Wilderness Skills - Olympia Mountaineers

“Party separations” are how Mountaineers deal with the absence of toilets out in the wilderness. The term
refers to those times when the group will split up by gender and go off the trail in search of some semblance of
privacy for everyone.
It is important to go at least 200 feet from any open water - streams and lakes, allowing for the bottle out of
your pack, that you can maximum water level around lakes. It is acceptable practice to urinate in random
locations away from water and not directly on fragile plants, although it is courteous to cover yellow snow. A
“cat hole” can be dug and filled in with loose soil after use. A “cat hole” should be 8 to 10 inches in diameter
and no more than 8 inches deep. Biodegradable waste buried in the humus layer in this manner will
decompose quickly.
Used toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, and Band-Aids should be packed out for disposal at home. While
toilet paper will eventually decompose, an accumulation of toilet paper in the wilderness is not aesthetically
pleasing and is subject to being dug up and exposed by animals. Nonbiodegradable items by their nature will
not decompose. Used toilet paper and other items can be sealed in plastic bags or other airtight container and
can be unobtrusively and inoffensively carried out in an exterior pocket of your pack.
Conditioning
As part of the preparation for this course, it is important that each student develop sufficient physical strength
in order to have the energy and endurance necessary to put into practice skills that you will be taught. If you
are NOT "in condition", any or all of the following may occur:
• You will fatigue easily after a short period of exercise.
• Your body is operating inefficiently – you use more oxygen for a given amount of work and your
muscles accumulate more lactic acid during exertion, which tends to produce cramps and bring on
stiffness and pain in the following days.
• As you push yourself toward exhaustion, you may frequently stumble and become too tired to
concentrate on route finding and other technical skills.
• You will have little or no reserves available for an emergency.
• You may become a liability to your party.
• You will recuperate slowly and will be dead-tired the next day.
Energy expenditures may be nearly identical for all party members on a trip together. However, there may be
wide variations in their available aerobic power (the body's ability to absorb and use oxygen), depending upon
age, sex and training. An individual's maximum oxygen consumption is that amount he/she uses in working to
exhaustion. Thus, the length of time the expenditure of energy is required is significant. The experienced
wilderness traveler sets the pace, budgeting the use of available power, so that he/she is capable of continued
exertion to reach the destination, return safely and drive home. If you have less aerobic power than other party
members do, you will use a much greater proportion of your total aerobic capacity. You will, therefore, have to
push harder to keep up and will be exhausted sooner.
Aerobic power can only be gained if one REGULARLY participates in STRENUOUS, physical activity, such as
running, swimming, bicycling, hiking, or climbing stairs. The activity should be sufficiently long enough -- 15 to
30 minutes -- to elevate your heart rate to the appropriate "working heart rate". To get the most out of your
aerobic workout, your activity should be done, at a minimum, three (3) times per week.
Until you become experiences in outdoor exercise, it can be difficult to judge your level of exertion until its too
late, and you’re near exhaustion. Traveling up hill on steep, difficult terrain requires a deceptively high amount
of energy and determination. You will get better with every step, but until you know your abilities and limitations
you need to monitor your exertion level through your pulse, perspiration and breathing. Stop periodically to see
if you’re short of breath, or unable to carry on a normal conversation with your companions. If you nee more
than a few minutes rest to recover and breath normally, you’re working too hard. Slow down.
Wilderness Skills Module Page 44 of 73
Olympia Mountaineers - Hiking, Alpine Scrambling and Basic Climbing