141–150 of 252 posts
Morale, sometimes just everything goes wrong. But if you stay calm, despite thinking it is hopeless and take your small chances, once they arise - you might actually succed and survive ..
I believe that's a core part of the training for Navy SEALS.
They push you far past your "breaking point" to realize that it isn't where you thought it was, helping you learn to keep your head about you when in extreme situations.
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Meta: why doesn't YouTube normalise volume. Why doesn't my OS/DE do it. (Mostly I'd want volume compression too.)
Right click on the video → Stats for nerds "Volume / Normalized: 100% / 53% (content loudness 5.5dB)"
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Avalanches act very much like liquids while they are still moving, swimming upstream is indeed the common advice and it has definitely worked. That is why one of the newest devices to survive one (if you are caught) is basically a life preserver: https://www.scott-sports.com/global/en/page/avalanche-pack These serve the dual purpose of protecting your head and decreasing your density so you float to the top of the sn…
Avalanche bags work nicely in small slab to medium powder avalanches where you might end up upside down a few feet under the surface and suffocate without these bags. It won't help you with most killer avalanches such as large powder ones (220mph and acting as concrete when they stop, filling your cavities), heavy wet ones in spring taking grass, rocks and tree trunks, and most importantly large frozen slab avalanche…
The author's description of both not feeling his injuries until he tried to move as well as his own recognition of not being dead were spot on. I would have described it exactly the same way myself. I ended up with a broken foot and leg, but overall no lasting damage which was extremely lucky. Looking back on that experience is always incredibly surreal.
This is a interesting quote, googling it only shows this article, did the person writing the story make it up, or is this actually a saying that "some" say. “Some days you are the dog and others you are the fire-plug.”
"Some days you are the dog, some days you are the tree / fire hydrant" is the canonical quote. I would assume the fire plug is the name of one of the things that failed while he refueled. Doesn't quite go together in my head, but once you understand the original quote it makes sense. Some days you're on the giving end, some days you're on the receiving end.
> “This is very serious,” I thought.
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Avalanche bags work nicely in small slab to medium powder avalanches where you might end up upside down a few feet under the surface and suffocate without these bags. It won't help you with most killer avalanches such as large powder ones (220mph and acting as concrete when they stop, filling your cavities), heavy wet ones in spring taking grass, rocks and tree trunks, and most importantly large frozen slab avalanche…
There are a great many things which are inevitably fatal in the worst case, but for which there are effective measures that can improve your chances of survival otherwise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDEP15NTMgc
Some avalanches can destroy bridges or change landscape. It's truly just the survivor bias we see on videos making us think the worst cases aren't very common.
Earlier this year on a white water rafting expedition I had the misfortune of falling out of the raft and into a series of category 5 rapids. It was absolute chaos. The force of large bodies of moving water is astounding. Any notion of "swimming to safety" is ludicrous. A more accurate description is "being washed to safety" because you have no control over the larger movements of your body. I've heard in avalanches…
>The main, 24-foot parachute was just flapping in the breeze and was tangled in its own shroud lines. It hadn’t opened! I could see the white folds neatly arranged, fluttering feebly in the air. > “This is very serious,” I thought.
Awesome read. Can anyone explain the quote below? I don't really understand how the minesweeper understood the signal. --- The Coast Guard amphibian gained altitude and flew off. (I learned later that he headed for a squadron of minesweepers that was returning to the United States from a tour of the Western Pacific. He was unable to tune to their radio frequency for communications. But this ingenious pilot lowered a…