Emergencies in remote locations?

[Rance]

On the peninsula they come out if it warms up. I've seen tracks in December, January, February many times. Not sure if they are keen on eating meat or not. I've never actually seen them...just the tracks. In the spring they eat on fresh buds or tender grasses and about early May when the moose calves start dropping then they go balistic for meat.
A few years back some seismic crews were out at Swanson River. A nice size brownie killed one guy rather grusomely and there was still a couple foot of snow even tho it was early spring. It didn't eat him but it was one pissed off bear. Either they teased it or the seismic activity made it angry.

[rotorhead]

As far as the bear things goes, it all depends on food and temperatures. If there's still food around some bears will keep at it regardless of how dark and cold it gets. The oldest and youngest ones that can't compete as well during the "regular" season are most likely to be out, as are any with injuries that keep them from packing on the calories like they should. If a bear doesn't have enough fat to get him through, he doesn't really have the option of hibernation since he'll just starve to death more slowly.

As far as the "emergency in remote location" thing goes, here's what some people do.

1. Head out into the bush ill-equipped and underprepared and hope for the best despite your lack of preparation.
2.Don't tell anyone where you're going, or when you'll be back.
3. Make unrealistic and grossly optomistic estimate on how far you'll get and how much food you'll need to take along.
4. Never bring any spare parts or tools to fix the machine/s that your life depends on. Use old gas, and bypass all those unnecessary filters and seals.
5. Never, under any circumstances, bring either a GPS or a compass, nor learn how to use them. Maps are optional, but must be old, outdated, or for another location entirely. Free ones from gas stations and rental car places are OK.
6. When by incredible bad luck and no fault on your part something goes wrong, contact EMS or 911 by a cell phone with a mostly dead battery.
7. Give your location based on miniscule, invisible landmarks that nobody could possibly see from the air, preferably ones that are not named on any map anywhere. Use generic terms such as "bear creek" or "fish lake", there's thousands of them in Alaska so you're bound to be near one.
8. If through some accident of fate you have a lat/long location, make sure that you use an obscure and incorrect datum, and mix up degrees/minutes/seconds with degrees/minutes/tenths or just invert and transpose numbers at random.
9. Do not build a fire or shelter or do anything to help yourself out, just sit there and hope for the best.
10. If by come miracle the SAR/EMS people actually DO find you, try to park ATVs, tents, ALL your luggage, a multitude of loose tarps and other dangerous objects in the proposed landing zone which you have carefully left unmarked otherwise.
11. If you end up medivaced by helicopter, make sure you're filthy and covered in gas and oil, and take along loaded firearms, pepper spray, fueled camping implements and all those other things that aren't allowed on airlines.
12. If/when your a$$ gets saved, complain bitterly about how it could have been done better and how much it costs.

Of course, you could try not to be like "some people" and make life a bit easier for the SAR/EMS teams and yourself.

If you absolutely insist on attempting to live out a normal lifespan, your best bet is to think pessimistically as far as food and equipment go, and leave properly equipped with survival gear. Carry either a PLB or a Sat Phone (with good batteries) and know how to use all of the above.

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by notreesininceland

Is is correct to say that in the thick of winter bears pose virtually no threat (as long as you do not accidently stumble into a den and rouse them from hibernation)? I presume that a bear out and about in winter is going to be an extremely hungry - and predatory - creature.

Where I live in the Tanana Valley drainage, when you see bears out in the winter, they aren't eating, they get up and poke around for a few days or less, then go back to sleep. That doesn't mean if you go up and slap them, they won't slap back...

It won't be until spring when they will start to eat and their first "Crap" will push out a whitish "Plug" and that is when they start to eat. I guess that is formed from not passing anything though them for the winter months of mostly hibernation. But I have never seen them eat except when they get late salmon runs in the Toklat River system, but they are up until that run begins/ends and then after about the last of November to the first of December, they fade off to nap time.

I run across bear tracks during the winter months when I am out either in the plane or on Snowmachine, and they just poke around, and then head back to bed, but you can see where they ate salmon from the airplane by the open water...

[Glitch]

What I highly recommend is the EMT-W course offered by the Red Cross. The course specializes in treating medical emergencies in the wilderness. At the very least the course will help you assess what is a real medical emergency requiring an immediate evacuation, and what might be treatable on-site. Of course, the better you prepare and the more you know about your environment the better your chances of not having an emergency.

CBs are only good when there is line-of-sight, even then a 5 watt CB will only have a range of a few miles at best. If there are any mountains, hills, or trees in the way, a CB is virtually useless.

Personally, when I get into a situation that I didn't plan or prepare for (which gets rarer the older I get) I just rely on the unofficial Marine Corps motto: "Adapt, Improvise, & Overcome."

[stiffnecked]

Maybe we should think twice about getting a GCI cell phone? Pizza deliveries to fish camp are now only a phone call away.


The Arctic Sounder - Cell phone access says ‘hello’ to villages