By Buck Tilton

Not all snow is created equal—it can be soft and dry, heavy and wet, hard as rock—but most snow can be shaped into a quick shelter and, in an emergency, a shelter may save your life.

Make Use of What the Terrain Offers

Buck Tilton

A simple fact towers above all others: if you aren’t prepared to survive an unexpected night outside in winter, you probably won’t. In ideally bad conditions, cold will suck out enough body heat in a couple of hours to disable you—and chill you off beyond recovery in three.

How did you get in this situation? You were backcountry skiing, or hunting, maybe hiking on a pre-snow, cold afternoon. Your story could be like CNET reporter James Kim’s whose drive in Oregon mountains with his family on a winter day, almost exactly four years ago, turned fatal.  You didn’t anticipate the snowfall, or the blinding wind—and wasn’t the sun supposed to be up at least another hour?

Will Cross Set to Climb Makalu

AMK adventure athlete Will Cross will soon attempt a climb of Makalu, the fifth highest mountain in the world (27,824ft), located 21 miles east of Mount Everest.

Cross will depart shortly for this monumental peak as part of his “Giant Mountain Challenge” – a quest to climb six of the highest peaks in the world.  Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 30 years ago, Cross is pursuing this latest challenge as part of his ongoing effort to demonstrate that one can lead an extraordinary life with diabetes, an incurable condition and a global pandemic.  AMK and its parent company Tender Corp. are sponsoring Cross for the climb and other expeditions he’ll be participating in throughout the year.

MYTH: Rubbing a frostbitten body part is helpful for re-warming.

FACT: Do not rub, massage, or touch the frostbitten part at all.  Rapid rewarming in water temperatures of 104F – 106F is recommended if there is no chance the part will be refrozen.

By Doug Abromeit – Director of the Forest Service National Avalanche Center

Avalanches typically kill more people in the mountains in the West than any other natural disaster, and the winter of 2007-2008 was particularly grim. Last year 36 people died – the worst on record. Two of those people were killed by avalanches off of house roofs, one was killed in a ski area and thirty-three were killed doing their thing in the backcountry — snowboarding, skiing, climbing or riding a snowmobile.

Sent to us 4/25/07 from Peter, NY

I wanted to advise you of a recent accident that I had while hiking in Northern New York State. I have attached a news article from the New York State Department of Conservation. The article does not specifically mention one of your products but I want to advise you that it helped save my life. I purchased the Thermo Lite Emergency Bivy Sack at Eastern Mountain Sports, and I stayed in this shelter during my long night out. Please read the article attached and be advised that I truly can say that I was glad that I had this with me. This item along with food and staying hydrated kept my body temperature at 97 degrees for almost 18 hours while I was stuck outside, in temperatures that dropped to -23.