First aid during a mountain trip

In case of an accident on a Trip it could take some time until professional help will arrive. That’s why it is really important to know something about first aid. First important things:

Serve warm dinks, especially in the winter (not when there is a danger of inner organic problems), keep the person warm (You can use a sleeping bag). As a veileader you should involve everyone in helping (making hot beverages, building a shelter, located yourself on the map, try to get help keep people busy so they don´t panic).

 

Possible diseases:

 

Hypothermia:

Sights: injured person shake and starts talking strange stuff.

Treatment: warm dink (no coffee or black tea) green or other tea is good, something to eat (soup or something with a high Nutrition value and calories see the capital) you can give the injured person sugar under the tongue, add more layers, you could hug the person and share a sleeping bag (direct skin contact isn´t necessary), try to keep the feet warm (could keep it warm with body temperature if you put it under your shirt)

If the person gets white spots on his face don´t rub them, just put your hands on it and wait until it´s warm again.

 

Open cut:

If you can see the bone it is a open cut. If it is possible you should lie on pressure tage and sow the cut together. You should pay attention on the blood circulation. The injured person should feel something on the end of one finger, if he doesn´t lose the pressure tape a bit. You should use painkillers to avoid unconsciousness and of course for a better feeling.

 

Broken arm/leg:

If the bone is completely broken, try to replace the bone, even if it hurts the person will feel better afterwards. Try to mobilise the arem by fixing it to the body so the person can move it with less pain.

 

Sunburn:

keep the skin cold and cover it. You could use a after sun lotion or another cream if you have it with you.

 

Sun stroke:

get the person out of the sun, make him rest and give him lots of fluit over a long period of time.

 

Cuts:

You should elevate the insured part, put pressure on it, clean the wound, tape it and bring the skin together again so that the person doen´t loos too much blood.

 

Snow blindness:

give the eyes some rest, close them or you can put a teabag on them. After the first sights you should wear sunglases or googles. If you lost or broke them you can cover your eyes with a scarf or a tape in wich you cut small lines.

 

Nutrition in the winter

“Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es.”

[Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are]

Food is our fuel and especially in the winter we lose more energy than usual so you should care about what you eat. You will also discover that on longer trips the food will be the heaviest part in your backpack. Thats why you can cut a lot of weight if you have the right food. The food on your trips should be not too heavy and supply your body with fat, carbohydrate and protein. Further you should care about vitamins and minerals for small snacks (Raschka C., Ruf S p. 102).

You should always make a food plan and pack each meal separated.

Breakfast: porridge and oatmeal are good for breakfast you can add raisins or other dry fruits. Just add some milk powder and add warm water. Especially in a cold environment it is nice to have something warm to eat, you can prepare all your portions in advance and it is not too heavy.

Lunch: You can have energy bar, chocolate, dry fruits, nuts, a soupe and the leftovers from the dinner

Dinner: A soup, pasta or rice is good for dinner. Something very interesting is couscous. It doesn´t need a lot of energy and combined with an instant soup creates a good dinner with enough nutrition. Another alternative is instant pasta it is very small and really light. You also can cook in advance and just warm up things what is especially in cold conditions really nice but you´ll notice the extra weight in your backpack.

 

RASCHKA C, RUF S. Sport und Ernährung, Wissenschaftlich basierte Empfehlungen und Ernährungspläne für die Praxis. Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgard, 2012

 

Packing the backpack

Packing is one of the most important things on a tour. Your caring your Backpack for long distances, so you don´t want to carry too much weight but you want spent a comfortable and good time outside. And you don´t want to unpack your backpack every time you need something in a break.

How to pack you Backpack in general?

On a Winter trip with ski´s you should put the heaviest point in the middle of the backpack and as close as possible to your Body. Make sure that you don´t put bottles or other stuff outside of your Bag where you can lose it if your falling.

Where to put what? (Organisation is everything)

You should put small things like a knife, first aid kid, head torch or ski wax in an easy excess pocked. Other things like extra layer, snacks or hot beverages that you will need during the skiing should be too hard to reach. Important Things like a snow shuffle or an avalanche probe should be packed outside of the backpack because “if we need them we´ll need them fast”.

You should keep you stuff dry because especially in the winter it is really hard and sometimes almost impossible to dry your stuff. I would recommend having dry bags or at least different plastic bags for Food (one for dinner, one breakfast, and one for snacks all food should be prepared as far as possible you don´t want cut carrots in -10°), another bag for spear underwear, and another for spear cloth. I pack nearly everything in different bags to organize and to keep it dry.

 

 

Packing the first aid Kit:

To cut weight you can organise the different first aid tools in your group but in general are there better parts in your backpack where you can cut weight. You first aid kit should have painkillers, stereo stripes, pressure tape, plaster, saflon, compression pack, blister plaster, imodeum tape, elastic bandage, safety pins, antibiotic, forceps, splint, scissor.

 

Shelter in the winter

There are different ways to build an shelter in the snow. The basic is to get out of the wind. Some snow shelters are more comfortable and warm than others. But the more comfortable have disadvantage of needing a long time to build.

 

Traditional Norwegian Snow hole:

You first have to find a spot where the snow is deep enough (at least 3 meters).

1. Dig a channel in a wall (ca. 2 m high that you easily can stay in it) over your head should be remain at least one meter of snow
2. Should start dig holes in both sides (at the high of your hips) that will later be your sleeping benches. You should dig enough space for the amount of people and some space for your backpacks, a cooking spot, a place for the food and a place for a candle. To void water drops and for the static you should round the roof.
3. After you done the branches you should close the entrance with iceblocks.
4. For enough oxygen you can make a hole with a ski pole or a avalanche probe

Always keep a shovel next to your sleeping bag in case you have to dig out yourself.

Igloo

For the typical Igloo you need good and compact snow. You cut blocks out of wind packed snow with a saw. The blocks will be really heavy so it is recommended to choose a area next to the Igloo.

–          First line is the hardest and the most important one because it will be you fundament

–          former layer should be bend more to the middle

–          Make sure the layers are even as possible and that there are no cracks lying on other cracks.

–          The better the block the stronger the igloo try to put the stronger blocks on the sides

–          During the building process you should adjust the blocks with a saw to make sure you have an strong wall

–          On the last Layer you just cover the top with long blocks and the igloo will hold his static

–          In the last step you have to dig a tunnel out of the igloo (it´s nice if you prepared a tunnel or someone is digging on the other side as well)

 

Ski Techniques

Techniques of turning around (especially in steep areas)

Kick Turn:

1. turn your upper body to the side and stick each your poles to one end of your skis
2. lift one leg and turn your knee for 180° and do the same with your other leg as soon as you archived a stable position
3.  take your poles back in their normal position at each side of your body

We use this technique to go up a hill in a zickzack route and if we have to change the direction in deep snow.

Herringbone traces

The tails of the skis are together and a lot of space is in between the tips. From this position we are going up the hill in small steps.

–          Disadvantage you need a lot of energy for the herringbone traces

 

Downhill technique:

The snowplow (to reduce the speed and to control the skis)

–          bend your knees

–          turn the skis inwards with the tips together

–          put the pressure on the inner edge

 

Telemark technique

Brief history

It is a technique that combines alpine and Nordic skiing the special bindings that fix only the toe of the ski boot to the ski creates a “free heel.” Telemark is a ski technique which was invented in the mid 1800´s in the district Telemark by Sondre Norheim and was originally made popular as a form of backcountry transportation.

In the 1970s Telemark catch on the US as an alternative to the normal downhill skiing because the free heel allowed people to go to the backcountry (O’bannon 2008, p 5.) In the 1990es the sport becomes more and more mainstream especially for experienced alpine skier who are looking for new challenges. New gear like the invention of the plasic boot made it much easier to learn the telemarktechnique and the famous telemarkturn.

telemark-turn ( In our case very usefull because we had a lot of full in d a lot i deep and loose snow) is very functional.

 

For a Telemark turn you have to:

–           put the  weight on the outside ski,

–           the inside ski is pulled beneath the body of the skier with a flexed knee and raided heel

–          Both knees are bended and the center of gravity of your body is low

–          When the body faces down the hill, you use the inner edge of our outer ski and initiate a turn in the direction of the opposite direction

–          The body and leg position remains the same until the turn is completed and is afterwards changed to turn into the other direction

 

Allen O’bannon (2008): Allen & Mike’s Really Cool Telemark Tips, Revised and Even Better!: 123 Amazing Tips To Improve Your Tele-Skiing,