The Dangers of Camping Close to Winter and How to Make Sure you are Well Prepared

A few tips so you're good and ready for anything!

Hiking and camping is a well loved and practiced activity across the world, and can lead us to some impeccably beautiful places that one would never get the chance to see if living in the city. For many of us though, the itch to adventure and explore doesn’t just come and go with the spring and summer seasons, it is a fire we need to fuel all year round. However, even if you may live in an area with very little or no snowfall during the winter months, if you are venturing into an area of higher altitudes you never know when mother nature will strike and turn your whole camping trip upside down overnight. Luckily, the are some precautions you can practice before embarking.

Before you Make the Climb: Let People Know

As many of you avid hikers know, civilization isn’t the only thing that gets more and more sparse as you climb to higher and higher altitudes to get to your hiking destination, so does any kind of cellular service. It is very important to make sure you tell not just one, but multiple friends or family exactly where you will be hiking and when you are expected to be back, so that if something unforeseen does end up occurring, help will be on the way and will be able to locate you that much faster. 

Satellite Phones

To this same end, it is a slight investment, but will make a world of a difference, often between life and death, if you can get yourself some sort of satellite phone for these types of trips. For as low as two or three hundred bucks, you will be able to make calls down to the local ranger stations, police stations, or most other numbers in areas with absolutely no cell service for miles. 

Check Weather Radar

It is also a good idea to check the weather span starting from a few days prior to your trip dates, to a few days after, to make sure you aren’t going to run into any kind of storm you otherwise can avoid by simply going another time. This isn’t a foolproof method, for fluke storms are always possible, but it will definitely help. Talking to locals whilst stopping at a store to gas up or restock supplies about the conditions and weather of late in that area is also a fine idea.

Some Things to Keep in the Car

Make sure that your car has a full tank before entering those winding and twisty roads, and not only that, but that you also have at least one full carton of spare gas in the trunk. If a storm hits and you are stranded it will come in extremely handy to have extra gas, that way you will be able to stay inside your heated car that much longer whilst waiting for assistance if you are too far from civilization to walk in the cold. It’s also a great idea to keep multiple flares and heavy duty flashlights in your car, so you can begin signaling for help as soon as you reach it, as well as whistles to couple with the honking of your horn to get others’ attention.

In times like these time is everything, and you want to make sure that you have and are doing everything you can in order to get yourself help. Taking these precautions and making these preparations are the things that you can control when faced with a situation you could not.