THE AMPHITHEATER PLATEAU IN WINTER
“GREAT THINGS ARE EXPERIENCED
WHEN MEN, MOUNTAINS AND A WILDERNESS MEET”
I have often found myself reflecting on why I solo-hike the Drakensberg wilderness. Using the words of author R.O. Pearce — with a few thoughts of my own added — perhaps this comes closest to explaining it:
“Here I am, a civilized man, living in the wilderness, doing my own cooking, getting tired, and hot, and dirty, and enjoying it. It is too easy to say I needed a change, or that the beauty and peace of nature drew me there. Why do it at all? I do not think it is entirely because of a love of nature. It goes deeper than that. I have a deep-seated, subconscious dislike of the artificiality, attitudes, complications, and ease of modern life.
We lead such superficial lives, in square houses, along regimented streets, where the procuring of the essentials of life — food, clothing, and shelter — is no problem at all. These things are no further away than the nearest telephone. Life was not meant to be like this.
Here in the wilderness I have only myself to depend upon. I have to find shelter. I have to carry my own food and bedding with me. I have to find my own way without signposts.
If I conk in, get lost, or the weather changes, I have only myself to rely upon to get me out of the mess. If I sprain my ankle, I cannot simply phone the nearest doctor. There is no-one to help me. Life is reduced to its essentials — food, warmth, and shelter. It becomes simplified.
It is good for a man to sometimes break loose, go primitive once again, and experience an uncomplicated, wondrous life — even if only for a little while.”
The Silent Snow
“The Silent Snow Possessed the Earth”
FROZEN AMPHITHEATER WALL
A few suggestions might be useful for those who plan to visit the Drakensberg high peaks and Wilderness in winter.
First of
all, make sure you are carrying plenty of warm clothing and plenty of
food. If you plan a multi-day hike, take reserve food for another two or
three days. This need not be anything elaborate – some highly
concentrated, light-weight balanced food, like Pro-nutro, which doesn’t
have to be cooked, or a few extra slabs of chocolate – enough to keep
body and soul together in an emergency. A small pressure stove is
invaluable, for in heavy snow fuel is next to impossible to find in an
emergency. A groundsheet is essential for keeping moisture from reaching
one’s sleeping bag. A sleeping mat improves comfort. It is wise to
carry two sleeping bags, an inner and an outer. Modern sleeping bags are
so light that this is easily done. Even if you leave your base camp and
intend returning to it that night, slip a sleeping bag into your
backpack. If you rick your ankle you can’s ring up a taxi to take you
home in the Drakensberg. And remember: at all cost keep your party
together. Never separate, even for a short while.
Remember, too, that the great killer on the summit is not cold, but cold plus wind plus moisture. Your
body can withstand tremendous degrees of cold, but if the cold is
accompanied by wind, you will quickly succumb without adequate
protection. Make sure you have windproof outer clothing with you. If you
have to sleep out in the snow, choose a position sheltered from the
wind. If the weather is fine you will need no roof over your head. In a
snowstorm, your best hope, if you have no tent, is either a cave or a
rock overhang. Caves on the summit, unlike the Little Berg, are few and
far between, but overhangs can usually be found. Try somewhere along the
escarpment edge for these. They are more numerous there. Remember that
everything will freeze during the night. Boots and socks are the main
problem, for they are sure to get wet during your day’s march through
the snow, and in the morning will be stiff with ice, delaying your
departure for anything up to a couple of hours, if you do nothing to
protect them. Protect them during the night. Slip them inside your
sleeping bag when you turn in, together with anything else you are
likely to need in the morning, such as your water-bottle and essential
medicines.
If you
observe these few simple precautions you need never fear anything the
summit can do to you in winter – and you will have the time of your
life! It is the person who goes hiking inadequately equipped, with no
reserves or warm clothing, who lands in trouble. Adjustment to cold is a
highly individual matter. There have been many cases of climbers
exposed all night on mountainsides in sub-zero temperatures. Some die,
while others, in the same party, survive little or no adverse effects.
Some years ago it was noted that the Australian Aborigines could sleep
naked all night in temperatures close to freezing, while Europeans, even
covered with a couple of blankets, could not sleep at all. It is also
known that one can condition oneself to cold. It is well known that one
always feels the cold more at the beginning of winter, before the body
has become adjusted to the lower temperatures.
HEAVY SNOWFALL STRETCHING INTO KZN MIDLANDS
But cold,
or rather hypothermia, which means a lowering of the temperature of the
body’s inner core, can be a subtle and diabolical killer. One should
never underestimate it.
When one
is exposed to extreme cold the body responds, first of all, by
constricting the blood vessels of the outer skin, with the result that
less blood flows to the surface to be chilled. This warmer blood is then
concentrated in those vital internal organs, which are thus protected
from harm. Frost-bite, in its early stages at least, is therefore one of
those protective devices of nature.
The body,
having done all that it can to conserve heat, now sets about producing
heat at a greater rate, so as to replace any heat that is lost. The
heart beats faster, additional adrenaline is pumped into the blood, and
the metabolic rate rises. All this result in greater heat. We feel
stimulated.
Then as
the temperature continues to drop, other mechanisms are brought into
play. The muscles begin to contract spasmodically, and we shiver. Again
the result is the production of heat. But shivering also consumes a
great deal of energy. If the shivering is intense and prolonged, it can
result in exhaustion.
ICICLES A METER LONG
One of
the interesting effects of extreme cold is the effect on emotions.
Moderate cold is exhilarating: extreme cold is exhausting. Fits of
depression are common, one becomes irritable, there is a loss of
judgment, and also, as we have seen, of memory.
What causes
hypothermia? It is not cold alone. Many a person has survived extreme
cold with no ill effects, while others have succumbed when the
temperature was well above zero. Apparently it is caused by a
combination of four factors. None of these alone, with the possible
exception of the first, will be lethal. These four factors are: cold,
wetness, wind; and personal pre-conditions, for example being
particularly susceptible to cold, or in an exhausted condition.
Wind, combined
with cold, is certainly one of the biggest contributing factors in
cases of hypothermia. Worst of all, and a real killer, is a combination
of cold, wind and wetness. More fatalities are ascribed to this cause
than any other.
A FROZEN WATERFALL
To survive
on the summit and in the Wilderness, therefore, in a blizzard or
extreme cold, becomes a problem of avoiding these combinations.
Clothing must
be adequate. The head is the greatest source of loss of heat from
radiation. If your feet are cold, put on your hat! Body heat is derived
from two sources – food and muscular activity. Keep nibbling. Sweets,
especially chocolates are excellent. Intake of hot liquids will also
help considerably. Stay away from alcohol – it will kill!
Exercise is essential. Hiking can increase heat production as much as six times. If you are holed up, keep flexing your muscles.
Wind is
your worst enemy. Even a moderate breeze in cold weather can lower your
body temperature. It has been found that merely to wear windproof
garments over wet clothing raises one’s chances of survival, in
cold-wet-windy conditions, five times. Wind is made infinitely worse if
your clothing is wet. Also always wear clothing next tour skin that
breathes.
Don’t wait
to feel cold before putting on protective clothing. Warm clothing will
not produce heat: it merely conserves already existing heat. Camp down
in plenty of time, while you still have all your faculties about you.
CAMPING ON THE ESCARPMENT IN WINTER – DARK AND COLD CONDITIONS
Prevent any
further loss of heat. Add heat to the body; make a person as warm as
possible. Rubbing frost-bitten area with snow is quite fallacious and
will add to the likelihood of permanent injury. Then into a warm
sleeping bag, out of the wind with warm dry clothing. It will also help
to put another person into the sleeping bag. Give warm fluids to drink,
and sweetened foods. Remember that carbohydrates are the foods that are
most quickly transformed into heat and energy.
With these
few simple precautions you should be safe in the Drakensberg. Even so,
always remember that the unpredictable can happen, and be ready for it
when it comes.
There is
no more a lovely time in the Drakensberg than when the snow comes and
possesses the earth. In summer the peaks have a hard, bright beauty,
stenciled starkly against a turquoise sky, with the clouds breaking
around them in a splendor of white foam. In autumn they have a softer,
more dream-like quality, as they gaze down into the sun-drenched valleys
of the Little Berg. But when the snows come that whole expanse of
mountain splendor is sheathed in purest white, glistening in the clean
sunlight, the snowfields stretch to the horizon, and the peaks stand
tranquil and proud over it all. Snow can come to the Drakensberg at any
month of the year.
We as hikers, explorers, and adventurers have the absolute duty to respect and protect our Wildernesses.
Nobody else will do it for us. Take ownership!
The End.
Safe Hiking.
References and Acknowledgements
Photos Bushmen: Barrier of Spears – RO Pearce/M Pearce
Source: Barrier of Spears – RO Pearce
Compiled by: Willem Pelser
