The survival instinct was alive and well in 2011. With Mother Earth clearly in an apocalyptic mood, people found ways, often against seemingly impossible odds, to survive earthquakes, volcano eruptions, hurricanes, tornados and tsunamis. Tales of wilderness survival – stories involving the injured or lost hiker who braved the elements long enough to talk about it another day — were also well represented.  To pick SOL’s Top Seven Survival Stories of 2011, we turned to Dr. Chris Van Tilburg, editor of Wilderness Medicine magazine and a long-time member of Oregon’s Hood River Crag Rats Search and Rescue Team.

Though our new SOL Escape Bivvy won’t hit store shelves until January 2012, the product continues to receive major awards from leading outdoor interest media. The most recent plaudits come courtesy of prominent outdoor gear blog, the Gear Junkie, which included the Escape Bivvy in its 2011 “Top 10 Gear List”.

The Bivvy also received a 2011 “Best in Show” award — recognizing the most innovative gear that debuted at the Summer Outdoor Retailer Show — from the Gear Junkie in August and a Fall/Winter 2011 “Gear of the Year” nod from National Geographic Adventure Magazine. Here’s what the Gear Junkie had to say about the SOL Escape Bivvy, following a thorough field test of the product earlier this fall:

Vern at the 'finish line' in Pismo Beach, CA.

Wow, it seems like only yesterday that our Product Regulatory Manager, Vern Schrum, strapped on his cycling shoes and started peddling in pursuit of a life-long goal – to ride his bike coast to coast. Well, earlier this week he did it.

Ostensibly tracing the ACA’s Southern Tier Route, Vern set off in St. Augustine, FL, in late September and eventually completed his journey 3,382 miles and 61 days later in Pismo Beach, California, near where he grew up and where family and friends were eagerly waiting to congratulate him.

Type 1 high altitude mountaineer and AMK-sponsored adventure athlete Will Cross provides trip planning advice for athletes with diabetes who are prepping for a major expedition or climb.

1.  Insulin storage – Wrap the bottles or delivery devices in aluminum foil and mark using sports tape. This will insulate and protect the insulin from a hard knock. Use a small coffee thermos to protect from the heat or the cold.
2. Foot care – Inspect your feet daily and use a foot powder or foot cream, like HealthiFeet, recommended by a podiatrist. Clean socks are imperative. Clean your nails and between the toes with the alcohol swab used for injections.

Team Tecnu at finish line of Adventure Racing World Champs Race

AMK is proud to announce that our favorite group of adventure athletes, Team Tecnu Extreme/Kailash (featuring AMK’s own Kyle Peter), battled the globe’s top-ranked athletes on the rugged terrain of Tasmania to clinch 12th place at the 2011 Adventure Racing World Championships.

This was no small feat considering the epic nature of Australia’s biggest expedition race and the team is still beaming with pride at their achievement – one that now ranks them as the top team in North America.

Excerpt from A Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness & Travel Medicine, 3rd Edition, by Dr. Eric A. Weiss.

If a person who has diabetes becomes confused, weak, or unconscious for no apparent reason, he may be suffering from insulin shock (low blood sugar) or diabetic ketoacidosis (high blood sugar).

INSULIN SHOCK (LOW BLOOD SUGAR)

If a person with diabetes takes too much insulin or fails to eat enough food to match his insulin level or his level of exercise, a rapid drop in blood sugar can occur. Symptoms may come on very rapidly and include an altered level of consciousness, ranging from slurred speech, bizarre behaviour, and loss of coordination, to seizures and unconsciousness.

Hey all you hunters and anglers, AMK needs your help re-designing our Sportsman Series of medical kits. And we are certainly willing to make it worth your while! Fill out our hunting and fishing survey and you’ll get a promo code good for 50% off the regular price of a SOL Origin or SOL Core Lite. Pretty sweet deal, no?

The deadline for completing the survey is Saturday October 29th. All purchases using the discount code must be made through the AMK website by October 31st. Here’s your chance to have a say in how the new version of the Sportsman Series should look and function.  So c’mon, start checking those boxes!

Vern in Tender's NH offices

Vern Schrum, Product Regulatory Manager for Adventure Medical Kits and our parent company Tender Corp., has begun the process of crossing off a major item on his Bucket List. The 49-year-old, who we all turn to whenever questions pertaining to the FDA, EPA and other important sounding acronyms come up, recently set out to ride his bike solo across the country.

By Buck Tilton

When bullets and arrows start filling the autumn air, we know a few of them will strike a hunter and fewer still non-hunters. Everyone knows the danger of a loaded gun, but gunshot wounds during hunting season—at least gunshot wounds to and from hunters—are on the decline, says the US Forest Service, probably due to mandatory hunter safety courses. While this is not a time to be less than perfectly careful with a firearm — with new hunters hitting the field each year — statistically, depending on where and how you hunt, there may be dangers greater than a rifle or a bow.

Big congrats to AMK’s own Kyle Peter and the other members of Team Tecnu Extreme Staphaseptic, who won the Gold Rush Mother Lode Expedition Race this past weekend.

AMK's Kyle Peter (pictured second from left) & Team Tecnu at Finish Line of Gold Rush Mother Lode

The team, which AMK also sponsors and supplies various survival and first aid items to, finished the race more than four hours ahead of second place Dart-Nuun and Team Gearjunkie.com/YogaSlackers, which took third place. The four-day long event saw four-person co-ed teams attempt to cross a 275 mile (442.5km) course of rocky, challenging terrain in the Sierra Mountains of California.