August 2012 Issue - Federated Mountain Clubs of NZ

Safety in the Mountains,11th editionBy Robin McNeill, Federated Mountain Clubs, 2012.Paperback, 72 pages, $10. Reviewed by David Barnes (OtagoTramping and Mountaineering Club).How do you update a publication that’s beenaround for 75 years? Can it be done, and shouldit be done? When supplies of the 2003 (10th)edition of Safety in the Mountains ran low, thesequestions landed on the plate of Moirs GuideSouth editor and Uncle Jacko’s Cookery Columnauthor Robin McNeill. He seems to have foundthe answers.First published in 1937 with the subtitle ‘AHandbook for Trampers and Mountaineers’, andintended to be taken into the Hills, by the 1970sit was a weightier tome. With other publications,notably those of the Mountain Safety Council,covering much of the same ground, for its sixthedition Safety in the Mountains was shrunk downto the pocket-sized volume that I’ve known sinceI first took tramping seriously. Designed moreas an aide mémoire than a comprehensiveinstruction manual, it has also probably doneservice as reading for the hut-bound and as aplace to score games of 500.So, what’s changed in the new edition? Acomplete re-write, with major layout changes,the new version has a 60% increase in pages –although paper choice has meant there is not aconcomitant weight increase. So, instead of a listof bullet points, most topics have quite detailedinformation. Cartoons of bush-singlet cladtrampers are replaced by the clear graphics ofillustrator Adele Jackson that generally enhancethe message. This is particularly well done inthe section on snow and ice travel, where apicture (with a few words) really is worth theproverbial thousand words. The illustrations inthe map and compass section may well make acritical difference to someone who only consultsa compass when the situation gets dire, andthe accompanying text provides one of theclearest I’ve read on a topic that bamboozlesmany people.Some aspects of the hills are no differentthan those encountered 75 years ago, but onebig change,even since thelast edition,is electronictechnology. Thebook coversthe use andlimitations ofGPS receivers,personal locatorbeacons andcellphones, andlists a numberof usefulwebsites.The first aid section has been renamed‘Wilderness Medicine’, and, with assistancefrom two doctors with extensive back-countryexperience, Claudia Schneider and Garry Nixon,Below Bushlineprovides extremely useful and very pragmaticadvice. It’s the first time that I’ve seen theimpracticality of CPR in a wilderness settingacknowledged in print. Although the book isprimarily aimed at the novice in the outdoors,this section alone will probably see me restoreSafety in the Mountains to its rightful place inmy emergency gear.Robin McNeill’s trademark off-beathumour doesn’t get much airing in the newbook, but the instruction to ‘in an emergency,apply match here’ was a laugh out loudmoment.Overall, this is a worthy successor to theprevious editions and one that all trampers,climbers and hunters should look at owning.Some of that information just might come inhandy one day.Reviews next issue (November 2012)Stag Spooner, Wild Man of the Bush by Chris MacleanBuller’s Birds of New Zealand, The Complete Works ofJ.G. Keulemanns by Geoff NormanShelter from the Storm, The Story of New Zealand’s BackcountryHuts by Shaun Barnett, Rob Brown and Geoff SpearpointInto the Silence, George Mallory, the Great War and Everestby Wade Davis58FMC Bulletin • August 2012FMC