About

Want to go winter hiking? Want to know how to use a lot of the safety gear we take on winter hikes? ... want to not be figuring out how to use the gear for the first time in a life or death situation? Come join us for some light hiking with deployment of winter safety gear as part of the trip!

When/where/what

March 10th! We'll go to the Middlesex Fells a short drive away. We'll bring all the C level safety gear and do a short hike. Along the way we will practice emergency skills!

Skills to practice

Hardware practice

• layering
• deploy tents
• deploy sleeping pads and bags
• use a sleeping bag/pad in a tent
• pack up sleeping pads and bags
• pack up tents
• deploy bothy bag
• use portable stoves to boil water for a meal
• use headlamps
• use goggles

Software practice

• group decision making in difficult conditions: how to gauge if someone is uncomfortable? how would you check in with your co-hikers?

Medical skills review

• recognize and treat frostbite and hypothermia
• treat puncture and blunt trauma wounds

Recap

Everyone is responsible for safety on a trip. Come practice valuable safety procedures!

Weather Consideration

Currently the forecast is for rain on the day we planned to hike. We're considering alternative dates for this hike if the rain holds in the forecast; we don't want to needlessly drench a lot of MITOC gear. Possible alternatives so far include Saturday morning or the following weekend.

Pre-trip meeting

Pre-trip meeting planned for Thursday night.