AY Honors/Snowshoeing/Answer Key

4.Explain the principles of maintaining body warmth and dryness through the correct use of proper clothing, under various winter conditions, while traveling and resting. Know how to successfully prevent and treat hypothermia in winter conditions.

Maintaining Warmth

Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Maintaining body warmth

Hypothermia

Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/First aid/Hypothermia

5.Explain the safety value of the following practices:

a.Taking and understanding how to use a good map and compass or hiking GPS.

This practice will help you with two things. The first is that it can prevent you from getting lost. The second is that if you do get lost, it can help you to find your way again. Though GPS receivers are very good at pinpointing your location and plotting a route to get you to where you are going, you should not rely soley on this technology. Batteries fail, and devices break. While this is true of a compass too, a compass is far less complicated than a sensitive electronic device such as a GPS receiver. In a pinch, a compass can be made with found materials. It is therefore a good idea to learn how to use a compass and map, and to practice using them so that you will have the necessary skills should your GPS device fail.

b.Leaving a plan with someone when you are snowshoeing.

As with any outdoor activity that involves trails or going to a place that is infrequently visited by other people, it is important to share your plans with someone who is not going with you. That way if you get into trouble while you are away from help, they will know to call for a rescue. Do not assume you can always call for rescue on your own. You (or your phone) may become incapacitated, rendering this an impossibility. You should therefore leave your plan with someone who will not be joining you on your excursion. Details should include where you will be going, who will be going with you (or will meet you there), and when you plan to return. The person you tell this information to could be someone you know and trust, or it could be a park ranger (many parks require people to check in with them before proceeding into the wilderness areas).

Where

If you do not share your intended route, your outside contact will not know where to tell the authorities to begin searching for you should the need arise.

Who

If you neglect to indicate who will be with you on the trip, a rescue team will not know who they are looking for, or how many individuals they should hope to find. When canines are used in these searches, they are sometimes given an item on which the lost person's scent may be present.

When

Let your contact know when you plan to return. If you will be camping overnight, and you do not return on the same day you set out, there is no cause for alarm. However, if you do not plan to stay overnight, and do not return on the same day, there is ample cause for alarm. Some localities will attempt to recover a rescue operation's cost from the people who are rescued (especially if they can show that the rescued persons were ill-prepared for the conditions they were likely to encounter). It is therefore important to not call for rescue unless it is warranted.

If your plans are complicated, or if the person you are telling does not have a reliable memory (and there are many people who fall into this category), put your plan in writing. A blog post, tweet, or Facebook status update will do fine. Once you announce your plan, stick to it except to turn back early in the case that the situation changes. If you veer off the planned trail on the spur of the moment, it is exactly as if you never shared your plan with an outside contact at all. If you are able to contact someone via cell phone to update your plan from the field, then it should be safe to proceed (at least as far as sharing the plan goes - there may be other dangers).

Remember that exposure to the elements is the number one cause of death when a person (or party) gets lost in the wilderness. When snowshoeing, you can almost be guaranteed that the elements will be sufficiently extreme as to cause death by exposure. You must counter this risk with caution and preparedness.

9.Explain the meaning of the term “whiter than snow” found is Psalm 51:7. What other natural metaphors could you use to demonstrate the meaning of this verse?

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
— Psalm 51:7 (NIV)