Hey Jim, how are things in Oregon?

One thing we haven't mentioned is the importance of weather forecasting. I spent a night up above Palm Springs (Mt. San Jacinto State Park) without bothering to even put up my tent-just dug a trench to level off the slope and shelter me from the wind. Wasn't any as it turned out, but it would have had there been any. I slept in my bag and BD Winter Bivy, which is just a bag made of Epic. It's not a real bivy, just a bag cover, in my opinion, but it worked just fine. I have read complaints about it, but I have none.

My point is if the weather is fine, what kind of shelter you have won't make any difference, so before going out, check the weather. In 2007 in the PNW, a MeetUp group on their first winter camping trip didn't bother to do that - they went out the day before the worst storm to hit the area in years and it took a massive rescue effort to get them out. Wholly unnecessary. Another few days and it is likely a couple of them, if not all of them would be dead. They were totally unprepared - wrong shelters, no skis or snowshoes, inadequate clothes, inadequate bags, pretty much every mistake you could make.

There was a lot posted about this incident by some of those in that group and based on what I read, none of them learned anything at all; they all seemed to be trying to justify their actions, instead of admitting their mistakes. During this same storm, I think 4 people were killed by avalanches in the area.