have since agreed to reach for bear spray as their “first, second, and third choice,” while keeping their firearms as a backup for other worst case scenarios.

“As someone who is frequently carrying a firearm as part of what I’m doing, I would go for the bear spray every time,” Ferrenberg says. “You’d need to quick-draw, get on target, and fire off a round in a fraction of a second, and that’s just not realistic when a 500-pound animal is charging at you.” 

Perhaps, then, one answer to the bear spray vs. gun debate is to carry both and use spray as the first line of defense. Alaska game wardens and backcountry rangers already do this, typically carrying a shotgun with slugs along with a holstered can of bear spray. 

As a final point of consideration, Lynch points out that using bear spray can help avoid situations where a bear doesn’t necessarily need to be killed. One example would be shooting a sow with cubs when a blast of spray could effectively turn the bears around.

“Even if you’re bear hunting, you might not want to take that particular bear,” Lynch says. “It’s a tool, just like a firearm, and every tool has its use and its need.”

FAQs

Final Thoughts on Bear Spray

Bear spray is an invaluable tool when traveling in bear country, but carrying a can is useless if you don’t know how to use it. Familiarize yourself with your bear spray, put it in an accessible place, and practice pulling it. You can also practice with inert cans of bear spray so you’re ready if the time ever comes to use it.

The post How to Use Bear Spray appeared first on Outdoor Life.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

I started camping right around the same time I started walking. My parents loaded my brother and I into their orange Volkswagen bus and drove us from our house in central Wyoming to the closest open campsite we could find. Since then, I’ve camped from north of Alaska’s Brooks Range to the bottom of Argentina, though the bulk of my nights outdoors are still spent in Wyoming. I’ve learned a few good camping hacks along the way.

I’ve learned from my own missteps, like when we forgot forks, spoons, and a can opener to eat baked beans or when we didn’t have extra batteries for our Steripen UV water purifier while backpacking 20 miles from anywhere in Ecuadorian mountains. But I’ve also learned from countless interviews with experts over the years.

So whether you’re a hard-core thru hiker or a casual family car camper, hopefully these camping tips, tricks, and hacks will give you some help or inspiration this summer. 

Backpacking and Thru Hiking Tips

Pretreat for ticks. Coat your hiking clothes in Permethrin, a synthetic molecule that repels mosquitoes, ticks and other insects, says Retha Charette, a backpacking coach who completed the 2,193-mile Appalachian Trail in six months. But also treat your rainfly, tent, backpack, shoes and socks (never use it on your underwear). Charette coats everything again after four or five weeks of use. Read next: Best Tick Repellent

Don’t use stuff sacks. Sure, stuff sacks are handy, but the nice ones can weigh up to 2 or 3 ounces. When you’re carrying everything on your back, ounces make pounds and pounds make pain. Pack your sleeping bag in a dry bag and leave the rest at home. 

Don’t worry about soap. If you’re going for more than a week, consider some kind of soap for your body, but otherwise, hand sanitizer and a quick scrub in a creek or lake will do. 

Use toothpaste tablets. They save on weight and volume. Remember, every ounce counts.

Downsize your toothbrush: Some people cut the handle off their toothbrush. Charette brings a mini travel toothbrush and leaves the container at home. 

Take a wilderness first aid class. You’ll never know when you need to help yourself or someone else. Wilderness first aid classes will teach you what to do with limited gear when you’re far from help. 

Consider trekking poles. They’re not just for old people. Trekking poles keep weight off your knees, which might not matter for shorter trips but will matter after many miles on the trail. 

Pack only what you’re going to eat. If you don’t like oatmeal, don’t bring it, even if it’s on all the backpacking lists. “When you’re backpacking, your body needs calories,” Charette says. Consider some heavier foods if they’re your favorite and come packed with the nutrients your body needs.

Bring dry clothes for sleeping: Charette packs a pair of clothes for hiking and layers for changing weather. Most importantly, she has a shirt and pants designated for sleeping so she knows she will always have dry clothes before bed. “The day could have sucked, but if you have warm, dry clothes and slip into a dry sleeping bag, that’s a vibe.”

Bring a down jacket. Hypothermia can happen in the middle of summer especially with unpredictable weather and long days on the trail. A down jacket will keep you warm (or warm you up) and could even save your life. 

Protect your feet. Think about wearing Injinji toe sock liners or coating your feet in Vaseline to protect them from blisters. Also invest in decent moisture-wicking wool socks like Darn Tough. 

Powder up. Use a powder like Gold Bond on your shoulders or back if you’re packing somewhere hot and you’re prone to heat rash. 

Bring paracord. Possible uses for 30 to 40 feet of paracord are endless. Bring a length to hang food, dry clothes, strap down muddy gear on the outside of your pack, or even lower your backpack down a particularly gnarly stretch of rocks.

Read Next: Best Ultra Light Tents

Use your shirt as a towel. You don’t need to bring an extra towel, even if you’re planning to hike for six months. Dry off with your shirt and save those ounces.

Carry an emergency transponder. Don’t mess around with emergencies  in the backcountry. Invest in a device like the Garmin inReach for the worst-case-scenarios. 

Have a safety plan. Know what you’re going to do if you get bit by a rattlesnake, run into forest fires, or face a flood. But also know what to do with common pitfalls like rolling your ankle or gouging yourself on a stick. 

Travel with two ways to purify water. Bring a water filtration system you trust like an MSR Guardian Portable Water Filter or Platypus Gravity Works, but also bring an emergency backup like Aquamira chlorine drops. 

Read Next: Best Backpacking Water Filters

Poop responsibly. Dig holes 6 inches deep, bury your toilet paper, and keep your waste away from lakes, streams, or rivers.

Always pack an extra meal. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Bring along protein bars, dehydrated dinners like the best backpacking food or MREs. They’ll save you in case you want to (or need to) stay an extra day.

Tips for Camping in Bear Country 

Don’t sleep with food in your tent. Just don’t. It’s not worth it. Even if you aren’t in bear country, food in your tent will attract other unwanted creatures like mice and raccoons.

Carry bear spray. Know how to use it and keep it handy. 

Watch for bear sign. Keep an eye out for piles of poop and other fresh bear sign. If you start to see sign in camp or on the trail, make noise to prevent surprising a bear.

Keep a clean camp. The best way to avoid bears in camp is to make sure anything they could want (human food, pet food, granola bar wrappers, and dirty dishes) are secure. Also consider locking your vehicles at night. Bears have been known to open doors. 

Store food properly. Use approved boxes or bear canisters, hang your food from trees or lock it in your vehicle.

Camping with Kids

Bring food they’ll eat. Don’t decide a camping trip is the time to teach your kid to eat spinach. Bring snacks, meals, and treats you know they’ll like.

Make meals interactive. Bring food like hot dogs or brats to roast over a campfire, pizzas they can assemble themselves, foil packet dinners they can help make, or baked beans to cook in the fire. 

Pack outdoor activities. Leave games for home at home. While camping, bring activities they can only do outdoors like fishing rods, bows and arrows, or rafts. 

Create games in the woods. Consider games like wilderness Bocce ball played with rocks and stumps. Make up a scavenger hunt tailored to ages and ability levels ranging from “find a pinecone” to “find a rock with green lichen.”

Pack the right clothes and gear. A cold or wet kid isn’t a happy kid. Bring the right shoes, warm clothes, bug protection, and sunscreen to keep them as comfortable as possible. 

Don’t push it. That’s great if your child loves long hikes, 12-hour fishing days, or waking up before first light, but if they don’t, lower your adventurous expectations. Your kid wasn’t born as your adventure buddy. Ease them into it. 

Let them help. Ask them to choose a spot for your tent, build a campfire, and set up camp. The more they learn and participate, the more they’ll want to keep camping.

Read Next: Best Camping Tents

Bring glow sticks. This isn’t a must, but a bag of cheap glow sticks from a dollar store will provide hours of post-dark entertainment and help you keep track of groups of little ones in the woods.

Car Camping Hacks & Tips

Make a camp kitchen box. Don’t wait for each trip to gather every item you need to cook food. Make a box with essentials like dishes, pots, pans, common spices, coffee, and other must-haves then replenish when you return. 

Buy a two-burner stove. Lightweight stoves with a single burner are great for the backcountry, but when you have a vehicle, just bring something like the classic Coleman gas stove so you can heat water while you cook eggs or boil noodles while you stir up a sauce. Read next: Best Camping Stoves

Go basic. Camping doesn’t require anything fancy. Until you know what you want, go with the basics then upgrade as needed. 

Bring extra water. Not all campgrounds will have potable water. Bring a 5-gallon jug or water purification system to be sure you aren’t stranded.

Be comfortable. You’re car camping. Bring pillows, a decent pad to sleep on and food you want to eat. Save the lightweight sacrifices for when you’re in the backcountry.  

Go with gas. If you live in areas prone to fire restrictions, consider buying gas portable fire pit. It’s easy and gives you campfire ambiance with a way to cook s’mores.

Improvise. We all have visions of how camping trips should go. Most of the time they’re wrong. Be ready to try something new, whether it’s whittling a wood spoon from a stick because you forgot silverware or piling pine needles under your tent because your sleeping pad sprung a leak.

Have an emergency kit. Pack a way to cut wood like a hatchet or small travel saw, first aid kit, extra matches and fire starter, flashlight, duct tape, needle and thread, solar battery charger and emergency blankets. 

How to Choose the Right Camping Spot

Plan ahead. Many campgrounds require reservations, and even the ones that don’t are busy on popular summer weekends or holidays. Check online to reserve a campsite before you leave and consider dispersed camping if your preferred spot is full.

Do your research. Campground maps rarely reflect where the actual site may be, and if you aren’t familiar with the area, it’s easy to reserve a site wedged among dozens of campers with generators or downwind from the outhouse. Use online functions like Google Earth to check for characteristics like appealing tree stands, actual distance between campsites or proximity to water. 

Know what you want. Think about how close you want to be to your neighbors, to water, to bathrooms or playgrounds before you choose a site and settle in. 

Consider the sun. Maybe you’re an early riser and enjoy the sun on your tent, maybe not. Either way, think about where the sun will rise and if you want to be warmed up early or if you’d rather have a bit more shade. 

Check for trees. Dead trees are called widowmakers for a reason. Survey your surroundings before you set up a tent to be sure you aren’t sleeping where a tree could fall. 

Read Next: How to Choose a Campsite

Final Thoughts on Camping Hacks & Tips

Leave your site better than you found it. Pack out your garbage and check your campsite before you leave, but also consider cleaning up any trash in the area even if it wasn’t yours. 

Be neighborly. Unless you’re dispersed camping or you’re somehow the only one in your campground, follow quiet times, don’t play loud music and generally be considerate of those around you. 

Go to town for a meal. Just because you’re camping doesn’t mean you have to suffer through pouring rain or hail. If moods reflect the weather, think about driving into town to eat dinner and warm up. A hot meal indoors can work wonders. 

Head out with a full tank of gas. And if you’re going into the mountains, fill up before you leave the closest town. If you think you could run out of gas, consider throwing in an extra gas can. 

Tell someone where you’re going. And when you’ll be back. 

Have a plan B. Know where you will go if the campground is full or if the weather turns, and worst case, turn around or decide to embrace the suffer, make it fun and know you’ll have a story to tell.

The post Camping Hacks: 51 Tips and Tricks for Your Next Camping Trip appeared first on Outdoor Life.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

IT’S NOT THE endless daylight that prevents sleep, but the stillness. There is no breeze, no rustling leaves, no buzzing insects or hooting owls. Instead, the emptiness amplifies everything. A small avalanche of rock and snowmelt cascades from nearby cliffs into the sea—not a danger, but loud enough to make you jump. Glaciers groan as they settle. Humpbacks spout in the channel all night long.

My sisters and I are curled in bivvy sacks on a frozen beach on the Antarctic Peninsula, surrounded by some 30 other tourists and a couple fat Weddell seals. 

Besides us and the guides, few of our companions have ever camped before. It’s an odd introduction, in part because leave-no-trace practices don’t cut it in Antarctica. In the morning all footprints must be scuffed out with our boots. Neither food nor drink except water is allowed ashore, along with any gear that hasn’t undergone biosecurity checks. The latrine lecture is similarly strict and involves a good deal of giggling from the uninitiated.

Everyone follows the rules, except the massive cruise ship that lumbers into view and kills its engines across from our campsite. Eventually it groans to life again and disappears behind an island. An elegant three-mast barque in a nearby cove weighs anchor and follows suit. They haven’t left; they’re just hiding at our group’s request.

“There are 20 ships along the Peninsula right now,” a guide confided when I’d asked about fellow tourists. “You feel alone because they make you feel alone.”

All this babysitting and sleight of hand is the catch-22 of Antarctica, a continent that is at once a fragile ecosystem and a ruthless force of nature. Without scrutinizing tourists and their negative impacts (both of which are on the rise), humans will inevitably ruin what makes this place extraordinary.

Yet micromanaging wilderness defeats its purpose. There are still opportunities for true exploration in Antarctica today, but they’re highly supervised and subject to restrictions. This is a far cry from the freedom enjoyed by the Antarctic explorers of even a century ago, whose feats of endurance in these frozen badlands gave rise to some of the world’s greatest survival stories. Today, with the inherent risk of polar exploration stripped away, we’re also robbed of its full rewards.

The Seventh Continent

The prospect of being trapped in a floating hotel with a literal boatload of people is not my family’s idea of vacation. (Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wasn’t talking about cruises when he wrote that “hell is other people,” but he might as well have been.) You can fly to Antarctica, but the traditional way to experience it is by boat. So we booked the smallest ship we could manage and sailed south from Argentina with some 90 other passengers. It’s a 330-foot 1A ice-class ship that’s nearly 50 years old and, like most Antarctic cruises, marketed as an “expedition” vessel. During a mandatory safety briefing on our first day at sea, a middle-aged woman raised her hand.

“If someone falls overboard and they’re panicking, do you knock them out first before you pull them back on board?” Our expedition leader just stared, momentarily speechless. “Because,” she added, “I don’t want to be knocked out.”

Later, our guides share other gems. A German told us about one tourist who, upon clambering out of a Zodiac onto the beach, wanted to know their altitude.

“So how high are we right now?” he had wondered, the ocean lapping at his feet.

The winner, everyone agreed, was the man who waved skyward and asked, “Is this the same moon we have in Texas?”

ANTARCTICA IS BIGGER than Europe and shaped like a hurricane, with the lone arm of the Antarctic Peninsula and its islands stretching north toward the tip of South America. It takes an average of two days to sail between the continents. Ships must navigate the notorious Drake Passage, a turbulent convergence of oceans where the waves, whipped into frenzy by furious winds, can reach 40 feet.

In the winter, the Southern Ocean freezes in a halo around the continent. The ice retreats come summer, allowing ships to maneuver close to shore—usually along the Antarctic Peninsula—and disgorge tourists. More than a few have arrived eager to see polar bears, only to discover they don’t live in the Southern Hemisphere.

Instead, the rocky shores are teeming with seabirds like petrels and albatrosses, the latter of which can spend years at sea without returning to land. Good-natured Weddell seals and humpbacks are most common along the coast, though a dozen other seal and whale species can be spotted, too. But the main attraction are the six subspecies of penguins native to the continent. You can identify penguin colonies long before you hear or smell them by the muddy game trails through the snow. 

There are no land-based predators in Antarctica, and there is no wildlife or vegetation in interior Antarctica—only snow, ice, crevasses, and rugged mountain ranges. The continent itself is covered in the largest piece of ice on Earth and contains more than half of the planet’s freshwater. The ice is so heavy that it’s actually causing the land beneath it to sink into the sea.

No single country governs Antarctica. Instead, the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 laid the foundation for global cooperation around scientific research and, later, preservation. Hunting and fishing are strictly forbidden in a place that’s designated as “a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science.”

During the 2022 to 2023 tourism season, an estimated 106,000 passengers navigated the Drake to cruise along the continent. Nearly 64,000 of those went ashore (ships carrying more than 500 passengers are not allowed to make landings). Although this number represents just 2 percent of Yellowstone’s 2021 visitations, it’s a staggering 1,225 percent increase from the early 1990s, when 8,000 tourists visited Antarctica each year. With them come invasive species, vandalism to historical artifacts, and disruption to wildlife. 

Anja Blacha Skis to the South Pole, 2020

Before the daily Zodiac cruises, our guides scout. Every morning and afternoon they scatter in all directions before collecting tourists and trolling past the critters they glassed up earlier, as if stumbling upon them for the first time.

The discretion is deliberate. They don’t tell us we’re headed to see a rare penguin in case it vanishes before we get a good look. They use code when radioing each other for the same reason. It’s a simple system—L.S. for leopard seal, E.P. for emperor penguin—but many people don’t pay enough attention to crack it.

“I’ve got an H.B. at 10 o’clock,” our guide radios after a humpback surfaces off our bow. She’s a friendly Brit with one Antarctic season under her belt, and she’s a touch nervous. I ask how she likes the work.

“Some guides carry a plastic cup so they can scoop krill out of the water and show them to guests,” she says at one point, hesitating before adding, “I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

It’s clear that the idea of displacing a handful of krill, even for a moment, troubles her. Then she twists the throttle and the motor rumbles to life.

“Anyone have an iPhone?” she asks, brightening. “Want to take a time-lapse of an iceberg?”

BEFORE SHE SKIED to the South Pole, Anja Blacha was just another tourist.

In 2013 the German entrepreneur and her sister traveled to Peru, where they joined a “standard tourist trek” to Machu Picchu. That multiday hike was her first time in a sleeping bag or tent, and she had never spent so much time outdoors. 

Ten years later Blacha can’t begrudge tourists their chaperoned fun. Without it, she wouldn’t have gone on to become the youngest German woman to summit the tallest peak on every continent. That includes Mt. Everest, of course, but also Vinson Massif, the 16,050-foot peak at the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. In 2020 Blacha completed an 858 mile ski trek to the South Pole to achieve what was, at the time, the longest solo, unsupported polar expedition by any woman in history. (Her record has since been broken by Preet Chandi.) 

Although Blacha, now 32, has journeyed to the Arctic (“there’s a risk of polar bears there so I had to learn to shoot”), she says Antarctica is unique. “The sheer expanse of the continent is mind-blowing. I remember being in high camp at Vinson and just looking out around me and it looked like I was above the clouds. But everything was land mass and snow and ice. It’s so, so beautiful.”

Because of that vastness, Blacha sometimes lost a feel for judging distance on her ski trek. Snowcapped mountain ranges look like they could be 10 miles away or 100. Without referencing her GPS, it was disorienting. After just four days of skiing, conditions deteriorated into a brutal storm with gusts building to over 60 mph.

“It was just miserable and painful. My tent was taken up at night and I could barely walk up against the wind. I was crawling on my knees when I was trying to get to my sled,” Blacha says. “The fact that the storm hit me at the beginning was good because it really made me conscious of how important it is to use the moments when conditions are good.”

Moments of discovery—a wind-carved valley of blue ice, the thunder of untrodden snow settling beneath her skis—punctuated the exhausting tedium of long-distance sledging. If Blacha’s most dramatic challenge was the storm, the most insidious was simply staying her course.

“It’s the small moments,” Blacha says. “The transition times are the hardest. Like when you have to force yourself to get up and pack down your tent.… Those days where there’s no big hurdle, there’s no fighting against a big storm, just stretches that are not significant enough to give you that hero story, that boost of self-confidence. But they are enough to wear you out and slow you down significantly. You have this grinding obstacle, constantly.”

To cope, Blacha stuck to a schedule dictated by strict mileage and, to a degree, her provisions. A harness around her waist allowed her to drag camp, food, and fuel in a sled that initially weighed some 220 pounds.

“I had to remind myself that I wanted to do this because it would be hard. If it was easy, I wouldn’t have wanted to do it, so I shouldn’t complain and give up because it actually was hard.”

During her two-month expedition, Blacha was required to make a daily phone call to report her GPS location. It’s not enough to simply drop GPS waypoints. Regulators wanted to hear her voice so they could monitor her condition. This protocol was tightened after British explorer Henry Worsley died in 2016. (Thirty miles short of becoming the first person to cross Antarctica on foot, unassisted and unsupported, he called for help, writing: “My journey is at an end. I have run out of time, physical endurance and a simple sheer inability [sic] to slide one ski in front of the other to travel the distance required to reach my goal.”) 

Now there’s an elaborate personnel rotation to ensure a single operator doesn’t become acclimated to “a small deterioration in your voice day after day,” says Blacha. “This takes away from the feeling of being out there on your own and doing something self-sufficient. You feel very much remote monitored, in a way. I think that’s the one thing I don’t like. I feel like it’s micromanagement. It should be my responsibility as an expeditioner to determine what safety margins I’m willing to take.”

Despite the daily intrusion, she says the benefits of strict governance “of Antarctica—in terms of keeping it pristine and prioritizing scientific research and nature protection—outweigh the downsides.”

Blacha had chosen her route specifically because it had barely been traveled. After departing the coast, she didn’t see signs of life until reaching the final miles of her nearly 58-day trip. A century ago she would have reached what was arguably the loneliest part of the planet. In 2020, her journey ended in something like civilization.

“The area around the South Pole is [one of] the busiest, so that’s where you immediately start seeing human signs,” Blacha says, noting the U.S. research station there. About 30 countries operate some 80 bases in Antarctica. “I had to navigate around the Clean Air Sector to not pollute the air with my breath and my sweat and my body. And then the last 30 to 35 kilometers I would see ski tracks—and actually somebody’s trail mix—on the way. Which was not quite what it should be.”

Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition, 1914–1916

The shock of the saltwater is blinding, and I involuntarily gulp a mouthful as I push to the surface. I try to swim back to the Zodiac, but the guide just drags me there with a rope tethered to the harness around my waist.

It’s New Year’s Day and nearly every passenger is lined up for a polar plunge in the Southern Ocean. Shivering, I accept a warming vodka shot from a Swede in a party hat and watch more people fling themselves into the sea. Most likely the tethers are to prevent weak swimmers from drowning, or to retrieve the occasional tourist who goes into cardiac arrest once submerged in 30-degree water.

Maybe, I tell myself hopefully, it’s for when the leopard seals attack.

SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON was one of history’s greatest leaders. He was also something of a failure.

The British explorer’s fourth expedition to Antarctica collapsed at its outset. Ahead of his voyage to circumnavigate the continent, he suffered a fatal heart attack aboard his ship. Shackleton’s death in 1922 ended what historians call the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration and ushered in the Mechanical Age.

A few years before, on his third expedition to the continent, Shackleton intended to cross Antarctica. Instead his ship, Endurance, was imprisoned in pack ice after just one month. Shackleton, his crew of 27 men, one stowaway, and some 70 sled dogs drifted across the frozen Weddell Sea and through the Antarctic winter for 11 months. In the fall of 1912, the ice crushed and eventually sank the ship. For five months the men sledged across the ice floes, dragging lifeboats with them and subsisting on rations. During warmer months, they shot seals and bludgeoned penguins for meat.

“Returning from a hunting trip, [one man] traveling on skis across the rotting surface of the ice had just about reached camp when an evil, knoblike head burst out of the water just in front of him,” wrote Alfred Lansing in Endurance, arguably the best survival book ever written. “He turned and fled, pushing as hard as he could with his ski poles and shouting for Wild to bring his rifle. The animal—a sea leopard—sprang out of the water and came after him, bounding across the ice with the peculiar rocking horse gait of a seal on land. The beast looked like a small dinosaur, with a long serpentine neck … [and] an enormous array of sawlike teeth.”

The leopard seal dove and tracked the man’s shadow from beneath the thin ice, then burst through again to cut him off, corralling the man. Shackleton’s second in command, Frank Wild, arrived just in time. “Wild dropped to one knee and fired again and again at the onrushing beast. It was less than 30 feet away when it finally dropped. Two dog teams were required to bring the carcass into camp. It measured 12 feet long, and they estimated its weight at about 1,000 pounds.”

In his diary, skipper Frank Worsley described the leopard seal’s effectiveness as a predator. (His descendant is Henry Worsley, the Antarctic explorer who died in 2016.)

“A man on foot in soft, deep snow and unarmed would not have a chance against such an animal as they almost bound along with a rearing, undulating motion at least five miles an hour. They attack without provocation, looking on man as a penguin or seal.”

The crew leveraged this observation, and tried to decoy the next leopard seal.

“…When a sea leopard’s head appeared at the edge of the floe [Thomas] McLeod, who was a small but stocky man, went over and stood flapping his arms to imitate a penguin,” wrote Lansing. “…He sprang out of the water at McLeod, who turned and dashed for safety. The sea leopard humped forward once or twice, then stopped, apparently to take stock of the other strange creatures on the floe. The delay was fatal. Wild had reached into his tent for his rifle. He took deliberate aim and fired, and another thousand pounds of meat was added to the larder.”

Once Shackleton’s crew made it to open water, the men managed to sail three lifeboats to an uninhabited island, where they survived on penguins, seals, and their sled dogs. From there, Shackleton took five men and the sturdiest lifeboat and sailed 800 miles across the stormy Drake Passage to South Georgia Island. To reach the whaling station, Shackleton navigated crevasses and glaciers on a journey that wasn’t replicated until 40 years later by a team of expert climbers with appropriate gear. By the time Shackleton reached help and was able to rescue his marooned crew, two years had passed since the Endurance set sail. Not a single man died.

The second time Shackleton journeyed to Antarctica, he and his men sledged to within 97 miles to the South Pole before being forced to turn back. At the time it was the farthest south anyone had ever traveled. 

Shackleton’s first expedition to Antarctica was under the command of Robert Falcon Scott. Scott would later lose the race for the South Pole against Norwegian Roald Amundsen, reaching it weeks after Amundsen and dying of starvation and exposure on his return journey.

“For a joint scientific and geographical piece of organization, give me Scott,” one of Scott’s men, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, wrote in The Worst Journey in the World. “…For a dash to the Pole and nothing else, Amundsen; and if I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time.”

Roald Amundsen’s Belgica Expedition, 1897–1899

If I don’t give the Southern Ocean my full attention, I might actually flip. My kayak lurches in the rollers as I juggle my paddle and gear for a few tricky minutes, stowing cameras in a dry bag then reattaching the spray skirt. We’re navigating an iceberg field and the surf is plunging and slapping against the bergs, revealing their eroded undersides.

I fall behind as I drift, and two middle-aged women in a tandem kayak wobble by. Despite days of paddling together, their strokes are still comically out of sync. They’re dawdling, clearly hoping we’ll return to calm water.

“Where the hell is she going?” one woman demands. She’s staring after our guide, who is vanishing and reappearing between each wave.

“Out to open ocean, apparently,” the other grumbles.

This is the first time we’ve approached anything close to real risk all week. I dig my paddle into the chop and glide past the irritable tourists, letting the swell pull me out to sea.

THE NORWEGIAN EXPLORER Roald Amundsen was often referred to as “the last of the Vikings.” Although he later became the first person to reach the South Pole, he initially ventured to Antarctica in 1897 to chart much of the Antarctic Peninsula. (Pack ice also trapped the ship on that expedition, forcing the crew of the Belgica to overwinter in 24-hour darkness and temperatures that plunged as low as -45 degrees F. There were cold-weather clothes for just four men aboard. “Mentally,” an American crewmate wrote later, “the outlook was that of a madhouse.”)

To learn to survive in the frozen South, Amundsen looked to the North. While successfully navigating the Northwest Passage—the first man to do so—Amundsen’s ship again became trapped in ice. His crew met Inuit tribes, including the Netsilik, and spent two years learning to build igloos and dress properly. Instead of constricting wool, the Netsilik gifted Amundsen sewn caribou hides, whose hollow hairs trap heat for insulation. Their loose fit also allowed better circulation. 

“I find it excellent,” Amundsen wrote after testing them. “Now I can move as I want to. Am always warm, without sweating.”

He also noted certain tricks that made overland travel infinitely easier, from using and handling dogs to maneuvering sledges through variable snow conditions.

“One can’t do better in these matters than copy the [Inuit], and let the runners get a fine covering of ice,” he wrote. “Then they slide like butter.”

Amundsen was successful in completing his polar expeditions—the Northwest Passage and the South Pole—because of his thoroughness. He approached all things—his gear, his ship, the selection of his crew—with the rigor of any outdoorsman who wished to be prepared for whatever he might face. He also recognized the importance of calculated risk. All the great Antarctic explorers did—including those who did not achieve their goals, or lost their lives in their pursuit of them.

“Generally the risks were taken, for, on the whole, it is better to be a little over-bold than a little overcautious,” wrote Cherry-Garrard. “Always there was something inside urging you to do it just because there was a certain risk, and you hardly liked not to do it. It is so easy to be afraid of being afraid!”

Read more OL+ stories.

The post Antarctica Will Be Our Last, Most Elusive Wilderness appeared first on Outdoor Life.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Famed Alaskan bush pilot Jim Tweto, 68, and Idaho hunting and fishing guide Shane Reynolds, 45, died in a plane crash in western Alaska on the morning of June 16. The crash occurred shortly after takeoff, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety.

At least one witness reported the Cessna 180 had taken off but not gained elevation and crashed as a result, according to the ADPS. An InReach satellite device sent an SOS signal to Alaska State Troopers at 11:48 a.m. Troopers received the signal shortly after the aircraft crashed 35 miles northeast of Shaktoolik, a coastal town on Norton Sound near Nome. AST arrived at the scene and recovered the deceased from the crash site, transferring them to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Anchorage. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.

Tweto, of Unalakleet, Alaska, was piloting the aircraft at the time. He is most widely known for his show on the Discovery Channel, “Flying Wild Alaska” which followed his family’s journey running a small regional airline that served rural communities around the western part of the state. The show ran for three seasons starting in 2011 and depicted Jim, his wife, Ferno, and their two daughters, Ariel and Ayla, tackling the day-to-day duties of operating aircraft in remote country with its unpredictable challenges. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by KUIU (@kuiu_official)

Reynolds, of Orofino, Idaho, was the only passenger. He was a hunting guide and owner of Northwest Fishing Expeditions, a salmon, steelhead, walleye, and sturgeon outfitter on the Snake and Columbia rivers. He was a good friend of Tweto’s, and the two had flown together in the past. Reynolds leaves behind his wife Gina and daughter Juliette. A GoFundMe is collecting donations to support the Reynolds family.

KUIU took to social media on June 19 to offer its condolences to both families, regarding Reynolds and Tweto as “great friends” of the hunting apparel brand.  

“Shane had been a part of the KUIU family since its beginning, leaving a lasting impression with anyone who was lucky enough to spend time with him in or out of the field,” the Instagram post reads. “He was a well-respected guide and accomplished hunter, but his most treasured titles were husband and father.”

Read Next: Poachers Caught with 71 Fish Stuffed in Their Backpacks

Commenters on the post shared memories of successful hunting trips with Shane. One called him “the best brown bear guide there ever was.” Another called the crash “a tragic loss for us here in Alaska.” 

“We step out onto that ledge in our everyday lives here,” the commenter continues. “Sometimes it breaks away and takes our friends and family.” 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ariel Tweto (@arieltweto)

Ariel Tweto also shared news of her dad’s passing on Instagram through a series of posts, including one post that fell on Father’s Day, June 18. In the carousel of nine photos, Jim is only indoors once. The other photos show him ice fishing, hiking, and flying, and a video clip shows him maneuvering an ATV across a slushy field. In another post, Ariel wrote, “He died doing what he truly loved and is now … up there soaring.”

The post Famous Alaska Bush Pilot and Hunting Guide Die in Plane Crash appeared first on Outdoor Life.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

If you want to learn how to prevent altitude sickness, you need to understand how it can occur. And few people are as familiar with how it can ruin a hunt as Cody Arnold, who worked as a hunting guide near Granby, Colorado, for two decades. He has watched multiple clients struggle with the myriad symptoms that can occur when you ascend to 8,000 feet of elevation too fast. Extreme altitude sickness symptoms, also known as “acute mountain sickness” or AMS, can turn serious quickly.

“One client came from Arkansas, and his hunt got cut short,” Arnold tells Outdoor Life. “The hunters typically arrive on Friday afternoon, and then they would all hang out and we’d all have a few drinks. The next day this guy got sick, and it wasn’t from a hangover. He stayed in bed for a few days and then decided to go home. [This] guy who got sick was a pro baseball player, and he was in shape.”

Read Next: The Best Backpacking Tents of 2023

It’s tricky to predict who will get altitude sickness. One hunter who is in excellent physical condition might feel poorly at altitude while a less physically fit person feels fine.

“Then we guided a guy from Miami who smoked cigars all day long,” says Arnold. “There was not one minute of the day that he didn’t have a cigar lit up. You would think the [lower] oxygen [at altitude] would have impacted him. But he was fine.”

The good news? Mountain trips don’t have to be miserable for hunters or anglers who live at or near sea level. In this article, we cover:

• What causes altitude sickness
• How to recognize altitude sickness symptoms
• How to prevent altitude sickness
• How to treat altitude sickness if prevention doesn’t work
• What to do if you get altitude sickness in the backcountry
• Altitude sickness best practices

What Causes Altitude Sickness?

Altitude sickness is a mild form of hypoxia, when the tissues of your body don’t receive enough oxygen. When you travel to higher altitudes than you’re accustomed to, your body’s systems need time to catch up to the lower concentration of oxygen in the air. Depending on where you live and how much altitude you gain in a short period, you might experience mild to moderate symptoms.

Different people react to altitude differently. If two hunters who live at sea level head into the mountains, one might experience symptoms after just a few hours of hiking while the other goes the whole trip without a single issue. 

Pre-existing cardiovascular and respiratory conditions can further complicate how well you adjust to higher altitude. Good overall cardiovascular health can help you perform better at higher altitudes, but you won’t avoid altitude sickness symptoms just because you’re fit. In fact, people with asthma tend to feel better at altitude than they might at sea level due to an absence of allergens, humidity, and other factors that can complicate asthma symptoms.  

Mythical causes of altitude sickness include alcohol consumption, dehydration, and poor fitness. While dehydration and a hangover will make you feel pretty rotten and symptoms of both are similar to altitude sickness symptoms, neither will actually trigger or worsen acute mountain sickness. The only thing that can cause altitude sickness is gaining altitude too fast without acclimatization.

Symptoms of Altitude Sickness

Being responsible in the backcountry means being able to recognize when you’re pushing yourself too hard at altitude and putting yourself and your group at risk. Mild altitude sickness can quickly turn serious, so be on the lookout for these symptoms.

Mild Symptoms

These symptoms might show up a day or so after you fly into an airport at higher altitude, or while you’re hiking into camp. They should improve after a few days of acclimatizing to your new surroundings.

• Dizziness
• Fatigue
• Shortness of breath
• Loss of appetite
• Minor headache
• Mild nausea
• Trouble sleeping

Moderate Symptoms

If you continue gaining altitude without acclimatizing to the elevation where your mild symptoms emerged, your symptoms will naturally worsen. They might start impacting your ability to hike, walk, ride, or even function around camp. If you reach some of these more moderate benchmarks, healthcare experts recommend descending to a lower altitude. 

• Worsening of any mild symptoms
• Chest tightness
• Dizziness or fatigue that impedes your ability to walk
• Moderate to severe nausea
• Moderate to severe headache
• Vomiting

Severe Symptoms

Once symptoms reach this point, they should be treated like any other emergency situation that requires knowledge of wilderness medicine. Descend to a lower altitude immediately and, in severe cases, call for medical assistance. If fluid starts pooling in your lungs (known as high-altitude pulmonary edema) or in your brain (high-altitude cerebral edema), get medical attention as soon as possible. 

• Shortness of breath at complete rest
• Confusion and denial of symptoms
• Inability to stand unassisted
• HAPE, or high-altitude pulmonary edema
  • Fluid in the lungs, a feeling of suffocation
• HACE, or high-altitude cerebral edema
  • Fluid in the brain, causing lack of coordination, aggression, and confusion

How to Prevent Altitude Sickness

If you’re a flatlander or a coastal dweller with a nonresident elk or sheep tag in a mountain state, one of the best things you can do to perform better at high altitudes is to simply prepare your body for physical exertion with less available oxygen. This can be difficult to replicate without actually traveling to the altitude where you’ll be hunting, but you could incorporate an altitude mask to your standard cardio workouts. While you might feel a bit like Bane from Batman at first, eventually you will notice a difference in your cardiovascular system’s tolerance for lower oxygen levels. 

But here’s a tricky truth: physical fitness does not prevent altitude sickness. So while it’s best to be in shape, there are other steps you must take to prevent altitude sickness. The first is to ascend altitude slowly and give yourself time to acclimatize. The second might sound unnecessary, but trust the experts here—visit a doctor and get a prescription.

Do Altitude Sickness Medications Work?

For experienced high-altitude hikers and hunters, the debate over whether to use medication for altitude sickness is a hot one. Some people swear by it, while others were turned off by weird side effects. But in general, yes, these medications do work.

The most commonly prescribed medication for altitude sickness is Diamox, a name brand of the generic acetazolamide. It’s a diuretic pill that can reduce swelling and inflammation in glaucoma patients, patients with heart disease, and can even treat seizures. Those same anti-inflammatory capabilities help you acclimatize quicker and can decrease headache, nausea, exhaustion, and fatigue associated with mild to moderate altitude sickness. 

The side effects of Diamox can range from strange to unpleasant. Some users report tingling in the extremities, ringing in the ears, nausea, excessive sweating, lightheadedness, or increased thirst. Some of those side effects might sound similar to the very symptoms of altitude sickness you’re taking the medication to prevent. But the medication reduces the risk of developing severe altitude sickness, or at the very worst, HAPE or HACE.

Some other altitude sickness medications include dexamethasone and nifedipine. While Diamox is preventative, these other medications are more commonly used for treatment of moderate to severe symptoms, as well as HAPE and HACE.

How to Treat Altitude Sickness After Prevention Fails

Since the primary cause of altitude sickness is gaining too much altitude without acclimatizing, the best treatment is to reduce your elevation. Backtrack to spend a day at a lower elevation and wait for your mild or moderate symptoms to subside. You should also evacuate as soon as possible if HAPE or HACE occurs. But with some severe symptoms, like HAPE or HACE, descent will not be enough to alleviate the problem.

That’s where other treatment drugs come into play. Dexamethasone and nifedipine are both used for emergency treatment of moderate to severe symptoms and even HAPE and HACE. They can help alleviate the swelling and fluid buildup in the brain and lungs. 

Best Practices to Prepare for a High-Altitude Trip

Keep these survival tips in mind to prepare for or treat altitude sickness while on a high-country hunt or fishing trip:

• Good physical health will help your hunt, but it won’t prevent altitude sickness.
• Give yourself time to acclimatize to a higher altitude. Do this by arriving at your destination at least a day early so you can adjust to higher altitudes in town before going even higher into the backcountry.
• If you’re concerned about pre-existing conditions or prior bouts of altitude sickness, or just want to get an expert opinion, talk with your health care provider before your trip. Having a prescription of Diamox on hand in the mountains won’t add much weight to your pack.
• Communicate any altitude sickness symptoms with your guides and companions as soon as they appear. Even if they’re mild to start, taking an extra day before gaining altitude can be the difference between a successful trip and a mountainside evacuation.

Altitude Sickness FAQs

Q: Does salt help with altitude sickness?

No, salt doesn’t help with altitude sickness, though it’s important to pay attention to while exercising at altitude. Your salt levels depend on your fluid intake, and salt can either help or harm your body when you’re experiencing altitude sickness symptoms. If you’ve been sweating and drinking a lot of water, you’ve definitely been losing sodium. Try adding an electrolyte mix with sodium to replace lost salt faster. But if you haven’t been sweating, avoid salt intake until you can drink more water. Your sodium levels are probably pretty high already. 

Q: Does drinking water prevent altitude sickness?

No, drinking water will not prevent altitude sickness. While staying hydrated is crucial for all physical activities, and the dryer air at a higher altitude might dehydrate you quicker, but altitude sickness is determined by oxygen levels. If anything, drinking lots of water could dilute your electrolyte levels and make you feel worse.  

Q: At what altitude do you lose oxygen?

The oxygen level in the air remains at a constant 20.9 percent at all altitudes. But as you gain altitude, air is less dense and concentrated, which means oxygen is more spread out. At roughly 18,000 feet, the air is about half as dense as it is at sea level. You could start feeling altitude symptoms at around 8,000 feet, or the altitude of Aspen, Colorado, though this varies from person to person.

Q: What is a good oxygen level at high-altitude?

A: For people without any pulmonary issues, a blood oxygen level of at least 88 percent is considered healthy at any altitude. At around 5,000 feet of elevation, your blood oxygen level might be around 90 percent, while it would be closer to 95 percent at sea level. 

Final Thoughts on Altitude Sickness

A fear of altitude sickness shouldn’t prevent you from going on the trip of a lifetime—especially if you cashed in decades of points and finally drew a once-in-a-blue-moon tag. But just like Smokey the Bear says about forest fires, only you can prevent altitude sickness.

Read Next: The Best First Aid Kits of 2023

True prevention starts months in advance with proper education, talking to your doctor, and acclimatization at altitude. But the most key component of addressing altitude sickness is understanding that it could happen to you no matter how healthy you are, and being prepared to handle it.  

The post How to Prevent Altitude Sickness appeared first on Outdoor Life.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Blisters can set you back miles or even end a trip, and they don’t go away after your first shower back in civilization. Hikers frequently debate the merits of the age-old question: to pop or not to pop? And plenty of people have big (and conflicting) opinions on one of the most common hiking injuries there is. So here is a definitive guide to treating blisters in the field, preventing them in the future, and healing them quickly once you get home.

How to Treat Blisters

How Blisters Form

Wet, hot, ill-fitting, or too-loose shoes can cause blisters. These puffy wounds occur on areas where your skin is very thick, typically the bottoms or heels of your feet, when too much friction starts to separate your skin and the gap fills with fluid. If you’re trying out a new pair of shoes or hit unexpected rain or water, there isn’t much you can do to prevent the issue (more on that later). That’s when you’ll be faced with the issue of whether to pop or not to pop the blister in the backcountry. 

Should You Pop a Blister? 

While I am biased toward popping blisters because it always offers me some degree of instant relief, I was prepared to set my ego aside when I asked Dr. Sekulic, a foot surgeon at the Salt Lake City Final Kick Foot and Ankle Clinic, how to properly treat a blister. However, the first thing she told me was, “It is perfectly safe to pop a blister and drain the serous fluid.”

Obviously a fluid filled bubble continually rubbing on the inside of your shoe is going to hurt. Dr. Sekulic says that draining a blister will relieve the pressure and make it less painful. This might counter advice you’ve heard in the past. Sometimes people say it’ll hurt more if you pop it. But what they really mean is it will hurt more if you deroof it, or take the skin off. Dr. Sekulic says to instead leave the skin in place to avoid exposing a patch of raw skin that will also uncomfortably rub inside your shoe.

How to Pop a Blister

Instead of maniacally tearing the skin off your blister, simply drain the fluid and leave the skin. I use the pointed tip of my trusty camping knife to puncture the blister as close to my foot as possible and alleviate the pressure. I choose to poke the hole close to my foot to avoid the entire roof tearing off while I’m hiking. A hole in the center of the blister could start to expand if you continue to walk on it. If you wish to bring a needle for this purpose, you can be more exact. While a needle is lightweight, I know that I won’t be able to keep track of such a tiny and hazardous object in my pack, so I opt for the pocket knife I am inevitably already carrying.

Disinfect 

People in the do-not-pop camp of blister treatment also claim that you shouldn’t break open a blister because it can lead to infection. Dr. Sekulic confirms that infection is a concern for any open wound on the foot whether it’s a blister, cut, or scrape. Your feet are sweating inside already dirty shoes that are becoming even more dirty with every step. But blisters can also break open naturally if you continue hiking. And this will be a far less controlled pop and it can tear the skin off, resulting in a raw deroofed blister.

Dr. Sekulic says, “Unless you are immunocompromised, or have uncontrolled diabetes, the likelihood of infection is low.” She does recommend avoiding dirty water like lakes, rivers, and reservoirs after popping a blister, but sometimes that isn’t possible. So I also bring a small travel-sized vial of rubbing alcohol.

A disinfectant and an emergency fire starter, rubbing alcohol is a staple in my albeit barebones backcountry first-aid kit. First I will coat my knife tip in rubbing alcohol prior to popping because who knows where that blade has been. If I need to continue hiking after popping, especially through mud, snow, or water, I pour some alcohol on/in the blister at camp each night to keep it clean. This is a good rule for most backcountry open wounds, especially if you’re exposed to dirty water. Dirt or debris can find their way inside the blister if the roof has torn or your puncture hole expanded. If flushing with water or alcohol won’t remove all the dirt, it is worth cutting away the roof to adequately clean the wound. Leaving debris inside your blister can increase the risk of infection and cause you more discomfort.

Treating the Popped Blister

At night I let my blisters air out, or if I’m feeling fancy, I’ll apply some Neosporin, Vaseline, or Aquaphor. Petroleum jelly-based products such as these protect cuts, scrapes, etc. They don’t always make my packing list, but all of these ointments are sold in delightfully tiny and lightweight versions perfect for backpacking. They serve a dual purpose for dry skin or chapped lips, too. All of these products contain petroleum jelly but Neosporin also contains three antibiotics, or active ingredients. A barrier between your blister and outside bacteria can help prevent infection and soothe some pain.

Bandage the Blister 

Finally, before hiking with a blister I will tape up the afflicted area with Leukotape. It is the best tape I have found to stay secure for a full day of hiking and river crossings. Tape creates a barrier between the wound and shoe to decrease friction and alleviate some discomfort. Bandages and standard medical tape tend to fall off or twist up uncomfortably. Leukotape comes in a hefty roll and I wouldn’t bring the entire thing on a hike or backpacking trip because it’s too heavy. Before a trip I roll my lighter in the tape so I have a steady, but lightweight, supply that stays organized. 

Dr. Sekulic also recommends K-tape or duct tape as alternative solutions. One thing tape doesn’t provide is a lot of padding. I’ve never had a blister that was so bad it needed more than a folded sock or layer of tape, but if you’re concerned about additional friction, Dr. Sekulic recommends adding some gauze or Coban to your kit. Or, to avoid friction altogether, finish your hike barefoot (if the terrain allows).

My Blister Kit

I always bring a blister kit backpacking to avoid a slow and painful hike out. After many hikes and plenty of blisters, I’ve tailored this minimalist kit to be lightweight and effective. 

• Knife
• Rubbing alcohol
• Petroleum jelly ointment
• Leukotape

How to Prevent Blisters

Shoes that fit properly should not cause blisters. The best way to prevent them is to make sure your hiking shoes are comfortable and broken in before a big trip. To quickly break in hiking boots wear them everywhere possible: around the house, to the grocery store, and walking the dog. Put on the socks you plan to hike in and tie the boots how you would for a real hike. Good hiking socks can also be key to saving your feet. If you’re still concerned, hiking insoles can fill up excess space in your shoes and decrease unnecessary movement and friction. And if you plan on crossing a river or hitting some rain, packing a couple extra pairs of dry socks and/or fresh insoles can keep your feet drier. Pre-emptive Leukotape or K-tape also adds protection to problem areas. 

Read Next: The Best Hiking Shoes for Beginners of 2023

How to Quickly Heal Blisters at Home

Unfortunately, it takes time for blisters to heal. But Dr. Sekulic says that by preventing further friction and treating the blister with a sterile dressing, you can speed up your recovery time. So kick up your bandaged feet and start planning your next outdoor adventure (or shopping for new hiking boots).

The post Should You Pop a Blister When Hiking? appeared first on Outdoor Life.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Sofia Montalbano didn’t expect her first time skiing Idaho’s Schweitzer Mountain to end in puncture wounds all over her left arm and leg. But after a run-in with a coyote in early January, the college student now knows what it’s like to fight off a coyote attack. 

Montalbano had been skiing down a slope when she noticed a coyote chasing her, she told local reporters. The coyote bit Montalbano’s left leg, causing her to turn into the trees. She tried to hit the animal with her ski pole, but accidentally skied into a tree well (a hole in the snow that forms around a tree trunk). The coyote continued to attack Montalbano, biting her wrist as Montalbano—now stuck—called for help. Another skier heard her shouts and drove the coyote away by whacking it with her pole, giving Montalbano a chance to unclip from her skis and crawl out of the tree well. But the attacking coyote kept doubling back, and both skiers had to use their poles to keep the animal at bay until it finally gave up and left.

Montalbano later received over 40 injections, including tetanus and rabies shots. Photographs of her injuries show bite marks on her left leg, arm, wrist, and hand.

Now dubbed “the coyote girl” by her family, Montalbano is more aware than ever that playing in nature means sharing space with wild animals. And while coyotes aren’t the most dangerous predators in North Idaho (which is home to a healthy grizzly population), the incident serves as a reminder that coyotes do occasionally attack humans.  

“When you’re out on a mountain like that, you’re in coyote habitat,” Montalbano said. “I mean, stuff like this can happen anywhere when you’re out in the wild.” 

When Do Coyotes Attack Humans?

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game explained in a press release that it had received additional reports of coyotes chasing skiers at Schweitzer prior to Montalbano’s attack. And later that month, in broad daylight, two more coyotes were spotted wandering downtown in the nearby city of Sandpoint. Both appeared comfortable around humans, according to the agency, which called this behavior “highly unusual.”

T.J. Ross, regional communications manager for IDFG, tells Outdoor Life that wildlife officers were eventually able to track down and euthanize the coyote that attacked Montalbano. He says the animal appeared healthy, and that it was never tested for rabies because it didn’t show any symptoms.

“Typically a rabid animal is showing symptoms when it gets to the point of behaving that way. They’re usually emaciated, with a variety of other symptoms that are very clear to see,” Ross says. “The other reason we didn’t test [for rabies] is because there have only been three documented cases of rabies in land mammals in Idaho in the last 20 years. It’s extremely uncommon.”

He adds that the most likely explanation for the attack is habituation to humans. Montalbano was in a popular ski area, where there are plenty of food opportunities and people around. And because the incident occurred months before coyotes have their pups (which is typically in April and May), it’s unlikely that the coyote was protecting its den at the time.

While Montalbano’s story is alarming, it’s far from common. Coyote attacks on humans are extremely rare. This is impressive, considering coyotes’ near ubiquitous presence in 49 states and counting. Coyote attacks grab our attention, but studies show that firsthand encounters with this common predator are almost always more benign than aggressive. Like most wild animals, coyotes avoid human contact and prefer to keep to themselves. 

Read Next: Will Wolves Attack a Man? A Story from the Archives

When attacks do occur, it’s often because coyotes have associated humans with sources of food. Location can play a role too: Urban coyotes are more accustomed to humans, while those in rural areas tend to be more fearful of us. This is partly because coyote trapping and hunting is more common in these areas.

“A lot of times, rural coyotes are more hesitant to approach humans because there’s a higher risk of hunting or harvest,” Dr. Julie Young tells Outdoor Life. As an associate professor of wildland resources at Utah State University, Young specializes in coyote behavior. She says previous studies show coyotes in rural areas are more likely to avoid humans and less likely to enter “novel” environments, such as a ski resort. 

At the same time, coyotes are highly adaptable animals and will adjust their behavior depending on their surroundings. Under certain conditions, this can result in coyote attacks, which Young says typically involve small children and pets rather than adults.

In 2022, several coyote attacks on children made headlines. A coyote seriously injured a young girl one evening in April after she wandered “mere feet away” from two adults sitting near the waves at Huntington Beach in southern California. Less than a week later, a two-year-old boy in Dallas was attacked by a coyote while on his front porch, sustaining critical injuries that required surgery. And in December, a coyote briefly dragged a toddler down the sidewalk outside her home in a Los Angeles neighborhood before the child’s father chased it away. In the latter two incidents, the coyotes were known to be habituated to humans in the area. They were likely finding food that was being provided either intentionally or by accident. 

These three attacks also highlight that coyote-human conflicts can occur at any time. In general, coyotes are crepuscular animals (meaning they’re most active at dawn and dusk), but their behavior can also be hard to predict.

“Coyotes will make a liar out of you every time,” Young says. “They’re just so flexible and adaptive to figuring out how to optimize to the conditions they’re in.”

Why Do Coyotes Attack Humans?

In 2012, Young was part of a research team that completed an assessment of coyote-human conflict in the city of Broomfield, Colorado, in response to coyote attacks on three children. The assessment broke down these attacks into five typical categories:

1. Predatory (aggressive pursuit of a victim)
2. Investigative (mistaking a human for potential prey)
3. Rabid (occurs in fewer than 8 percent of attacks)
4. Pet-related (attacking a human who is near or walking a pet)
5. Defensive (protecting itself, pups, or den)

Researchers determined coyote attack victims are usually “engaged in some type of recreational activity, such as jogging, hiking, bicycling, or playing golf” prior to an attack. A coyote may also mistake someone resting or sleeping outdoors as potential prey. Children are the “primary target of predatory attacks,” and the majority of these occur when a child is playing outside, possibly because running and other play behaviors can trigger a coyote’s natural instinct to pursue. Their smaller size could also make them appear like more manageable prey than an adult.

Read Next: This Ultramarathoner Was Attacked by a Coyote During a 150-Mile Race. He Thinks It Wanted His Energy Bar

Researchers also noted that in nearly a third of reported attacks, coyotes were being fed nearby. Food conditioning increases coyotes’ habituation to humans, “teaching them to associate backyards with easily acquired meals.” Food sources can be intentional or accidental, and may include bird seed, pet food, food scraps in trash or compost, or even fallen fruit. 

Coyote Behavior During Mating and Denning Seasons

Seasonal changes can also impact coyote behavior. Coyote mating season generally runs from February through March, followed by pup-rearing in April and May. During this period, coyotes may act in bolder or more aggressive ways as they work to find a safe place to raise their litter and ensure steady access to food. Young says juvenile coyotes will then “disperse” from their family unit in the fall and winter, which could be one explanation for the strange attack at Schweitzer.

“Were these [coyotes] just young, dumb and desperate?” Young asks. She thinks the time of year, coupled with the act of chasing, could point to inexperienced coyotes that were either playing or caught off guard by skiers like Montalbano.

How to Prevent a Coyote Attack

Experts say one of the best ways to avoid conflicts between coyotes and humans is to change our own behavior.

First, be aware. Young says she never travels in the backcountry without bear spray, which offers a non-lethal, effective form of protection. She also recommends traveling in groups as the risk of being attacked by a predator goes up when humans are alone. 

Second, critter-proof your home and yard. Avoid attracting coyotes—and causing potential conflicts—by removing food sources like trash or pet food, and keep a watchful eye on young children and pets. Make sure smaller livestock like chickens are housed in secure structures. You can also trim bushes where smaller prey can hide.

Private landowners and land managers will often trap or hunt coyotes—both to manage their populations and to instill a fear of humans. Some studies point out that while this will never eradicate the population, it can help tamp down on “problem animals.” Others, however, point to coyote hazing and other nonlethal methods as being more effective ways to prevent livestock depredation and other conflicts.   

Things like fencing, fladry, guard dogs, or even a FoxLight (a device that emits randomized light beams that trick predators into thinking humans are near livestock at night) can be effective tools at minimizing depredation without removing coyotes (and their ecological value) from the landscape. 

Read Next: How Coyote Hunting Dogs Decoy in Predators

“Low-intensity” hazing can be used around the house too, and includes tactics like spraying water, shining bright lights, and using noisemakers. These tactics can also reinforce a healthy amount of fear and discomfort around humans.

As the start of coyote pup-rearing season approaches, IDFG recommends keeping pets leashed while recreating and not leaving them outside alone. (Or, like some have done in an East Coast town plagued by coyote attacks, you can outfit them in spiked coyote vests.) 

How to Survive a Coyote Attack

If you do encounter an aggressive coyote, don’t be shy and definitely don’t run away. Turn yourself into a formidable-looking opponent by making yourself appear as large as possible (try spreading out your arms) and making noise to scare the animal away. If the coyote attacks, fight back as Montalbano did, using a stick, a ski pole, or whatever is close to hand. Call for help if you can, and always report the attack to local authorities as soon as possible.

Dac Collins contributed reporting.

The post How Often Do Coyotes Attack Humans? appeared first on Outdoor Life.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.