Brave the Elements
Winter Safety
Most people are aware of winter's hazards. But it's easy to forget how wind, cold, snow, or whiteout can turn an outing into a tragedy. Knowledge of the area, weather, route, and the limitations of your body and equipment - plus a little common sense - can help ensure safe and enjoyable outings.
Visitors are encouraged to view the Recreate Responsibly Winter Toolkit, which provides resources on weather conditions, avalanche awareness, and Leave No Trace principles.
Before You Leave
Notify a responsible person of your planned route of travel. Mark it on a map. Give your planned time of departure and return. Be sure to check with that person when you get back. Get back before dark.
You must expect the unexpected and plan accordingly. Even if you are going out for just a few hours. Know ahead of time the location of the nearest telephone or ranger station in case an emergency does occur on your trip. You may want a GPS device, but those sometimes do not receive a signal or the battery fails. Cell phones also likely will not work because of a lack of signal.
Where to Go
Some National Forest System land is open for winter travel; however, some parts have restrictions. These restrictions include motorized vehicle closures, avalanche area closures, and hazardous roads.
Weather, Snow and Avalanche Information
Check local weather forecasts. Avalanches may occur at any time during the winter so call or listen to local avalanche advisories where available.
Backcountry users should take extra precautions, carry appropriate avalanche equipment, travel in groups if possible, and check the avalanche report before heading outside. Resources:
- Regional Snow Depth Map
- Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center
- Sierra Avalanche Center
- Mount Shasta Avalanche Center
Advice on avalanche conditions is also available at local Forest Service Offices.
Driving Safely
Check road conditions, chain control, and potential road closures of your route. Don’t get lured into taking alternative routes around closures as travel apps and related online map services have likely not been updated to reflect the current situation and you may get lost or stuck. Recommended resource: QuickMap (ca.gov)
Be prepared – check your tires’ tread and pressure; top off windshield fluid; and carry tire chains, an ice scraper, an extra blanket and provisions in your car in case you become stuck or stranded on the roadside.
Winter Topics
Layers of clothing which can be adjusted to prevailing conditions are best. A good quality windbreaker jacket and wind pants are excellent. Avoid tight-fitting clothes and boots which may restrict circulation. Take extra socks and gloves or mittens, warm hat, matches in a waterproof container, candle, fire starter (000 steel wool works well when pulled apart), nylon cord, general purpose knife, high-energy food, plastic tarp, space blanket, signal mirror, first aid kit, wide tape for repairs, metal container for melting snow, map, compass, and hatchet.
Snowmobilers should be certain to have tools for emergency repairs, extra spark plugs, extra gas, emergency flares, and drive belt. Experienced snowmobilers always carry snowshoes (in case of equipment failure) as well as the normal emergency and survival gear for winter.
A good rule is "lightweight but loaded," meaning loaded with calories. Plan your meals to ensure a diet of high-energy foods.
Water is often difficult to find in winter. All that is available may be what you carry in containers or melt from snow. The body loses as much as 2 to 4 quarts of fluid per day under exertion. Replacement of fluid los is very important for maintaining physical condition. Eating snow provides only limited water (10 to 20 percent), drains energy, and cools the body temperature. Avoid melting snow by body contact. Travel equipped to melt snow. Save your energy.
Litter and debris can mar the quality of a recreation experience - particularly when viewed against a mantle of white snow. Help others enjoy winter travel in National Forests by carrying out what you carry in. Take food in easily compressed packages that require little space in your pack.
Avoid leaving human waste near any water course. If you are in a group, avoid concentrating wastes. Nature can assimilate only small quantities at a time.
All winter travelers should:
- Match trail difficulty and length of trip to your physical condition and ability. Be physically fit - Top physical condition may be required to walk out if equipment fails.
- Know storm warning signs - Mountain weather is unpredictable. Pay attention to changing conditions.
- Stay on safe routes and avoid avalanche terrain.
- A list of marked cross-country skiing and snowmobile trails is usually available Forest Service offices.
- Cross-country ski trails are not regularly packed or groomed. Stumps, rocks, and other obstructions are sometimes present. Ski under control.
- Hitting the slopes? Please follow all safety guidelines. Resource: Ski Safety - Ski California - Avalanche Safety
Dogs can ruin ski tracks, especially those that have been groomed. For the benefit and enjoyment of others, consider leaving your pet at home. If you do take your dog, consider skiing in non-groomed or lightly-used areas.
Temperatures change daily. Areas that appear solid may quickly thaw and become impassible. Ice skating, fishing, or trekking on frozen lakes, ponds, rivers or reservoirs is not advised. Consider an indoor skating facility as a safer alternative.
Avoid becoming lost by taking a good map. Learn to use a compass and believe it. Check weather forecasts and avoid storms. It is easy to become disoriented in the whiteouts of winter or when physically exhausted.
If you are lost, injured, or your equipment failed - KEEP CALM.
Decide on a plan. Trust your compass. Backtrack if possible, but if it's not practical, remain in place. Stay together if possible. If not, send at least two people for help.
Don't abandon your snowshoes or skis. Build a fire and shelter. Stay warm. Mark your base camp so it is visible from the air.
Distress Signals - Three smokes, three blasts of a whistle, three shouts, three flashes of light, three of anything that will attract attention.
Ground to Air Signals - Visible emergency signals are easily made in large open areas. SOS can be stamped in snowfields or grassy meadows. Brush piles or evergreen boughs can also be used. The graphic lists the tile emergency codes for ground to air signals.
When someone is overdue - KEEP CALM. Notify the County Sheriff in the trip area. They will take steps to alert or activate the local search and rescue organization. if the missing person returns later, be sure to advise the Sheriff.
In some areas of the National Forests, those traveling by skis, snowshoes, and snowmobiles must share the same routes and areas. The following suggestions will help provide safe routes for everyone.
Operate snowmobiles at minimum speed near skiers or snowshoers. Travel slowly until well beyond those on foot. Snowmobilers should be able to stop within half of the visible distance ahead.
Skiers and snowshoers should realize that snowmobile operators generally can't hear other approaching trail users. On steep slopes snowmobilers are generally limited to the developed trail surface, so give them the right of way. Use common courtesy and respect so that all trail users can enjoy their winter travel.
Snowmobiles are not permitted on developed ski trails used for cross-country skiing. Restrictions are posted, but check with the local ranger for full information.
Winter Health Concerns
An adult, at rest, requires 2 quarts of water daily. Up to 4 quarts are required for strenuous activity. There is a 25 percent loss of stamina when an adult loses 1.5 quarts of water. Avoid dehydration - simply drink as often as you feel thirsty.
At 10,000 feet, air contains only two-thirds of the volume of oxygen that it does at sea level. In addition, the higher air pressure at sea level easily forces the available oxygen through the thin lining of the lungs into the bloodstream. At higher elevations there is less air pressure and the available oxygen is not so easily forced through the lung walls.
- Symptoms - Listlessness, loss of appetite, weakness, apathy, nausea, dizziness, and drowsiness.
Treatment - Stop and rest, breathe deeply a few times, obtain nourishment from simple sugar like candy or fruit juices. Travel to lower elevations. - Prevention - Keep in good physical condition and eat a well-balanced diet. Avoid sudden trips to high altitudes which involve immediate physical exercise.
Hyperventilation
- Symptoms - This reaction to altitude is caused by too rapid breathing and decrease of the carbon dioxide level in the blood, causing a lightheadedness and cold feeling. Victims are apprehensive and excited.
- Treatment - Calm the victim, have him/her relax and breathe into a glove, bag, or hat until normal breathing is restored.
- Prevention - Keep in good physical condition and eat a well-balanced diet. Avoid sudden trips to high altitudes which involve immediate physical exercise.
Frostbite is caused by exposure of inadequately protected flesh to subfreezing temperatures. Tissue damage is caused by the reduced blood flow to the extremities as opposed to hypothermia, which causes lowering of the body's rate of metabolism.
Symptoms - Loss of feeling and a dead-white appearance.
Treatment - Restore body temperature as rapidly as possible, preferably by immersion in a water bath of less than 110 degrees temperature or by other means. If it is necessary to continue moving, the affected part should be kept covered and the victim moved to a location where effective treatment and vehicle evacuation can be obtained.
Prevention - Party members should periodically observe their companions, especially nose and cheeks, for signs of frostbite. Snowmobilers, due to their speed of travel, are particularly susceptible to frostbite.
Be aware of the danger of hypothermia - subnormal temperature of the body. Lowering of internal temperature of the body leads to mental and physical collapse.
Hypothermia is caused by exposure to cold and it is aggravated by wet, wind, and exhaustion. It is the number one killer of recreationists.
Cold Kills in Two Distinct Steps:
The first step is exposure and exhaustion. The moment you begin to lose heat faster than your body produces it, you are undergoing exposure. Two things happen: You voluntarily exercise to stay warm, and your body makes involuntary adjustments to preserve normal temperature in the vital organs. Both responses drain your energy reserves. The only way to stop the drain is to reduce the degree of exposure.
The second stop is hypothermia. If exposure continues until your energy reserves are exhausted, cold reaches the brain, depriving you of judgment and reasoning power. You will not be aware that this is happening. This is hypothermia. You internal temperature is sliding downward. Without treatment, this slide leads to stupor, collapse, and death.
The time to prevent hypothermia is during the period of exposure and gradual exhaustion.
- Most hypothermia cases develop in air temperatures between 30 and 50 degrees. Most recreationists simply can't believe such temperatures can be dangerous. They underestimate the danger of being wet at such temperatures - with fatal results.
- Fifty degree [F] water is unbearably cold. The cold that kills is cold water running down neck and lets, cold water held against the body by sopping wet clothes, and cold water flushing body hear from the surface of the clothes. Don't ask "How cold is the air?" Ask instead, "How cold is the water against my body?"
Defense Against Hypothermia:
Stay Dry - Staying dry and maintaining body hear are the key to avoiding hypothermia. Wool has been the standard when staying warm and dry are required and is still a good choice. New synthetic materials also offer the advantages of being lightweight and fast drying if wet.
Dress in layers with lightweight undergarments (to wick moisture away from the skin) and then wool or fleece pile for insulating warmth. A tight weave water repellent wind breaker completes the three layer system for all weather conditions. Whether using wool or synthetic, layering your clothing will enable you to shed layers as you warm up or add them again as you cool down. Include a knit cap that can protect neck and chin. Cotton is useless when wet because it actually makes you colder.
Beware of the Wind - A slight breeze carries heat away from bare skin much faster than still air. Wind drives cold air under and through clothing. Wind refrigerates wet clothes by evaporating moisture from the surface. Wind multiplies the problem of staying dry. Choose rain clothes that are proof against wind-driven rain and cover head, neck, body, and legs. Ponchos are poor protection from the wind.
Use Your Clothes - Put on rain gear before you get wet. Put on wool clothes before you start shivering.
End Exposure - If you cannot stay dry and warm under existing weather conditions using the clothes you have with you, end exposure. Be smart enough to give up reaching the peak or getting the fish or whatever you had in mind.
Get Out of the Wind and Rain - Build a fire. Concentrate on making your camp or bivouac as secure and comfortable as possible. Never ignore shivering. Persistent or violent shivering is clear warning that you are on the verge of hypothermia. A storm proof tent gives best shelter. Take plastic sheeting and nylon twine with you for rigging additional foul-weather shelter.
Carry trail food - nuts, jerky, and candy - and keep nibbling during hypothermia weather. Take a gas stove or a plumber's candle, flammable paste, or other reliable fire starters.
Don't wait for an emergency. Use these items to avoid or minimize exposure. Take heed of "hypothermia weather." Watch carefully for warning symptoms.
Prevent Exhaustion - Make camp while you still have a reserve of energy. Allow for the fact that exposure greatly reduces your normal endurance.
Be aware that exercise drains energy reserves. If exhaustion forces you to stop, however briefly, your body hear production instantly drops 50 percent or more. Violent incapacitating shivering may begin immediately and you may slip into hypothermia in a matter of minutes.
Appoint a Foul Weather Leader - make the best protected member of your party responsible for calling a halt before the least protected member becomes exhausted or goes into violent shivering.
Symptoms - If your party is exposed to wind, cold, and wet, think hypothermia. Watch yourself and others for symptoms.
- Uncontrollable fits of shivering
- Vague, slow, slurred speech.
- memory lapses, incoherence.
- Immobile, fumbling hands.
- Frequent stumbling. Lurching gait
- Drowsiness - to sleep is to die.
- Apparent exhaustion, inability to get up after a rest.
Treatment for Hypothermia
- The victim may deny he/she is in trouble. Believe the symptoms, not the victim. Even mild symptoms demand immediate, drastic treatment.
- Get the victim out of the wind and rain. Strip off all wet clothes. if the victim is only mildly impaired, give warm drinks. Get the victim into warm clothes and a warm sleeping bag. Well-wrapped, warm (not hot) rocks or canteens will hasten recovery.
- If the victim is semiconscious or worse, try to keep him/her awake. Give warm drinks. Leave victim stripped. Put the victim in a sleeping bag with another person - also stripped.
- If you have a double bag, put the victim between two warm donors. Skin-to-skin contact is the most effective treatment.
- Build a fire to warm the camp.
Other Potential Dangers
- Wind Chill - Wind temperature, and moisture are factors which can greatly affect the safety of a winter traveler. Each contributes to the loss of body heat. The "wind chill" chart illustrates the effect of wind and temperature on a dry, properly clothed temperature on a dry, properly clothed person. If clothing is wet from perspiration or precipitation, the net effect of wind and temperature is much greater.