Re: Holiday photo adventure in the mountains

[Gonz]

Wow, quite the adventure!  The bare outdoors can be very dangerous when 
the weather turns against you.  I had a similar experience a while back 
when I was hunting in Pennsylvania one winter day.  It started snowing 
very heavily, and I was about 1-1.5 miles deep, not a real long distance 
when things are nice, but that can seem like a light year when things go 
wrong, which they did.  I slipped when going down a part of a ravine, 
and it jarred my knee into a painful lock, which made it almost 
impossible to walk without alot of pain.  The temperature started 
dropping fast as well, and although I was dressed for extreme cold 
temperatures, it wasn't going to help if my body was not physically 
active.  It took about 2 hours of sitting down, rubbing the knee and 
trying to move forward before I was able to get out in alot of pain.  I 
was able to drive home and when I got there I realized that my core body 
temperature was quite low.  I was shivering uncontrollably for a long 
time afterwards, until some warm food and a warm (not hot) shower got me 
back to normal again. I realized that I came pretty close to freezing 
out there.  If the injury had been a little more severe, it might have 
prevented me from getting out.  By the time people find you in that 
situation, its popsicle time.

rg
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I was standing out on the veranda in front of my apartment and noticed a 
red and white airplane tied down in the corner of the airstrip across 
the streat with the mountains in the background. What a neat shot, I 
thought. I decided to try for it. I got out the MX, dropped the 24mm and 
100mm in the pockets of my vest, and walked across the street. The 50mm 
was too long and the 24mm too short to get the exact shot I wanted. 
However, I noticed the blue experimental airplane that someone around 
here owns was sitting outside of its hanger.

I have been wanting to take a few photos of that airplane since I first 
saw it, and would like to talk with the owner if he was about. So I 
walked around to the gate and up by the tiny hanger the airplane is kept 
in. It turned out to be a homebuilt Avid Flyer. No one there, but I took 
a few shots of it.

As I was shooting I noticed the light was getting dimmer and dimmer. 
Then it started to sprinkle. I tucked the MX under the vest and headed 
for the flight office. It started to rain heavily and I ran the last 100 
yards. Not used to that! It was locked. Damn, what are things coming to 
when the feel they have to lock up the office at a tiny airport like 
this one? Must be because it is a college town. By then the rain had 
become a real gully washer.

I pulled the collar of the vest up over my head and headed for the 
apartments only an 1/8 mile down the road. It was raining so hard it 
knocked the breath right out of me. By the time I got to the apartment I 
felt like I was having a heart attack, or had run all out a couple of 
miles (about the same thing for me). I do not believe I have ever been 
out is such a hard rain.

Heavy thunder and a lightning begin just as I got to the apartments. My 
clothes were soaked through, but the camera and lenses only had a few 
drops on them (the vest it seems is water resistant). I wiped them down, 
and changed clothes. The wet stuff is still dripping in the bathtub.

It seems that my beliefs about mountain survival need to be reaccessed. 
I have always known mountain weather can be dangerous, but I would never 
have though that a 1/4 mile walk from the house in sunny weather could 
have turned so suddenly to nearly a life threatening situation. If I had 
been much farther from the house in my present health. I doubt I would 
have made it back. It seems like I may need to carry my mountain 
survival kit any time I go farther than the trash dumpster on foot.

So that was my 4th of July adventure. What was yours?