My Dumbest Backpacking Mistakes (2018) [video]

My dumbest backpacking mistake was that time I was walking over a footbridge and I decided for fun to use my arms to lift myself on the guardrails forgetting my center of gravity was behind me with my pack on. It wasn’t long before I was flat on my back staring at the sky.

Is there a TLDW for this video?

TLDW version:

1) Didn't get familiar with hiking / camping on broken / rough terrain.

2) Didn't plan on how to deal with hypothermia inducing temperatures.

3) Didn't replace shoes quickly enough

4) Not taking black bears seriously enough.

5) Careless / casual with river crossings

She doesn't give great rules of thumb on each point. Here are some based on my experience:

1) Go out with your pack at night and practice moving quickly up and down some stairs. If it rains, even better.

2) Have a layer (usually a wind/rain shell) at the top of your pack. When you stop that layer automatically goes on. When you start walking again that layer goes back in the pack.

3) Replace your shoes when mileage equals 500 - your loaded weight (bodyweight + pack). Do not risk your foot health for a hundred bucks.

4) No RoTs. Bears aren't inherently hostile (usually) but they're not inherently friendly either. Self-education required.

5) No RoTs here, water crossing are dangerous. If you are going to cross you have to have a plan for what happens if you lose your pack or get swept downstream. The force of water can be shocking.

EDIT: If you plan to do any kind of movement over long distance _please_ invest in the book "Fixing Your Feet". Foot problems end more adventures than anything else. Foot care and foot health is the primary predictor IMO of how successful and how non-miserable a movement will be. https://www.amazon.com/Fixing-Your-Feet-Prevention-Treatment...

Nice mountainmansplain.

Any (former) Philmont Rangers here?

I'd be interested in hearing about the dumb things you've seen crews do.

My mistakes are usually that I forgot gloves|hat|crampons|lunch|drink|

I now have a checklist that I carefully check against and actually tick stuff off with a pen (usually do this about 5:30 so needs to be easy to do!).

Edit: I also completely panicked once after a large noisy animal blundered into my tent in the middle of the night - was convinced it was a bear. Of course, there haven't been bears here in Scotland for a long time.... (I realised this in the morning when sanity returned - it was a red deer).