Backpacking Risk and Emergency Planning: What You Need to Know
Educating Ourselves Around Planning and Preparedness
After you have gained a full picture of what risks you’ll be dealing with on your trip, you can then formulate your risk and emergency plan. In order to do that, educating ourselves around risk can build our confidence and mitigate the real risks we might face. For backpackers of all backgrounds and experience levels, the best thing you can do for your own safety is planning and preparedness.
Before diving into this post, read up on the basics of risk management and safety in our previous post, which will lay the groundwork for this discussion. In this post, we’ll get into more detail about specific concerns as well as creating your risk mitigation plan.
Assessing Risk: How Many Lemons Do You Have?
In our last blog post, we talked about how to identify risks and introduced the idea of each major risk as a (metaphorical) lemon. Consider creating a document with a list of risks and how severe the risk is (i.e., how...
Backpacking Risk Management and Safety: What you need to know
Planning essentials for backpacking trips
Risk management is one of the most important elements of planning for backpacking trips. Whether it’s your first trip or your two hundredth, spending time thinking through the hazards you might encounter and what you’ll do about them is essential both for your own safety and for those with you.
While you can never completely eliminate risk, appropriate planning means you will be more prepared if something bad does happen. Having a safety plan can mean big wins like smarter decision making, shorter time to receive rescue assistance, or the ability to handle the situation on your own without needing outside assistance at all.
Let’s dive into principles of risk management in backpacking and how you can manage your safety proactively and mindfully.
How to Assess Risk and Safety for Backpacking Trips
The first step to managing risk is thinking through and understanding what risks will exist on your trip. Thorough risk...
The Packrafting Podcast: The magic of Alaska, mental health, & overcoming fear.
Hello everyone!
The podcast interviews keep coming and this has been a fun one! Recently I was honored to be a guest on the Packrafting Podcast, sponsored by Alpacka Rafts and hosted by the wonderful human and new friend that is Dulkara Martig.
As the title implies, the Packrafting Podcast content is anchored by the guest and host connections to the sport, though, I feel confident that even if you aren't a packrafter you will find inspiration and relatable content within the dialogues that take place here.
The episode I was on is titled: The Magic of Alaska, Mental Health, & Overcoming Fear.
Topics covered include:
- Thoughts on winter in Alaska: 5:01Growing up on the Kenai Peninsula: 12:37
- My experience in the Wilderness Classic: 14:56
- My first experiences packrafting - including a couple of sticky situations: 22:06
- Some strategies to help overcome fear in the outdoors: 26:40
- The origin story for Summer Strong and Ski Babes: 42:23
- ...