Topic: lost in the hills (Read 4864 times)

LandyLiam · « **on:** March 06, 2012 »

Here's an interesting article written by a guy in Wicklow that got a bit lost after he dropped his gps and had to call out mountain rescue to guide him home, show just how easily it can happen and the need to carry the proper gear. Also highlights the dilema of "do i stay here or try and find my way out myself".

http://www.dwmrt.ie/news/article/art%27s_cross_-_the_other_side_of_the_story!-145.html

Quote

I had been training all winter for the Art O’Neill challenge, but had been unable to get to the mountains to scout any of the route. On the 8th of January a friend offered to drive me up. In hindsight, it was too late in the day. I should have given it a miss. Unfortunately I grabbed my gear, bundled into the car and set out for Balinagee bridge.

I did take some precautions, I went over my proposed route with my friend, on his own map, and arranged a time and place to meet him in Glenmalure. The learning experience began. I did not make the kind of time over the terrain I had hoped for, and the climb up to Arts cross was nothing to be sniffed at. Not being the happiest guy in the world with heights, I was glad to hit the top, and set straight off in the direction of 3 lakes. The sky was growing darker. I could tell I had used up nearly all of the daylight, I checked my position and guessed I would be at least an hour late.

Up until this point I had been navigating with the help of a GPS, and while I had it, all was well. I had it clipped to the chest strap of my backpack with a karabiner. Given how late I was running, I decided to call my friend and let him know my new arrival time. I dug my phone out of the water proof bag in my backpack, called, left a voice-mail, and set off again at a trot towards 3 lakes.

About 5 or 10 minutes later, I reached for my GPS to check my position and direction, and to my horror realized it was not there. I panicked for a few minutes. When I unclipped the chest strap of my back pack to dig out the phone, it naturally fell off, and I never noticed it go. I calmed myself down, doubled back, and hunted for it. Pretty soon it was dark, and not long after that I was hunting the boggy ground with my headlamp. Eventually I gave up.

I had found my way back to Arts Cross in the process, and that at least let me know my exact location. I dug my map and compass out of my backpack, and tried to navigate my way out. Sadly my map skills are very poor, and not being used to the mountains, it was hard for me to estimate where I should be or how far I had gone in the dark. I made two attempts to navigate out by map and compass. Each time I would rapidly realize I had no idea where I was any more, and simply have an idea of the direction back to Arts cross. I doubled back and found it again both times.

At this point I mentally debated the pro's and con's of going back the way I came. Given how difficult the climb up had been, when it was bright, and not as wet. I didn't feel very safe making the descent. My friend called at this point, and the reception was poor enough that I could barely hear a thing he was saying, I tried to explain the situation, and told him I was going to try and call mountain rescue. He got cut off, so I dialled 999.

I was put through to a sergeant in Bray Garda station, and we spent a while finding my location on his map. He told me someone from mountain rescue would be in touch before long, I thanked him, hung up and waited.

Art’s Cross is not a sheltered location, between the wind rain, and low temperature I cooled down fast once I had stopped moving. I paced around the cross trying to keep warm. About 10 or 15 minutes later I got a call back. Poor reception resulted in us being cut off a few times. Mountain rescue advised me to stay put at Arts Cross, that a team was on the way to come find me and lead me out, and to confirm my location by using a link in a SMS message they sent me.

Once I knew I was staying put, I got to the side of the cross that was the most sheltered from the wind. If anyone out there is planning on attempting the Art O’Neill pay close attention to the mandatory equipment list. As I saw this as a practice run for the Art O’Neill, I had their full required equipment load in the bag, and soon became very happy to have just about every last bit of it. I had a few extra layers in the bag, so I took them all out and got them on as fast as I could. After about half an hour, I realized that staying still that still wasn't going to be enough to keep me comfortable, and I began to shiver. Time to try out the foil survival bag. I got in, used my plastic map case and my backpack to insulate myself from the ground, and before long the bag warmed up. Those things really work.

I tried to use my phone to confirm my location. Foil bags do not help reception much, and reception was not much better outside of it. After about a dozen attempts I finally managed to get the website to load and let it get my GPS coordinates via the phone.

In a way I was fortunate that I lost the GPS where I did, the closer you get to Glenmalure, the worse reception gets. Had I been much further along, the task of getting to a point where I could have made these calls would have been much more difficult.

At this point there was nothing much to do other than wait. I had food and water in the backpack. I left my phone outside the bag sitting on a rock in a plastic bag, so it had some chance of picking up any attempt to contact me. And waited.

About 2 hours after I made the first call, I spotted the head lamps of the approaching rescue team. I got out of my foil bag, packed my gear back up, and set off in the direction of the lights. Shortly after that I decided that was probably a bad idea. I had no idea how far off those lights where, and what the ground in between was like, or what route they planned to take to get to me from their current position. I stayed with sight of Arts Cross, and waited until I could actually make out people instead of lights before walking out to meet them.

The team where extremely friendly. Their first concern was to ensure that I did not need any medical attention, was not suffering from hypothermia. They offered me extra clothing, but I was fine in that respect as well. Just stuck and a little embarrassed. Given I was ok, they decided to walk out the way we came. A second team was visible in the distance, and their headlights made it easy to walk out. It took us about 45 minutes to hike back out and meet the rescue vehicles at the top of Turlough Hill. The entire team where very friendly and reassuring for the entire hike back, which was great, as having this many people out in the mountains on their Sunday evening because I took on more than I could handle was more than a little embarrassing.

I would like to sincerely thank all of the team members who came out that night. I also faithfully promise that I will not be going up there again on my own until I've developed my map reading skills. For the curious, I finished the Art O’Neill in 11:29 as a hybrid. Hybrids run the first half, and then enjoy having an expert guide lead them the rest of the way in hiking groups. Those expert guides, are yet again, members of Mountain Rescue.
Sean

Spud · « **Reply #1 on:** March 07, 2012 »

Good story, on your own in the dark in unfamiliar terrain, could be easy to panic, this guy seems to have kept his head and was well prepared with survival blanket etc, very lucky he got a mobile signal tho!

Wolf_Larson · « **Reply #2 on:** March 07, 2012 »

Time to try out the foil survival bag. I got in, used my plastic map case and my backpack to insulate myself from the ground, and before long the bag warmed up. Those things really work.

Agreed Spud, he kept his head and very lucky he lost his GPS where he did.

Big shout out to the people that helped him down again.

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Author Topic: lost in the hills (Read 4864 times)

LandyLiam

lost in the hills

Spud

Re: lost in the hills

Wolf_Larson

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