Dartmoor Trip - Gone Wrong!

[jonajuna]

shelter...

fire

signal

you can be sure a nice smoky fire will have the locals running to you from miles around on dartmoor given the nature of the ground to catch fire and smolder for months

backed up with the 6 blasts on a whistle (waiting for a minute inbetween and listen for the reply.. 3 blasts) of course, never stop blowing, even when youve had a reply, else they cant locate you

we had same advice when crossing the aussie outback... if you breakdown or get in trouble, whip off a wheel and torch it, the smoke is thick, black and can be seen for hundreds of miles (assuming you have people within hundreds of miles in australia!!)

[fish]

good tip didnt know that.

[fish]

No Shackleton didn't.

However I have spent 4 and a half months on South Georgia based at King Edward Point, I have also travelled around parts of the Island. South Georgia is 100 miles long and 25miles wide, it is 75% glacier and an extremely inhospitable place.

Injuries have a nasty effect on people. You have an injured ankle and footing has become treacherous / uncertain. Don't exacerbate the problem by making the issue worse, if you walk on there is a good chance you will make the problem worse.

Get shelter, get a brew on, asses the situation and the damage / injury to your ankle. DO NOT remove your boot, if the prevailing weather conditions continue to deteriorate, stay where you are, you are warm, dry and out of the worst of it. It is not worth moving until your footing is more certain and you know the extent of the damage to your ankle (after a period of time will it take weight, does it require strapping or more support).
If you have a communications schedule and you have left a trace with people, they will be aware that you are out there, if they cannot contact you and you do not contact them then they will alert the relevant parties. They will find you doing the right thing.

Shackletons trip from the south of the island to Stromness was regarded as somewhat of a miracle even back in the golden age of Antarctic exploration. It would be 40 odd years before someone else attempted that trip and they marvelled at what the three men that crossed the island had achieved with "50 foot of rope and a carpenters adze"

Shackleton was liked by his men, he was down to earth and what he did he did pretty much as a last ditch effort to get his men home, he would not have attempted the walk that he did where nearly all the footing is treacherous with a damaged ankle and he wouldn't have expected any of his men to either, they would have stayed as a member of the shore party.

I visited his grave in Grytviken, it is only a short trip by ski from KEP (Shackleton died in on another exped starting from South Georgia from a heart attack at a later date).

please please tell me you have photo's of that trip!

[fish]

i would snuggle down with my two 19 yearold swedish twin girl sherpa's who i always take on trips to dartmoor in the middle of winter....lol

[Metal mug]

Probably try and get near a well traveled road or path and stay put. Or.... before you set off organise with someone to call them a couple of times a day. If you fail to contact them they would have a map of your route so they could find you.

[jbrown14]

While I've never hiked on the moors (or anything resembling them here in the US) my personal safety procedure may apply to the original theoretical situation.

Whenever I plan a solo hike of any kind, I leave a detailed itinerary with my wife, as well as a date and time at which I will contact her. Also included is the phone number for the nearest New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Ranger Station and the number for the nearest State Police barracks. I tell her, "If you don't hear from me by 10:00 p.m. on Saturday night, call this number first, then this number if you don't get through to the first one." I don't purposely deviate from my itinerary, although I've gotten off the grid once or twice when I had to navigate off trail, and if I did get injured, the plan is to: 1. Stay put, 2. Put up my shelter, 3. Make fire. 4. Eat. 5. Stay put. (yes, I repeated that on purpose. It's very important.)