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I spent quite a bit of time over a few years working for the Air Force at the observatory on the mountain top in Maui. Nice trails around there, some heading down into Haleakala crater. The primary trail, called the Sliding Sands trail, went winding its way down into the crater. It tempts you...

However, the atmosphere has a considerable built in temperature and bad weather lag, so that the peak of the cold and storminess comes some weeks after the solstice. We have yet to experience due normal amount of significant lake effect snowfall this season just off the eastern end of Lake...

Decades ago, while in college I was part o a very dedicated and safety conscious outing club, focused on caving more than anything else. We practiced endlessly following then accepted safety procedures and rules "by the book" with current equipment from tall college buildings before going...

Since I went to hammock camping a dozen or more years ago I haven't had to worry much about a pad for comfort (only needed for insulation under my sleeping bag in the hammock), and I am a side sleeper. I use an old style reliable lightweight thermarest that I have had for years It works great...

"point" taken, and true enough. It is the nature of the beast. Without using professional surveyor's methods and very expensive equipment (both on establishing the original track and on the re-finding of markers) it is a difficult task. It would not be unusual for some people to be 2 feet (or...

Be as careful as you will, holding a line without witness points to within 2-3 degrees on a consumer grade compass is a battle not to have your track look more like a random walk. Have you ever XC skied across a lake or wide open field and looked back at what you thought was skiing in a...

TCD, to be clear to the thread, the training I was referring to was a course that is very specific to the lost person behavior book mentioned. Taught by the author, or by others very knowledgeable to him and the details of the analysis with case studies. This is very distinctively different...

Try reading this: "Lost Person Behavior: A search and rescue guide on where to look - for land, air and water" by Robert J. Koester https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Person-Behavior-search-rescue/dp/1879471396/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=lost+person+behavior+robert&qid=1566139229&s=gateway&sr=8-1 Thousands...

Not directly related to this story, but when I drove through Banff on my way to the Yukon a couple of years ago, I noticed a lot of cars stopped in the 4 lane roadway and people rushing over across the median to the other side. I thought it must be a bad accident. As I approached I noticed a...

For example: Town of Santa Clara Franklin County Wilderness Rescue: On July 30 at 9:04 p.m., Franklin County 911 transferred a call to DEC's Ray Brook Dispatch from a female hiker who had been separated from her husband while hiking St. Regis Mountain. The woman was concerned because it was...

I've heard several times of hikers who got stuck out at night who told the NYSDEC rangers that "Yes, I have a flashlight, it is on my cell phone." Are you kidding me???? First real cameras went by the wayside, then hand held GPS units (not to mention compasses and maps) were no longer needed...

I've been actively involved in NY SAR for 25 years. While there are plenty of cases of people injured or unprepared and making major mistakes, even egregious and stupid moves, AFAIK, no one has ever been charged for any of them and there has not been any serious official talk to go in that...

When I first started sleeping in a hammock (Hennessey), I had trouble keeping the pad from squirting out and ending up on top of me. So I made a lightweight overbag from an old thin sheet sewn together on two sides to make a bag. Both sleeping bag and pad go in together and stay where they...

it had been almost a month since the subject had gone missing, so body temperature would have assumed the same as the environment by that time. Ultimately he was found yet a week later outside of the primary search area by a ranger acting on a hunch.

And they end up in the weekly published Forest Ranger Highlights pages.

We have a brief segment on survival techniques during the NY Homeland Security Land Navigation course I teach. A couple of my fellow instructors are recently retired Army Rangers with advice to offer from their training and actual experiences. When the discussion of becoming dehydration comes...

I am an instructor for NY Homeland Security. With other instructors we run a land nav course open for NY law enforcement, EMS and SAR. Interestingly, in the months after the Dannemora prison escape, our LE attendance doubled. Most students, when asked about their prior experience with map and...

Although I am a dedicated map and compass only user on personal hikes and bushwhacks as my preferred method of recreational travel with back country navigation, I could not be a SAR volunteer crew boss assisting NYSDEC Forest Rangers without detailed experienced use of GPS during SAR incidents...

That is exactly how I learned the finer details of backcountry off-trail navigation. Self-taught, I have learned far more from days of head slapping memorable navigation mistakes than I did on perfectly performed days. I have Just returned home from my 30th year as an instructor at a BSA...

The first Yukon 1000 mile canoe race rules required a ridiculous 20Kg (44 pounds!!) of food per person to be carried on board from the start of the race. Supposedly enough to last for 3 weeks. All had to go into bear resistant containers. The weight of water to make dehydrated or freeze dried...