A long time ago I read a Stephen King story about an elderly woman lost in a snowstorm. At some point in the story it mentions that if someone is lost in a whiteout they should limp with their right leg (assuming they’re right-handed), because doing otherwise will cause them to continually walk around in circles. Any grain of truth to this advice?
If you are lost in a whiteout your best bet is to find good shelter and hunker down, assuming the terrain is rough. Otherwise, pull out your compass, figure out where you are and where you want to go, take a bearing, and start walking. Carefully recheck your compass frequently.
If you have no objective means of guidance, walking in a random straight line, walking in circles or standing still are probably all approximately of the same benefit.
The chances of you being able to limp to exactly compensate for one leg pushing slightly harder than the other is about nil. If you would normally walk around in a big circle, limping a bit is just going to make you walk in a big circle in the opposite direction.
If you are not in a whiteout, but are lost, grab a big stick and drag it behind you. Point it at some object in the distance. Walk to that object, while dragging the big long stick behind you. When you get to the object, line up the direction that your stick is pointing, and find another object in the distance. This will keep you on a reasonably straight line.
Unfortunately, since you can’t see any objects in the distance during a whiteout, this advice doesn’t help you at all in that case. If you don’t have a compass, then take Telemark’s advice and just hunker down until the storm passes. If you must move, a compass is about the only thing that is going to help you.
One word of advice with a compass - most compasses (and the people using them) aren’t all that accurate. So, if you are heading for a small town that is along a road, intentionally aim to one side of the town. Otherwise, you are most likely to miss the town, and when you hit the road you won’t know which direction to go. If you know there is a road there, though, you can intentionally aim for one side of the town, then when you do hit the road you’ll know which direction to follow it to get to town.
Another thing that might help you is to follow streams and such. Civilization is usually built along water sources, so if you follow a stream down until it reaches a river, then follow the river you should eventually hit someplace civilized. This assumes that your whiteout occurs somewhere in the mountains, and not in, say, Antarctica. Even if there’s a lot of snow on the ground and limited visibility, you can usually tell where the streams are. Don’t walk on the stream, even if the ice does look solid. If you do fall through, hypothermia will kill you right quick.
Yeah, the thing about taking advice from Stephen King about what to do in any situation is…you know…he writes fiction. Forcibly limping just doesn’t sound like a good solution to ANYTHING. I figure you’d end up still lost, but also with a sore leg.
Stay put and wait for it to pass. I’ve actually done that in cases of very dense fog…which sort of freaked me out for some reason. Just not being able to see any landmarks, even if you KNOW where you are, it’s more comfortable to stay put and wait. But not limp.
I don’t see any logic in the advice, seems to me that favoring one leg might be more likely to ensure that you’re going to walk in a circle, besides that, what’s the advantage in moving at all if you have no reference and don’t know which way to go?
I’ve experienced a whiteout, but I was in my truck, so when I realized that I couldn’t discern the roadway anymore, I just pulled over to, what I thought was, the edge of the road and parked for the night. I was awakened in the morning by a plow crew. They were concerned about my safety, but more interested in me moving my truck, so they could open the road. Of course I had plenty of fuel, food and a warm bunk.
Anytime you’re lost in a wilderness, the best advice is to seek shelter and remain where you’re at, for rescue. Of course this isn’t always successful and there’s nothing like experience when faced with a life threatening situation.
If you are lost in a white out, on foot, you are pretty much screwed.
The 3 priorities of survival (in such situations) are SHELTER SHELTER SHELTER
you can go 3 days with out water
you can go 3 weeks with out food…
But you can’t go 3 hours if you develop Hypothermia.
You do need to quit wasting energy (Moving around) and exposing yourself to the cold (and wind chill) ASAP…
You need a place out of the wind, and hopefully warmer than the ambient temp. If you just “hunker down”, they will find your body next thaw.
I went to Grade 1 in Ft Mac Murray, Alberta, and we had white outs hit during school recess. we were taught to cup our hands to our ears and head for the bell. (rung by the school door) - “Cupping Hands” increased directional reckoning by hearing.
worst case scenario… if you are caught in a white out, and know some form of shelter is in reasonable range, start walking in a tight but expanding spiral, using your previous footprints as a guide. This will only work until your spiral has a radius big enough that your previous track’s get obliterated by wind.
good luck
FML
As for the stick thingy mentioned earlier. If caught in a whiteout, and you know where you are and roughly the direction that your going, one way to keep walking in a straight line is to get a long pole (1.5-2 m if you can handle it) and hold it in your hand parallell to the ground. If you start wearing of course, the inertia of the pole will keep it pointing in the direction you intend to go, and you see immediaetly that you are in fact swerwing. Used this method during my army days in foggy/night conditions as a guide to keep going in a straight line.
But yeah, the safest bet in a whiteout is to find shelter, or dig a snow cave or something similar.
It’s even worse, I think. I know I read that hypothermia can set in in ridiculously “warm” temperatures. That is, you can die from exposure when it’s like 52 degrees. Yeah, yeah, I know…I should find a cite. I’ll go look it up on Wiki now. But I’m pretty certain that it doesn’t have to be FREEZING…or even that cold…for people to suffer the effect of hypothermia if they’re not prepared. Heck, maybe I even read that on the SD.
The most common temps for hypothermia is 40s and 50s. The reason is that in winter, people prepare for and expect cold. But in moderately cold temps they are not prepared nor do they even look out for it.
Your body temp is in the 90s, any temp below that can result in hypothermia. Getting wet is the likeliest trigger, a 45 degree rainstorm is a classic scenario. But hypothermia can happen when the temps are in the 60s and even 70s. Getting wet, being placed in contact with the ground (a huge heat sink) and dehydration will all accelerate the process.
Hypothermia can come on quickly, but there are warning signs before. They’re knows as the UMBLEs (stumbles, mumbles, fumbles, and grumbles) but if you are alone they are hard to spot in yourself.
Here’s a good overview: Outdoor Action Guide to Hypothermia & Cold Weather Injuries
This is a cool idea, and I’ll try to remember it, but probably not very effective in whiteout conditions. Blowing snow and all.
In my experience compasses are always accurate but they point to Magnetic North as opposed to True North .
True North is a fixed geographical direction that translates directly to the ground whereas Magnetic North varies by a few degrees every year from T.N.,your compass needle is pointing to the location of one of the Poles of the electrical field that surrounds the planet caused by the Solar Wind interacting with The Earth.
(Im not an expert on Electromagnetism so I may have put it badly)
The varience from year to year is known so when using map and compass we rectified the imbalance with the saying
Grid (map) to Mag. add(the degrees of varience )
Mag to grid ,get rid(subtract the degrees of varience)
The second point I wish to make is a lot more serious ,
I saw the quote about civilisation being built along water courses and to follow streams downwards made by an ex colleague of mine on a T.V. programme .
The context in which he made it was reasonable ,i.e. if you can see the terrain ahead of you and are cautious you might follow a stream downhill.
You NEVER follow a stream downhill in a whiteout ,in fog or in any conditions where visibility is impaired .
Water takes the most direct course downhill so that you may very well be following a stream one minute and then find your self plunging over the edge of several hundered feet of sheersided waterfall the next.
It is a rule on these boards that if you are not a doctor you are not allowed to give medical advice ,I think the rule should be extended in that if you are not professionally trained in survival or for that matter firearms ,then you should not
give advice on those subjects.
Your well meaning advice may well get somebody killed .
A little knowledge…
A tourist in NZ was lost in the Coromandel (rugged native NZ bush). He didn’t stay put, and got into deeper, more rugged terrain. He did follow a stream, and in the dark, saw a farmhouse lights, about 100m away. And then he dropped off a cliff that divided his position from the farmhouse.
Also, it should be noted that even a compass is not a great deal of use in the limited visibility of a whiteout (or dense bush) - you won’t walk in a circle but you won’t walk in a straight line, either. Compasses are best used to select a long distance point to aim for. GPS is maybe a better option.
And, as noted, in a whiteout it is safer to find shelter and stop.
Si
I’ve been walking in a few white-outs, but they were not so bad that you couldn’t distinguish up from down, you could still more or less see the ground. Just get the compass out (pretty accurate IME) and keep walking on the bearing. That said, it can be extremely difficult taking a bearing on a map in driving snow.
Friends have told me about severe white-outs where you basically can see nothing and it gets totally disorientating. If you don’t have a compass / gps here then its time to dig an emergency shelter and hope for the best.
When I did that, I ended up in a ditch that was filled with drifting snow. I know that getting off the road is the safe thing to do, but I wish I had walked out and found that ditch before I drove into it.
Compasses may be inaccurate for a number of reasons including;
-those where the reading is not taken directly from the magnetic element - for example, those floating ball car compasses - may be inaccurate due to poor alignment between the embedded magnet and the gradations.
-Small compasses - such as those little button compasses - may be inaccurate in practical terms because they are so small that a finely adjusted reading cannot be taken
-With cheap compasses constructed with a needle that is a fairly broad diamond of pressed metal may not be magnetised with the poles perfectly aligned with the axis of the needle
First, before you get into the situation read “Roughing It” by Mark Twain.
Second, when you are in the situation you make you peace with God and promise that if you are saved you will give up all of your vices and lead a rightious life. Then you lay down to die.
Third, when the storm passes and you wake up to discover you are alive, you walk to the shelter that was only 20 yards away, resume your vices and take on a few more.
The thing to remember is that (by itself) a compass only keeps you pointing in a particular direction - by itself, it can’t make you walk in a straight line. Because you favour a leg, you will arc to the left or right. The compass will allow you to correct where you are facing, but over time you will still drift to the right or left. In extreme circumstances of disorientation, you could be moving at 45 degrees to your intended path - maybe a very dangerous thing in a whiteout.
That is why (when orienteering or tramping with a compass) you set your bearing on a landmark on the horizon and walk towards that, and not looking down on your compass.
ETA: this is my most evil post - and with Iron Maiden blaring on my media player
Si
It is true that without a conscious effort people often tend to walk not in a linear fashion, (and in generic, relatively level terrain - a complete circle even) partly because often one leg is stronger e.g. “right legged”. Too, it is sometimes a matter of “laziness” in that when routefinding it is easier and thus more desirable to walk downhill than uphill, on clear, dry ground versus bog or inpenetrable brush.
Orienteering has several techniques to work around these problems. But it should be noted, a compass by itself is completely useless in a whiteout unless bearings are already known. The part about hypothermia is mostly correct - generally speaking, it is better to have temperatures a bit below freezing from a survival standpoint, not that either situation is much desireable but because it is much easier to stay dry. Icy rain and sleet is a killer, but nice puffy snowflakes, not so bad.
I did say I.M.E. though to be fair I have used on occasion button compasses but didnt expect to use them for anything other then rough navigation having at those times either no map or badly drawn sketch maps .
The lesson is that if you decide that you really do need a compass then get a decent one or make sure your employers do so if its job related.