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When the weather gets frightful
Winter hikers: beware of hypothermia

By Brian Fitzgerald

Frozen waterfalls. Breathtaking vistas. An invigorating chill in the air. Hiking in the winter can be an infinitely rewarding experience. There are no bugs to shoo away or poison ivy to avoid. And with practically no human presence on the mountains, there is a peaceful solitude nearly impossible to attain during the summer.

But there is an obvious reason that few creatures are on the trails during the winter. Extreme weather can kill within minutes. Mount Washington, in New Hampshire, the Northeast’s tallest mountain, has claimed 122 lives since 1849. Of those fatalities, 25 were from exposure to the elements.

But it doesn’t necessarily take a 6,288-foot mountain – or a snowstorm – to endanger the lives of climbers. In late October, two BU students suffering from hypothermia were rescued from Mount Monadnock in Jaffrey, N.H., (a mountain half as tall as Mount Washington) after they strayed from a trail. The hikers attempted to climb the mountain in street clothes and inadequate footwear – one was wearing sneakers, and the other was wearing shoes. Each had an extra sweater, but eventually both had trouble walking because their legs were so cold. Without a flashlight, they tried to find the trail in pitch darkness with a cigarette lighter. Luckily, they had a cellular phone and dialed 911.

Ian Springsteel (UNI’90), a member of the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) and an avid rock and ice climber, has hiked to the summit of Mount Washington in the winter many times, but he also scrapped a winter climb several years ago, heeding the advice on the U.S. Forest Service’s warning signs on the trails: "Turn back at the first sign of bad weather." Although exhilarating, winter hiking is also dangerous, even with the proper gear. "The margin of error is much smaller in the winter," says Springsteel. "Even the simplest actions can become difficult or impossible." The highest wind speed ever recorded was at the peak of Mount Washington – 231 m.p.h. Hurricane-force winds are measured on an average of every three days at the weather station on the summit.

James Feldman, a MED associate professor of emergency medicine, and his cousin thought that they were adequately prepared for a Mount Washington climb 20 years ago, until a blizzard near the summit left them with little visibility and poor traction, even though they were wearing ice crampons. "The weather changed quickly, and we didn’t have snowshoes," Feldman recalls. "The ice crampons weren’t effective in the deep snow." They struggled to the AMC’s Lake of the Clouds hut, which is about 2,000 feet from the summit. The shelter is unmanned and unheated in the winter, but they were able to survive for three days on the food they had packed. Then the sky cleared. "We brought lots of food, because you use a tremendous amount of energy hiking in the winter," he says. In fact, it’s not uncommon to need to consume 4,000 to 4,500 calories a day on such an expedition.

Going long periods of time without food while hiking in cold weather can lead to hypothermia, when the body runs out of calories to burn and the core body temperature drops to a level where normal muscular and cerebral functions are impaired. As an emergency room physician at Boston Medical Center, Feldman has treated hypothermia cases among the elderly living in unheated apartments, and homeless people exposed to the cold. But the symptoms are the same for hikers: shivering, difficulty walking, and impaired judgment. "The victim might become confused, and, when walking, appear as if he or she is drunk," says Feldman.

Jonathan Walsh (CAS’03) remembers a close call during a trip to the French island of Corsica three years ago. A group he was hiking with got lost, but made it to a hut just before a blizzard hit. "Another group also found the hut, and these people were wearing jeans and tennis shoes," he says. "When we finally made it down the mountain, one of the people in our group started to faint – it seems that he didn’t like oatmeal, which we were eating, so all he ate that day were oranges. If he had been alone, he would have died."

Walsh points out that proper clothing is a must for winter hiking. "You should dress in layers, and wool is better than cotton," he says. "Cotton doesn’t retain heat when it gets wet." Synthetic fabrics such as Polarfleece work as well as wool. Polypropylene underwear – tops and bottoms – will wick moisture away from the skin. An outer jacket should consist of both a waterproof and a breathable fabric such as Gore-Tex. Because most of the body’s heat loss is though the head, a wool hat – or in severe cold, a balaclava (a hood that almost completely covers the head and neck) – is a must. Mittens are much warmer than gloves. As for footwear, leather hiking boots will accept flexible crampons. But in extreme cold, most plastic double boots accept step-in crampons.

"The Boy Scout motto is ‘Be prepared,’ " says Springsteel, "and it’s good advice, even if you have the proper equipment, are in great shape, and have a lot of mountaineering experience. Every hike is a calculated risk."

For signs of hypothermia and instructions on emergency treatment, visit www.hypothermia.org/onland.htm. For information on frostbite, another risk during winter hiking, see "Health Matters".

7 December 2000
Boston University
Office of University Relations